Literature Review

Technology is fundamentally changing the way we live, work, relate to one another and to the external world. The speed, breadth and depth of current breakthroughs has no historical precedent and is disrupting almost every sector in every country. Now more than ever, the advent of new technology has the potential to transform environmental protection.

Rapid diffusion of solutions to a changing climate is paramount if the US is to mitigate carbon emissions. A timely response depends on how people perceive and understand innovations such as new practices, programs, policies, and technologies that promise to reduce emissions. This article explores multisolving innovations in the context of interventions that can be targeted to community leaders and decision makers. We focus on examples led by policy staff; directors of municipal offices and departments of transportation, housing, sustainability, urban planning, and public health; and elected county and city officials where there may be mixed support for efforts to reduce carbon emissions, to show that some innovations can be accurately framed solely in terms of community health benefits. When communicating with stakeholders who are dismissive or skeptical of climate change, we suggest using messages that describe the benefits of mitigation innovations in terms of human health, rather than climate, to achieve broader acceptability.

Climate change poses many threats to the health and well-being of Americans, from increasing the risk of extreme heat events and heavy storms to increasing the risk of asthma attacks and changing the spread of certain diseases carried by ticks and mosquitoes. Some of these health impacts are already happening in the United States.

The Clean Air Act has a proven record of public health and environmental protection since 1970. For more than forty-five years the Clean Air Act has cut pollution as the U.S. economy has grown.

The adaptation strategies provided therein are illustrative of possible ways communities can address anticipated, current, and future climate threats to public health.These strategies use a five-step process from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) program that allows health officials to develop strategies and programs to help communities prepare for the health effects of climate change.

Decades of research have shown that air pollutants such as ozone and particulate matter (PM) increase the amount and seriousness of lung and heart disease and other health problems. More investigation is needed to further understand the role poor air quality plays in causing detrimental effects to health and increased disease, especially in vulnerable populations. Children, the elderly, and people living in areas with high levels of air pollution are especially susceptible.

Federal and state officials and the Norfolk Southern Railroad have sought to counter public criticism about their efforts to mitigate public health and environmental damage from the Feb. 3 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

Global momentum is building to achieve net zero in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions—and to do so more quickly than previously envisioned. Getting there will require unprecedented levels of innovation. While a fast-rising number of companies and governments are committing themselves to ambitious net-zero goals, most focus the strategy exclusively on emissions and expect the necessary technologies and solutions to become available as needed.

For public health, having safe drinking water is important. However, conventional ways of disinfection have their own environmental issues. Although chlorine is low-cost and simple to use in centralized water systems, it comes at the cost of toxic chemical byproducts.

In 2021, ASTHO convened state environmental health directors (SEHDs) and directors of public health preparedness to discuss innovations developed during the COVID-19 pandemic such as virtual inspections. This brief explores how state health and partner agencies developed these methods to support environmental health work and how they are continuing to adapt them moving forward.

Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have found a way to use small shocks of electricity to disinfect water, reducing energy consumption, cost, and environmental impact. The technology could be integrated into the electric grid or even powered by batteries.

Across Africa, a network of Earth Jurisprudence Practitioners is accompanying traditional and indigenous communities in the revival and enhancement of their Earth-centred customary governance systems. In Kenya, Uganda, Benin, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and Cameroon, communities are reviving traditional knowledge and practices, restoring sacred natural sites and associated rituals, re-establishing indigenous seed diversity and food sovereignty, and strengthening ecological governance systems derived from the laws of the Earth.