The Natural Environment as an Object of Public Health Law: Addressing Health Outcomes of Climate Change through Intersections with Environmental and Agricultural Law
Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online December, 2020
The Natural Environment as an Object of Public Health Law: Addressing Health Outcomes of Climate Change through Intersections with Environmental and Agricultural Law
The power to change the natural environment has received relatively little attention in public health law, yet is a core concern within environmental and agricultural law. Examples from environmental and agricultural law may inform efforts to change the natural environment in order to reduce the health impacts of climate change. Public health lawyers who attend to the natural environment may succeed in elevating health concerns within the environmental and agricultural law spheres, while gaining new tools for their public health law toolbox.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
L.O.Gostin and L.F.Wiley, Public Health Law: Power, Duty, Restraint (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2016): at 28-33.
2.
Id., at 4.
3.
Id., at 28–33.
4.
Id., at 28 (citing J.P.Koplan and D.W.Fleming, “Current and Future Public Health Challenges,”Journal of the American Medical Association284, no. 13 - 33 (2000): 1696–1698).
5.
L. O. Gostin and L.F. Wiley, supra note 1, at 216–219.
6.
Id., at 405–406, 536–538.
7.
(discussing T.S.Aagaard, “Environmental Law as a Legal Field: An Inquiry in Legal Taxonomy,”Cornell Law Review221 (2010): 242).
8.
citing M.Youngeret al., “The Built Environment, Climate Change, and Health: Opportunities for Co-Benefits,”American Journal of Preventative Medicine35, no. 5 (2008): 517-526.
L.Rudolphet al., “Health in All Policies: Improving Health Through Intersectoral Collaboration,”Discussion Paper, National Academy of Medicine, Washington, DC (2013): at 1.
When addressing climate change, such measures are necessarily more likely to focus on pollution reduction measures and changes in the natural environment, unlike secondary and tertiary measures that focus on increasing access to treatment and information via screening and disease management tools that are implemented after a disease or hazard is already present. See for example, Wis. Stat. § 254.22(2), requiring the Wisconsin Department of Health Services to, among other things, “assist local health departments in the adoption of regulations that establish standards for indoor air quality in public buildings to protect the occupants form adverse health effects due to exposure to chemical or biological contaminants.”
14.
L.O.Gostinet al., “The Legal Determinants of Health: Harnessing the Power of Law for Global Health and Sustainable Development,”The Lancet Commissions393, No. 10183 (2019): 1857-1910, at 1833.
15.
Id.
16.
J.Krueger and C. HealyBoufides, “The Public Health Sector’s Challenges and Responses,” in M.Burger and J.Gundlacheds., Climate Change, Public Health and the Law (Cambridge University Press Publishers Press, 2018): 34-72.
17.
K.Syrett, “Doing ‘Upstream’ Priority-Setting for Global Health with Justice: Moving from Vision to Practice?”Public Health Ethics11, no. 3 (2018): 265-274.
18.
C.Tessumet al., “Inequity in Consumption of Goods and Services Adds to Racial–Ethnic Disparities in Air Pollution Exposure,”Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences116, no. 13 (2019), 6001-6006.
19.
(citing S.Gould and L.Rudolph, “Why We Need Climate, Health, and Equity in All Policies,”Commentary, National Academy of Medicine, 2014, available at <10.31478/201412e> (last visited September 29, 2020).
20.
N.Kabishet al., eds., Nature-based Solutions to Climate Change Adaptation in Urban Areas: Linkages Between Science, Policy and Practice (Springer Nature: Cham, Switzerland, 2017).
C.L.Anderson, “Climate Change and Infrastructure,”Houston Journal of Health Law and Policy18 (2018): 1-28.
31.
See for example: Tribal Adaptation Menu Team, 2019, Dibaginjigaadeg Anishinaabe Ezhitwaad: A Tribal Climate Adaptation Menu (Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, Odanah, Wisconsin).
32.
Id.
33.
Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, Office of Planning and Community Development, Swinomish Climate Change Initiative, Climate Adaptation Action Plan (October2010): at 50-51.
C.Le Quéréet al., “Temporary Reduction in Daily Global CO2 Emissions During the COVID-19 Forced Confinement,”Nature Climate Change10 (2020): 647-653.
39.
K.Chenet al., “Air Pollution Reduction and Mortality Benefit During the COVID-19 Outbreak in China,”Lancet Planet Health4, no. 6 (2020): e210-e212.
40.
G.Hardin, “The Tragedy of the Commons,”Science162, no. 3859 (1968): 1243-48, at 1244-45.
41.
S. Ferrey, supra note 40.
42.
S. Ferrey, supra note 40.
43.
33 U.S.C. § 1251.
44.
42 U.S.C. § 7401. See also Massachusetts v. EPA, 549 U.S. 497, 532-535 (2007).
45.
J.Gundlach, “How Existing Environmental Laws Respond to Climate Change and Its Mitigation,” in M.Burger and J.Gundlacheds., Climate Change, Public Health and the Law (Cambridge University Press Publishers Press, 2018): 373-379, 386.
46.
33 U.S.C. § 1302.
47.
However, there are opportunities for older facilities to phase in this new technology when the costs are too high.
Editorial, “Environmental Racism: Time to Tackle Social Injustice,”The Lancet Planetary Health2, no. 11 (2018): e462.
50.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Environmental Health, Preparing for the Health Effects of Drought, A Resource Guide for Public Health Professionals (Feb2018).
51.
C.Ganesh and J.Smith, “Climate Change, Public Health, and Policy: A California Case Study,”American Journal of Public Health108, no. S2 (2018): S114-S119
52.
Id.
53.
R.K.Craig, “Drought and Public Necessity: Can A Common-Law “Stick” Increase Flexibility In Western Water Law?”Texas A & M Law Review6, no. 77 (2018).
54.
Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact, §1.3.1.d-e, Pub. L. No. 110-342, 122 Stat. 3739 (2008).
55.
R.Ross, “Opening the Floodgates and Draining the Great Lakes One Bottle at a Time: How Privatizing Water Resources Threatens the Great Lakes,”University of Denver Water Law Review (2012): 97
56.
Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact, supra note 66.
57.
J.Casey, “Note: Irrigating Industry: Is the Great Lakes Compact Being Drowned for Industrial Gain?”University of Illinois Law Review (2020): 307-340.
Wilhelm; Wisconsin Harmful Algal Blooms Program, Bureau of Environmental and Occupational Health, Harmful Algal Blooms Toolkit, A Planning Guide for Public Health and Emergency Response Professionals, available at <https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/publications/p0/p00853.pdf> (last visited September 30, 2020).
65.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension Iowa County, Southwest Wisconsin Groundwater and Geology Study, 2019, available at <https://iowa.extension.wisc.edu/natural-resources/swigg/> (last visited August 10, 2020); M.H. Ward, et al., supra note 63.
D.Behm, “New Wastewater Discharge Permit Requires ‘Green Infrastructure,”Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, July22, 2012, available at <http://archive.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/new-permit-requires-rooftop-plantings-other-green-infrastructure-0m65c7j-163354726.html/> (last visited August 10, 2020). Milwaukee’s work to reverse a trend of past sewage overflows also included adoption of an ordinance requiring new development and redevelopment over one acre to utilize enough green infrastructure practices to reduce the amount of rainfall that will directly enter into the city’s combined sewer system. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Code of Ordinances, Ch. 120.
Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, Pub. L. # 115-334 (Dec. 20, 2018).
75.
S.A.Schneider, “A Reconsideration of Agricultural Law: A Call for the Law of Food, Farming, and Sustainability,”William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review34, no. 3 (2010): 935-963.
76.
S.Carpenter, “An Overview of USDA Discrimination Cases: Pigford, In re Black Farmers, Keepseagle, Garcia, and Love,”Drake Journal of Agricultural Law17 (2012): 1-35.
77.
N.D.Hamilton, “America’s New Agrarians: Policy Opportunities and Legal Innovations to Support New Farmers,”Fordham Environmental Law Review22, no. 3 (2011): 523-562.
78.
T.W.Mitchell, “Historic Partition Law Reform: A Game Changer for Heirs’ Property Owners,”Texas A&M University School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper No. 19-27 (2019).
79.
R.A.Neff, K.Merrigan, and D.Wallinga, “A Food Systems Approach to Healthy Food and Agriculture Policy,”Health Affairs34, no. 11 (2015): 1908-1915.
80.
C.Dimitri and A.Effland, “From Farming to Food Systems: The Evolution of US Agricultural Production and Policy into the 21st Century,”Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems (2018): 1-16.
81.
E.M. BroadLeib and B.J.Linnekin, “Food Law & Policy: An Essential Part of Today’s Legal Academy,”Journal of Food Law and Policy13 (2018): 228-271.
82.
National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, Agriculture and Climate Change: Policy Imperatives and Opportunities to Help Producers Meet the Challenge (Washington, DC, 2019).
83.
J.J.Steffanet al., “The Effect of Soil on Human Health: An Overview,”European Journal of Soil Science69, no. 1 (2018): 159-171.)
J.Krueger and C. HealyBoufides, “The Public Health Sector’s Challenges and Responses,” in M.Burger and J.Gundlacheds., Climate Change, Public Health and the Law (Cambridge University Press Publishers Press, 2018): 52-53.
87.
There are many options. See M. B.Gerrard and J. C.Dern-bach, eds., Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States, Environmental Law Institute (2018).
88.
S.Burris, M.Berman, M.Penn, and T. RamanathanHoliday, The New Public Health: A Transdisciplinary Approach to Practice and Advocacy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018) at 84–85.
89.
L.Rudolphet al., Climate Change, Health, and Equity: A Guide for Local Health Departments (Public Health Institute and American Public Health Association: Oakland, CA and Washington, DC, 2018).
90.
A.L.Dannenberg, B.Rogerson, L.Rudolph, “Optimizing the Health Benefits of Climate Change Policies Using Health Impact Assessments,”Journal of Public Health Policy41 (2019): 139–154.
91.
U.S. Call to Action on Climate, Health, and Equity: A Policy Action Agenda (2020), available at <climatehealthaction.org> (last visited November 9, 2020).
92.
Compare the Agriculture Resilience Act (House Bill 5861) with the Growing Climate Solutions Act (House Bill 7393).
93.
Great American Outdoors Act, Pub. L. # 116–152 (August 4, 2020).
94.
V.Jennings, L.Larson, and J.Yun, “Advancing Sustainability through Urban Green Space: Cultural Ecosystem Services, Equity, and Social Determinants of Health,”International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health13, no. 2 (2016): 196-210.