About Us
Our Strategic Plan:
Our Purpose:
We organize and mobilize the California health community to advocate for equitable systems-level climate action, to achieve health for all.
Our Vision:
We envision a California where the health community comes together as a trusted, evidence-informed voice for equitable climate solutions that protect health. Guided by the understanding that human health and planetary health are deeply connected, we work alongside communities and partners to advance policies, education, and healthcare practices that support a healthier, more resilient future. Together, by advocating for climate and environmental solutions, we strive to improve health today and for generations to come.
Our Story:
Youth Climate Strike
San Francisco, September 20, 2019
The spark that helped launch Climate Health Now wasn't found in a policy paper or a protest sign, but in the quiet urgency of an exam room where Drs. Ashley McClure and Amanda Millstein first met. Both mothers of young kids whose families were impacted by wildfires, they shared the understanding that the greatest threat to their children's and patients’ health was a changing climate. This fear catalyzed the urgent need to engage beyond the clinic to address climate change. Together, they recognized that the health community had an important role to play in advocating for climate solutions - because healthy people depend on a healthy planet.
That commitment became an invitation for others to join. On September 20, 2019, 30 health professionals who would become Climate Health Now’s founding members joined the Youth Climate Strike in San Francisco. They carried medical excuse notes validating students' participation, affirming that protecting a healthy climate is part of protecting public health. It was a simple act of solidarity that demonstrated how trusted health voices can strengthen a growing movement.
That effort has grown into a community of ~1,000 health professionals across California who believe that, together, we can make a difference. With that aim, Climate Health Now brings together clinicians, public health professionals, students, and allies who are committed to advancing equitable climate solutions that protect health. Together, we support one another in transforming concern into meaningful action, partnering with communities and environmental justice leaders to advocate for healthier people and a healthier planet. We believe lasting change happens when trusted voices work alongside impacted communities, building the collective power needed to create a more just, healthy, and resilient future for all.
Who We Are:
We are all part of the Health Community across California
Our Commitment: We offer a community and more; we create opportunities for health professionals to learn, connect, and take meaningful action together. Through our three pillars of climate and health education, advocacy for equitable climate solutions, and efforts to advance more sustainable healthcare we support our members with practical ways to engage. Here, your expertise and lived experience can help strengthen collective action, turning concern and anxiety into action for a livable future!
Our Values
Health-centered: Our health voices are trusted. We integrate climate, health, and equity into our advocacy, ensuring that the well-being of people and the planet remains our north star.
Equity-first: Health equity requires climate justice. We partner with environmental justice movement leaders to ensure that solutions bridge gaps rather than widen them.
Partnership oriented: We cannot heal the world alone. We intentionally collaborate with policy experts and community leaders, investing in strategic alliances to amplify our impact.
Evidence-based: We ground our advocacy in the best available scientific evidence and public health knowledge, while respecting and honoring the lived experience of communities and diverse ways of knowing. By drawing on research, lived experience, and medical expertise, we aim to provide trusted, credible voices in conversations about climate and health.
Inclusively built: Our strength lies in our diversity. We cultivate a welcoming space for all members of the health community, believing that a representative community drives deeper change.
Upstream-focused: Clinical care saves lives, but policy saves futures. We move beyond individual patient care to address social and environmental determinants of health, using our voices where systemic change happens.
Action-oriented: We recognize the power of collective action. We use our trusted health voices in support of climate action for collective health and well-being.