Tee Guidotti, MD, MPH, Former Chair, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, George Washington University
Dr. Tee L. Guidotti is currently an international consultant based in the Washington DC area and Canada. He retired as Professor and chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the George Washington University. Prior to that, he was a professor at the University of Alberta, where he became deeply involved in energy-related issues and started Canada's first approved training program in occupational medicine. He trained in internal medicine, pulmonary medicine, and occupational medicine, all at Johns Hopkins. In 2015, he was a Fulbright Visiting Research Professor in the Institute for Science, Society and Policy at the University of Ottawa.
I think that the best way is to organize and convey your policy preferences as a group position rather than as individual citizens. Trying to create a counterweight that politicians will recognize. They don't seem to be responsive to volume of calls anymore. I also think that we need to focus on individual policies and back them specifically, rathern than expressing ourselves in terms of an agenda. For example, a big push on a local level for municipalities to reduce obstacles for sustainable energy is likely to succeed if enough people get behind it and present themselves as united but endorsement of a big, overarching policy (as attractive as the Green New Deal is) is not likely to move anything but opposition research, IMHO. However, I'm not the best person to talk about such things. (My wife is the experienced political operative in the family.) PSR is experienced and respected, so I would trust them for strategy.
Thank you Dr. Guidotti. Regarding healthy public policy...policy makers are disproportionately influenced by industry leaders. It appears even when the volume of comments and calls come from citizens to support a healthy environment, the policies favor industry and not public health. What ways can citizens support a sustainable future and help direct public policy?