UCLA, Rotary Club to explore how humans are dooming the planet and what L.A. can do about it

The UCLA Center for World Health and LA5 Rotary Club will host the West-coast launch of The Rockefeller Foundation–Lancet Commission’s report on planetary health. A pre-event briefing will address how short-term economic gains spell long-term disaster for future generations. A panel of experts will emphasize the need for sustainable cities and outline urgent steps that Los Angeles leaders must take to confront the looming crisis.

Overpopulation has strained the earth’s natural resources. Degradation of the planet’s air, water and land has altered biodiversity, resulting in the introduction of tropical diseases like dengue fever into the United States. Without immediate intervention, researchers predict that rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere will reduce nutrients in our crops, resulting in millions of cases of malnutrition and death worldwide by 2050.

WHEN

Press briefing 11 a.m. | Lunch program noon to 1:30 p.m.

WHERE

City Club Los Angeles (inside the City National Bank building), 555 S. Flower St., 51st floor, downtown Los Angeles, California 90071. Parking is $10 for three hours.

WHO

The following speakers will be available for interviews:
Thomas Coates, director of the Center for World Health and distinguished professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Matt Petersen, chief sustainability officer for the City of Los Angeles
Sir Andy Haines, report coauthor, chairman of the Commission on Planetary Health and professor of public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Peng Gong, report coauthor and a professor of environmental science at UC Berkeley
Michael Myers, managing director and vice president of initiatives and strategy for The Rockefeller Foundation

RSVP

To reserve a space, please contact Elaine Schmidt, UCLA Health Sciences Media Relations, at eschmidt@mednet.ucla.edu, (310) 794-2272 (office) or (310) 597-5767 (cell) by 9 a.m. the day of the event.