Bypass Toxic Politics- Dr Gerber on Local and State Action for Healthy Air and Communities

Dr Anthony Gerber is a pulmonary and critical care medicine physician at National Jewish Health, where he conducts research on lung disease. He is also a professor of medicine at the University of Colorado and National Jewish and has has served on the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission. He provides insight into actions we can take in our own communities.

• Look up who represents you at your city, county and state level

• Find out how air is regulated in your state and what the most local unit to you is. Reach out to find out what they are doing to reduce pollution and greenhouse gases and find out how you can lend your voice to advocate for this and potentially push for even more action

• Find out if your state adheres to the California vehicle standards- if it doesn’t, push your legislators to join. Tell them how you want to stimulate the economy by everyone saving money on fuel and how you want to breathe cleaner air

• Look up the State of the Air report from the American Lung Association to find out how your city or county scores in terms of pollution. It helps to have information when you go to local decision makers

• Every time someone declares for office, whether city, council or local government to represent you, reach out. Ask them what local action they envision to clean up the air and reduce greenhouse gases

• Find out how building codes are made in your city or county- ask what they are doing to make them more efficient while not increasing the cost of housing. Volunteer with weatherization efforts

• Gas Powered Lawn equipment are a hyper local source of noise and pollution - learn more at the “Yards on Fire” episode for what you can do

• Everyone hates sitting in traffic- find out how transportation policy is made where you are and push for options to decrease emissions, whether by getting more people out of cars and onto bikes, feet or public transportation, etc

• Share this episode with anyone interested in what they can do locally for healthy air and climate change. Please also consider leaving the podcast a 5 star review wherever you listen so more people discover it. 

• Finally, consider a donation to the American Lung Association, which works locally for clean air and climate action.

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