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Press Release: AB 32 and Other Environmental Protection Measures Must Stay on Track

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Press Release: AB 32 and Other Environmental Protection Measures Must Stay on Track
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Derek Walker, 916) 492-7169, dbwalker@edf.org          
Jesus Mena, 415-293-6097, jemena@edf.org 
(Sacramento – April 30, 2008) The legislature and the Governor must soundly reject a proposal to roll back environmental protections to address the state’s budget woes and continue their joint efforts to improve and protect California’s air quality, water quality and natural resources.
 
Environmental Defense Fund joined other groups in opposing the proposal put forth on Tuesday by a minority of Republicans and business leaders that urged delaying implementation of AB 32, the greenhouse gas reduction law adopted in 2006, because of budget constraints.
 
“Study after study has shown that the cost of inaction will be devastating to the economy and will set up our children and grandchildren for disaster,” said Derek Walker, acting director of the Environmental Defense Fund state climate campaign. “The public has said time and again that it wants California to continue its environmental leadership. A wide range of business leaders support bold action on global warming because they understand it will be a win-win for the economy and the environment.”
 
The proposal reflects a thorough misunderstanding of the impact of pollution and regulation in this state. Responsible assessments both by independent analysts and regulators in recent years have shown that the state’s air pollution costs its residents and businesses tens of billions of dollars each year in lost productivity, lost days at work, health costs and lost days at school. This doesn’t even take into account the human suffering. These costs were far higher than the costs of regulation.
 
“The world is watching. We cannot afford to wait, we cannot fail,” Walker said.
 
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About Environmental Defense Fund
A leading national nonprofit organization, Environmental Defense Fund represents more than 500,000 members. Since 1967, Environmental Defense Fund has linked science, economics, law and innovative private-sector partnerships to create breakthrough solutions to the most serious environmental problems. For more information, visit www.edf.org.
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Coping with Looming Health Dangers
A new Environmental Defense Fund report, Are We Ready? Preparing for the Public Health Challenges of Climate Change [PDF], reveals critical gaps in our public health system’s ability to respond to growing health threats from climate change.Alarmingly, funding for general public health preparedness has been steadily declining in recent years, with a 25 percent cut proposed in President Bush’s 2008 budget.

Climate change is already taking a toll on our health

A warming climate already contributes to disease and early deaths worldwide, as populations experience greater risks from extreme weather events, poor air quality and infectious disease.The World Health Organization estimates that 150,000 people die every year from the effects of climate change, and millions more suffer from illness, malnutrition and other health problems due to a warming planet. (See Health Dangers From a Warming Planet.)Cutting greenhouse gas emissions is essential to halting climate change, but global warming pollution can stay in the atmosphere for centuries. We need to prepare for continued impacts on public health.

We asked health directors how ready they are

How prepared is our nation’s public health system to cope with the public health challenges of climate change? As the "first line of defense," what do public health departments need to be prepared? What can the public health community do to help prevent the more severe consequences of climate change?To answer these questions, Environmental Defense Fund surveyed a representative sample of directors of local health departments from around the country, in collaboration with the National Association of City and County Health Officials and George Mason University. Just over 60 percent of the sample completed the survey. (For details, see the report [PDF].)

Key findings: U.S. health system generally not well prepared

Based on responses, our survey found that:

  • Most local health directors recognized that climate change is already occurring in their jurisdiction.
  • A majority thought that climate change is likely to affect one or more serious health problems in their jurisdiction over the next 20 years.
  • More than half felt climate change was an "important priority" for their health department.
  • Few reported that climate change was a top priority for their health department.
  • Most thought they lacked expertise to prepare for the public health dangers from a changing climate.
  • Most thought that state and federal public health agencies lacked the expertise to help them prepare for the public health dangers from a changing climate.
  • Most felt they lacked the resources needed to address climate-related health threats, with additional funding and staff most frequently cited.

Recommendations: Protect, prevent and enhance

Our recommendations can be summed up thus: protect, prevent and enhance.Protect public health from climate change effects. We need to assure that our public health system is efficient, competent and responsive. To achieve this goal, the federal government should:

  • Sponsor a study to make recommendations for a public health system that can respond to 21st-century health threats, from climate change to emerging diseases and bioterrorist acts.
  • Increase funding for health systems to assess, monitor and rapidly respond to health and safety threats. For example, funding is needed to strengthen surveillance networks, develop adequate rapid response systems for extreme weather events, and train public health personnel.
  • Increase funding for research on climate change and health, to develop better climate and weather modeling on a local scale, to pinpoint vulnerabilities of specific communities, and to find effective ways to communicate climate-related health threats and how individuals and communities can best protect themselves.

Prevent climate-related health dangers by slowing global warming as much as possible. We must drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions to levels needed to avert dangerous climate change, including massive sea level rise, temperature increases, flooding and droughts.The federal government should:

  • Adopt a strict limit on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and promote global reductions.
  • Fund research on how best to communicate with and motivate the general public to make changes in their daily lives that will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The public health and medical community should:

  • Educate policymakers on the costs of inaction and the public health benefits of steps to curb global warming pollution.
  • Study, develop and implement best practices for communicating with the general public to spur personal behavior changes.
  • Study, develop and adopt best practices for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from public health and health care facilities and operations.

Enhance public health by guiding climate change policies towards “win-win” situations. Align reducing greenhouse gas emissions with critical public health goals. For example, transportation policies that increase physical activity also address the obesity epidemic, and agricultural policies that reduce methane emissions can also improve nutrition.The federal government should:

  • Ensure that representatives from public health agencies are on interagency committees that develop comprehensive climate change policies.
  • Assess the health co-benefits and potential harmful effects of major climate change policy initiatives.
  • Expand the resources of state and local public health agencies so that they may participate more effectively in state and local policy decisions.

The public health community should:

  • Seek opportunities to work with transportation, energy, agricultural, environmental and other state and local agencies.
  • Educate policy makers about the potential health co-benefits and harmful effects of climate change policies.

The bottom line is that being prepared for existing threats like bioterrorism and pandemic flu mesh with readying ourselves for health threats from climate change.We can also curb overall health spending in this country through energy, transportation and nutrition policies that are double winners, serving climate and health goals. The old adage “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” holds true.

More information
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 7th, 2008 at 10:48 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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