iseal the deal action, NYC, April 19, 2021i
Last Year, NYSNA Members Continued to Organize to Address the Climate Crisis The climate emergency is an existential crisis threatening all of humanity. As healthcare workers, NYSNA members understand the unique challenge facing the nation. They are at the bedside when patients present with respiratory challenges due to pollution or birth defects and infertility linked to fracking. Nurses and other healthcare workers appreciate that there is an ecosystem that supports quality care, and the climate crisis disrupts that system. As such, NYSNA members have been on the frontlines pushing for more aggressive action to save the environment. In 2021, NYSNA participated in rallies, engaged with legislators and even traveled to Scotland to participate in the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26).
NYSNA Attends COP26 Most recently, NYSNA board member Nella Pineda-Marcon, RN, joined the Trade Union for Energy and Democracy in Glasgow, Scotland, for COP26. While in the UK, she joined a global march for action on the climate and also spoke on a panel about the climate crisis and healthcare. During the “Working Class Struggles Against Climate Change: Union Stories From the Frontline” panel, 26
2021: We are one
Pineda-Marcon detailed her experience as well as that of other nurses working to help patients while the climate crisis rages. She and other trade unionist panelists detailed the struggles they have faced under a neoliberal model of climate change. They also highlighted determinative pathways forward.
Privatized Energy is Failing “As a healthcare worker, I spoke about challenges in privatized healthcare for workers and patients during the pandemic as well as the crisis of climate change. I focused on how the privatized energy system is failing at the expense of workers, local economies/ communities and the environment,” Pineda-Marcon said. “During the Glasgow Global Day of Action march, I met several union nurses from Europe and was amazed by their advocacy on the climate crisis.” COP26, held Oct. 31 through Nov. 13, was a weeklong series of events to boost nations’ ambitions to address climate change. The hope is to inspire nations and corporations to decarbonize public services with the hopes of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050, which would help keep 1.5 degrees Celsius within reach.
Pineda-Marcon’s participation marked the second time an NYSNA member has attended a COP convening; Judy Sheridan-Gonzalez, RN, represented the union and other American nurses at COP21. At that convening, Gonzalez said, “When communities have control over the production and distribution of clean energy, this is environmental justice. When the disproportionate harm perpetrated upon those most vulnerable but least responsible for Climate Chaos is mitigated and rectified in REAL ways; when workers whose livelihood is dependent upon the fossil fuel industry are transitioned to the multitude of safe and lucrative jobs that can be created with sustainable energy practices; when families who acquiesce to leasing lands to destructive energy agencies or who must utilize toxic energy byproducts in order to survive are instead supported in new and creative ways, we’ll achieve social justice.” “We know that climate change is a public health crisis,” Pineda-Marcon said. “It is imperative there is a public ownership alternative to achieve a just transition. There is no question that nurses are a critical piece in helping with mitigation, adaptation and policy surround global climate change. NYSNA has demonstrated this year and in years past that we are in this fight to stay.”
