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Most importantly, RNs understand how climate change and the fossil fuel industry pose an enormous threat to public health and have grown increasingly vocal in calling on global leaders to break our reliance on fossil fuels and make a dramatic and imme- diate shift toward producing sustainable energy. In 2013, a delegation of NNU lead- ers traveled to Lima, Peru to participate in the People's Climate Summit. In 2014, hun- dreds of nurses marched across the Golden Gate Bridge to ban construction of Keystone XL, a tar sands pipeline which would threaten the health of communities across the country. RNs are also becoming more and more involved in an interna- tional movement urging institutions to divest from fossil fuel corpo- rations. Since its beginnings in 2011, fossil fuel divestment is the fastest-growing divestment movement in history: Hundreds of uni- versities, religious institutions, and cities have already refused to have their money invested in corporations that profit off our reliance on fossil fuels. The fossil fuel industry, in addition to posing serious and imme- diate physical health harms to people and the environment, also ultimately prevents any progress toward reversing our climate crisis because it benefits from maintaining the status quo. The industry consistently blocks any meaningful climate legislation from being passed by governments around the world by funding climate denial think tanks and donating large sums of money to politicians who serve their interests. The divestment movement argues that by continuing to invest in these com- panies, institutions perpetuate their destructive practices. Divestment seeks to stigmatize these companies and make space in the political system for mean- ingful climate legislation. Registered nurses should also know that hospitals across the country, too, have billions of dollars invested in fossil fuel companies. These investments are a tremen- dous source of profit for them. Many hospitals, particularly "nonprofit" healthcare chains, proclaim lofty goals of service and relief from suffering, yet their continued profit from industries that harm communities and pollute the planet is a contradiction that only divestment can resolve. For NNU members, advocating for divestment is a form of patient advocacy. By joining the fossil fuel divestment movement and urging their hospitals to divest, nurses are hoping to heal their patients and communities by attacking the root of the disease. Alexandra Griffin is an environmental health justice intern with National Nurses United based in Chicago. S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 5 W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G N A T I O N A L N U R S E 17 and other fossil fuel extraction sites. The temperature, typical for Bakersfield summers, was scorching hot—in the triple digits—and it was only 8 a.m. when the group gathered at Panorama Park in Bak- ersfield, which overlooks the Kern River and the Kern River oil field immediately behind it. As Frantz would explain on the tour, Kern County is host to a multitude of environmental problems as a result of the multitude of fossil fuel extraction sites. During the car drives between each site, Frantz listed the many consequences that befell Bakersfield as a result of the heat and exten- sive contamination. In the winter months of December through Jan- uary, the Bakersfield region experiences fog that contains a high concentration of fine particulate matter endemic to the impurities of the local air, causing respiratory problems for "sensitive" populations, which includes the elderly, children, athletes, and those with preex- isting respiratory problems. One of the nurse participants chimed in that she sees cases of adult-onset asthma turn up quite often at the hospital she works during those times. Even just passing by the farm fields, the group couldn't help but notice that the green of the crops' leaves were coated with a sickly shade of grey. The group also learned that the refineries which process much of the oil in Shafter, a city adjacent to Bakersfield, rather than ship left- over gas for processing into gasoline and other fuel, will instead dis- pose of the substance through flares, burning it away into the sky in a heaping plume of flaming smoke. Flares, as Frantz explained, harm the air quality in Kern County by dissipating volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that, when inhaled, can cause cancer, respiratory illnesses, and many other chronic health issues. The water quality in Kern County has also suffered. Frantz mentioned that levels of 123 TCP levels (another VOC, commonly used as industrial solvent) in Bakersfield alone have been found recently by the state health department to be steadily increasing in area water wells. Conse- quently, health officials have advised residents to trim the length of their hot showers and other forms of water usage. Towards the end of the tour the nurses stopped by Sequoia Elemen- tary School. An oil derrick overlooked the playground, only a few thou- sand feet away from the chain-link fence that separated them. Frantz led the group to the community garden in the back, from where the oil derrick still loomed prominently, and explained to us how the garden had been a project initiated by the Center on Race, Poverty, and Educa- tion (CRPE) with the support of the Sequoia faculty. Sequoia Elemen- tary had been host to serious respiratory problems as well; CRPE had even helped file a lawsuit on behalf of a student's family, noting that the school's students are often forced to stay indoors when noxious fumes become visible, and that many other students eventually suffer chronic medical problems their parents suspect are a result of the wells nearby. The tour left both nurses and staff incredibly alarmed about the disastrous medical risks that Bakersfield communities are exposed to every day by the fossil fuel industry, and inspired the group to work harder to protect public health. Minh Tran is a summer intern at the Los Angeles office of NNU, assigned to the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Working Group oil extraction sites The fossil fuel industry, in addition to posing serious and immediate physical health harms to people and the environment, also ultimately prevents any progress toward reversing our climate crisis because it benefits from maintaining the status quo.