Overview
Why is this conference important and why is it relevant to you?
The World Health Organization has stated that the climate crisis is the biggest health concern of the 21st century--and the Lancet has said that fighting climate change could be the greatest global health opportunity. If we do not make major changes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the next 10 years, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts catastrophic effects on the environment and human health. This conference will inspire us all in our health care roles to better understand these issues and advocate for necessary systemic change.
How will this conference look virtually?
- Yes it’s true - many medical conferences can (and should be) conducted entirely online. This concept has enormous benefits in reducing the carbon footprint and making them more accessible to all. In addition to the usual lecture and workshop formats, we will include other features that make a conference complete such as live interactivity with your colleagues and lots of time for Q&A.
- We have smaller simultaneous workshop sessions to enable participants to delve into areas of special interest and actively participate in discussions.
- A poster session will highlight specific projects developed by participants prior to the meeting
- We’ll offer the opportunity to visit with a group of businesses and organizations who do environmentally positive work.
What are our goals?
- To share how to mitigate and adapt to the health effects of the looming climate crisis and spur you into action (from bite sized ideas– to major advocacy).
- Featuring speakers with expertise in both climate change and health – giving you lots of time to ask questions!
- We hope to create a group of health-care personnel with considerable knowledge of climate change issues, and skills to better advocate for change in medical and public spheres.
- Gender diversity, minority representation, and support of Indigenous rights are necessary in any medical conference and we will aspire to achieve them.
Who should join us?
We expect that this conference will attract mainly physicians, but we suspect that it may be of interest to medical students, medical residents, and professionals in other health-oriented fields.
What does registration include?
Registration includes: Access to the live virtual event, all available materials, and access to the post-event recording.
This year we are using a virtual platform which offers a more unique experience than just logging into Zoom!
- Watch the lectures and have everything in one place (access to the slides, handouts, bios etc)
- Virtually move from session to session like you would do in person
- Virtually network with colleagues via text or video messaging
- Connect with the speakers after their lecture is over
- Access group video chat rooms where up to 5 people can connect at once
- Visit the virtual exhibit hall to interact with organizations that are typically present during the in-person conference
Virtual Showcase submissions now welcome!
Due date for submissions: Now extended to Sep 25, 2020!
Notices will be sent out via email to the submission contact by Oct 8.
- The Showcase will be an interactive portion of the event which is intended to increase knowledge sharing and knowledge translation between healthcare professionals and other interested interdisciplinary agencies.
- We invite your participation and creativity. Suggested formats include posters, pictures or videos. Audience members can click on your Showcase contributions and view them at their leisure.
More details about the virtual showcase can be viewed here.
Hosted by:
Dr. Barzelai is a family physician, with a certification in family practice geriatrics. He is presently the chair of the BC branch of CAPE. The birth of his grandchildren has changed him from an armchair environmentalist to an active one
Dr. Melissa Lem is a Vancouver family physician who also works in rural and northern communities within Canada. As a board member of CAPE and Director of Parks Prescriptions for the BC Parks Foundation, she has been involved in advocacy and policy work on issues including climate change, forest fires, fracking and LNG, and the nature-health connection. She was the resident medical expert on CBC TV's Steven and Chris for 5 seasons and continues to educate diverse audiences on air. Her writing has been published by national media including the CBC, Vancouver Sun, Toronto Star, Montreal Gazette, Narwhal and National Observer. 
Family doctor for over 40 years in Salmon Arm, BC, and past founding president of CAPE 25 years ago. Engaged in advocacy work from the municipal to the international level. His integrative practice includes insight-oriented psychotherapy.
Amy Anne Lubik is first term city councilor in Port Moody BC, where she has been a vocal advocate for climate change resilience, poverty reduction, and health equity. Shortly after being elected she became the vice-chair of the Climate Action Committee, chair of the Environmental Protection Committee, Co-chair of the Tri-Cities Healthy Community Partnership Table, helped found the Tri-Cities Food Security Working Group and served on the age-friendly planning steering committee and the affordable housing task force. She is also an active member of the Climate Caucus, a nationwide organization of local elected officials and environmental campaigners seeking to change federal and provincial policies.
Eleanor Boyle is an author and speaker. A former journalist and college psychology instructor, Eleanor has degrees in psychology (BA), neuroscience (PhD), and more recently food policy (MSc). Eleanor wrote the book High Steaks: Why and How to Eat Less Meat (New Society Publishers), and will soon publish Mobilize Food! Wartime Inspiration for Environmental Victory Today. 
Dr. Andrea MacNeill is a surgical oncologist at Vancouver General Hospital and BC Cancer, and a clinical associate professor at the University of British Columbia where she specializes in sarcoma and peritoneal malignancies. She holds a Master’s Degree in Environmental Change and Management and has published a number of studies investigating the environmental impacts of healthcare activities. She co-authored the 2019 Lancet Countdown policy brief for Canada showing that Canada has the third highest health sector emissions in the world. She is the international working group lead for sustainable healthcare for CODA, a global health community mobilizing around climate and health issues. She is committed to designing health systems for optimal planetary health and educating health professionals to be agents of change.
Dr. Rashmi Chadha grew up in the undulating hills of Wiltshire (UK) and after qualifying as a physician, worked in rural Devon as a GP for many years. A fellowship in addiction medicine in Toronto and subsequent move to Vancouver led to her current work as an addictions physician at Vancouver General Hospital. Her passion always has, and always will be, this earth we all inhabit. 
Jennie is an educator focused on facilitating connections to nature through a place-based lens, and inspiring behaviour change for the health of our planet and ourselves. Jennie is an experienced project manager, and specializes in collaborating with non-profit organizations, provincial and federal government, school districts and industry groups that aim to change behaviours and empower people to protect the environment. Most recently Jennie worked with the BC Parks Foundation to launch the Healthy By Nature initiative and installed BC’s first Story Trail in Tsútswecw Provincial Park.
Kai Chan is a sustainability scientist whose work straddles social and natural systems with a focus on values and transformative change. He is a professor at the University of British Columbia, a member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists (2017), a Coordinating Lead Author of the IPBES Global Assessment, a Lead Editor for the new journal People and Nature, a member of Canada’s Clean16 for 2020, and co-founder of CoSphere (a Community of Small-Planet Heroes).
David Pollack, M.D., is Professor Emeritus for Public Policy in the departments of Psychiatry, Family Medicine, and the Division of Management at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU). His activities include teaching, writing, and consulting on policy, systems, and health care leadership issues for local, state, and national organizations.
Dr. Hancock is public health physician and recently retired from his position as a Professor and Senior Scholar at the School of Public Health and Social Policy, University of Victioria. In the 1980s he helped create the global healthy cities movement, and has been an internationally recognised leader in this area for more than 30 years. In recent years he has focused on the concept of a 'One Planet' community/region as a way to integrate the concepts of healthy and sustainable communities, and in retirement has started a new NGO, Conversations for a One Planet Region, to explore and popularise these ideas locally.
William Rees is a population ecologist, ecological economist, Professor Emeritus and former Director of the University of British Columbia’s School of Community and Regional Planning. He is a founding member and former President of the Canadian Society for Ecological Economics; a founding Director of the One Earth Initiative; a Fellow of the Post-Carbon Institute and a Director of The Real Green New Deal Project. Prof Rees’ research focuses on the biophysical requirements for sustainability and the policy implications of global ecological trends. He is perhaps best known as the originator and co-developer with his graduate students, of ‘ecological footprint analysis’ (EFA) of which carbon footprint assessment is a subset. 
Dr. Takaro is a physician-scientist trained in occupational and environmental medicine, public health and toxicology, at Yale, the University of North Carolina and University of Washington. His research is primarily directed toward the links between human exposures and disease, and determining public health based preventive solutions to such risks. His work includes use of biological and other markers for medical surveillance, exposure assessment, and disease susceptibility with a focus on immunologic lung disease, human health and war, clinical occupational and environmental health and population resiliency in the health effects of climate change. Current research on human health and climate change focus on water quality in BC communities and the interaction of cumulative exposures related to resource extraction and climate change.
Ojistoh Kahnawahere Horn is a Mohawk physician working in Akwesasne, a community of 25,000 people straddling the American-Canadian and Ontario-Quebec borders. As a traditional minded woman, mother, family physician, and student of history and politics, she will describe how the relationship of her people to the land changed due to environmental pollution and resulted in poor health outcomes. She will describe how the current pandemic is forcing more people in her community to reengage with the Earth. The Climate Emergency is about recognizing that for the most part, the human relationship with the Earth is unbalanced, unhealthy, and not sustainable. We should support our patients to engage with the natural world. To spend time outside. By supporting our cognitive selves with a stronger emotional, physical, and spiritual connection to the Earth, we can engender more creative advocates to speak for the Earth, who is trying desperately to speak for herself. 
Joe Vipond has worked as an emergency physician for nineteen years, currently at the Rockyview General Hospital. He has been active on the climate crisis since learning of its repercussions 15 years ago . His first advocacy campaign was as a spokesperson for the Alberta Coal Phase Out movement, and more recently, the Canadian Coal Phase Out network, and with these has had an impact on approximately 66 MT of greenhouse gas emissions, or 9% of Canada's total GHGs. He is a board member and Interim President of the national charity Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. He is also the co-founder and co-chair of the local non-profit the Calgary Climate Hub. Joe grew up in Calgary and continues to live there with his wife and two daughters.
Lilah Williamson is a 16 year old high school student and climate activist. She has always been passionate about the environment, but the impending catastrophic effects of unmitigated climate change motivated her to act. In January 2019 she organized one of the first global climate strikes in Vancouver with a team of young people, later called the Sustainabiliteens. Lilah now leads Sustainabiliteens and Climate Strike Canada and believes in the power of youth voices and people coming together to stop the climate crisis.
Colin Sue-Chue-Lam is a resident physician and doctoral student in clinical epidemiology at the University of Toronto. He is active with the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment - Ontario Chapter, where he helps organize the divestment subcommittee. He is also the Strategy Director of Emerging Leaders for Environmental Sustainability in Healthcare, a multidisciplinary student group dedicated to education and advocacy at the intersection of health, healthcare, and sustainability to foster the development of health sector leaders in sustainability.
Olivia Sinclare is a 17 year old high school student and climate organizer with Sustainabiliteens. Interested in the environment from a young age, she was spurred into action by the urgent climate emergency. Olivia first joined Sustainabiliteens in October of 2019, and now leads the group with her fellow youth activists. She is passionate about how we can implement regular climate action within the school environment, empower youth to make change, and educate each other.
Maya Gislason is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University (SFU) and faculty lead in teaching and research on the Social Inequalities in Health. With degrees in Women’s Studies and Sociology, Gislason is building Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) informed evidence generating tools for research on sustainability with a particular focus on rural, remote, northern, island and Indigenous communities in Canada. Serving as a Sex and Gender Champion on tri-agency funded research, EDI advisor to SFU, and member of the Sex and Gender Champions Community of Practice in Canada, Gislason is actively engaged in the dynamic space of GBA+ research and policy formation.