Informing Policy on Built Environments to Safeguard Children in Environmental Justice Communities: Case Study of Five AAP Climate Advocates

• Published in: The journal of applied research on children 2021, Vol.12 (1)
• Main Authors: Durrwachter-Erno, Katie, Huerta-Montanez, Gredia, Nguyen, Vivian, Levy, Aaron A, Lawson, Jennifer M, Nguyen, Vi T
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Advocacy; Applied research; Built environment; Case reports; Case Studies; Children; Climate; Climate change; Climate policy; Clinical research; Community; Disproportionate Representation; Environmental justice; Greenhouse gases; Justice; Literature reviews; Minority Group Children; Pediatricians; Pediatrics; Physical Environment; Policy; Public Health
• ISSN: 2155-5834; 2155-5834
• DOI: 10.58464/2155-5834.1451

Climate change’s health effects are most strongly felt in Environmental Justice (EJ) communities which are predominantly people of color. This results in a disproportionate burden of climate change health effects on EJ communities. Climate change is a public health crisis, and more importantly to pediatricians – it is a pediatric public health crisis. We are five pediatricians who are part of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Climate Advocate Program representing four diverse regions; Colorado, California, Puerto Rico, and North Carolina. We are applied research practitioners, as we live in the world between academic research and clinical practice. We are natural advocates to ensure that the future world is rebuilt with children’s health, especially children of EJ communities, at the center. Each of us has seen the direct effects of climate change adversely impact EJ Communities. In this article, we will briefly review the literature on the dangers that children face in the air they breathe, the lack of natural green spaces, and the increasingly hostile built environments, especially to children in EJ communities. We will review opportunities in our local areas to change the built environment that will work toward reducing carbon emissions and increase overall pediatric health. We will illustrate the commonalities that helped us succeed as Climate Advocates including collaboration, working locally, and purposefully choosing to identify ourselves as climate advocates and child-advocates. The intersection between public health, policy, and medicine will now become increasingly important as we head into this new decade and approach the point of no return on climate change.Key Take Away Points [list] [list] [list_item] Climate change’s health effects are most strongly felt in Environmental Justice (EJ) communities which are predominantly people of color. [/list_item] [list_item] Climate change is a pediatric public health crisis [/list_item] [list_item] Children in EJ Communities encounter greater health risks in the air they breathe, the lack of natural green spaces, and have worse health outcomes due to an increasingly hostile built environments [/list_item] [list_item] Programs like the AAP Climate Advocate Program are effective programs that can assist individual clincians meet the call to action set out by the AAP on climate change "advocate for local, national, and international policies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions” and for the country to