The Evolution of the Modern Health and Environmental Justice Movement
Gary Cohen and Host Michael Lerner
Join Host Michael Lerner in a conversation with Gary Cohen, founder of Healthcare without Harm. They trace the evolution of the modern health and environmental justice movement over the years, starting in 1996, when Gary founded the organization after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency identified medical waste incineration as the leading source of dioxin, one of the most potent carcinogens. You can hear a past conversation with Gary here, one of the first conversations at Comonweal’s New School.
Gary Cohen
Gary has been a pioneer in the environmental health movement for nearly 40 years. He has helped build coalitions and networks globally to address health impacts related to climate change and toxic chemical exposure. Cohen is co-founder and president of Health Care Without Harm, created in 1996 to help transform the health care sector to be environmentally sustainable and support the health and climate resilience of the communities they serve. Since its inception, the nonprofit has grown to lead and partner in groundbreaking initiatives in more than 88 countries. The White House honored Cohen with its Champion of Change Award for Climate Change and Public Health. He received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2015 from the MacArthur Foundation.
Michael Lerner
Host
Michael is the president emeritus and co-founder of Commonweal. His principal work today at Commonweal is with the Cancer Help Program, CancerChoices, the Omega Resilience Projects, the Collaborative on Health and the Environment, and Commonweal New School. He was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship for contributions to public health in 1984 and is author of Choices in Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Therapies (MIT Press).
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