Curing the Climate Emergency: Stories About Solutions
A “lunch and learn” webcast discussion presented by Hollywood, Health & Society explored the health and wide-ranging effects of extreme weather, focusing on how do we lessen the impact of climate change, protect water resources, practice environmental sustainability and survive?
The panelists were:
GAURAB BASU, MD, MPH—Dr. Gaurab Basu is a primary-care physician and an instructor at Harvard Medical School’s Department of Global Health and Social Medicine. He is nationally recognized for his work in climate change and health equity. He was a Sommer Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where he studied human rights, and from 2018 to 2021 he was part of the Robert Wood Johnson Culture of Health Leaders program. He received his medical degree from the Robert Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont, and his master’s in public health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
MAHTA MOGHADDAM, Ph.D., MS—Mahta Moghaddam is the Ming Hsieh Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering-Electrophysics, and Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at USC Viterbi School of Engineering. She’s director of research for the USC Center for Sustainable Solutions, and director of the USC Viterbi Center for Arid climate WAter REsearch (AWARE). From 1991 to 2003, Dr. Moghaddam was with the radar science and engineering section at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In her work, she has introduced a number of novel methods for using radio frequency systems for studying the environment and especially water. She holds Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
ROBERTA CRUGER (moderator)—Roberta Cruger is senior outreach specialist for Hollywood, Health & Society at the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center. She joined the program for its Climate Change Initiative. Previously, she wrote on environmental issues for Discovery Network’s treehugger.com and the Planet Green channel. She has also contributed to Smithsonian, Salon, National Geographic, and the Los Angeles Times, and was a correspondent with Agence France-Presse. Her work in the entertainment business includes programming and marketing at MTV Networks, Time Warner’s Manhattan Cable, Universal Music International, and Columbia Pictures. She holds a B.F.A. in film and television from New York University.