People, Health, and Justice: How climate change is impacting our local communities
Part 3 of our local Climate Report shines a light on public health and climate justice in the Potomac River Region
Image courtesy of Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program
The climate crisis is here. And so is our first-of-its-kind, local climate report!
Our six-part series released throughout the summer will investigate:
How is our region uniquely experiencing a warming climate?
How is the climate crisis affecting the Potomac River and its people, lands, and wildlife?
What actions must be taken to lower greenhouse gas emissions and prepare communities for the future?
What can we do to be a part of the solution in our communities?
In Part 3, we confront the various and unequal ways that the changing climate is affecting human health in local communities and proposes just, science-based solutions.
Part 3A (released August 30, 2021) deals with the public health impacts of climate change in the Potomac River Region. Part 3B (release September 6, 2021) is focused on Climate Justice shines a light on the frontline communities in our region suffering from disproportionate climate burdens.
MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 2021
Released today, Part Three of Potomac Conservancy’s Rising to the Challenge climate report series - People, Health, and Justice – focuses on the various ways the changing climate is impacting human health in the Potomac River region, and how those health burdens are unjustly felt by marginalized communities of color and low-wealth.
Part 3A (released August 30, 2021) deals with the public health impacts of climate change in the Potomac River Region and proposed policy solution. Part 3B (release September 6, 2021) is focused on Climate Justice and shines a light on the frontline communities in our region working to recover from disproportionate climate burdens.
Part 3A: Public Health Findings
The rapidly heating climate is an emerging public health crisis for the communities of the Potomac River region.
Recent scientific studies have indicated that climate change is increasing the prevalence of Lyme disease in areas like the Potomac River region. Why? Milder winters, wetter weather, deforestation, and urban sprawl are creating the ideal climate for ticks.
The climate-driven temperature and precipitation changes in our region are creating a fertile habitat for deer ticks, the main vector of Lyme disease in our region, to thrive. Moreover, forest fragmentation and urbanization have allowed for a population explosion of host “edge species” that thrive at the border between forests and human-made environments and have brought ticks right to our doorsteps.
A recent study found that in a warming scenario of 3.6° F the number of Lyme disease cases in the U.S. will increase by 20%.
Within the Potomac River watershed, multiple climate-related factors are increasing rates of asthma and severe allergies. Hotter, longer summers; increased carbon dioxide levels, extreme heat, “thunderstorm asthma”, and fungal spore from increased flooding are all climate-driven risk factors for asthma sufferers. Fungal allergens from basement flooding disproportionately affects low-lying communities of color.
By 2050, the Potomac region is expected to experience about seven heatwave events per summer, lasting upwards of ten days or more. Extreme heat can result in a number of illnesses, including heat cramps, fainting, heat exhaustion, heatstroke, and even death.
Those already less able to regulate their body temperature – like the elderly, children, and the infirmed - are more at risk, as are those without access to shade or air conditioning – like people experiencing homelessness or living in neighborhoods with less tree canopy and vegetation (which tend to be lower-income neighborhoods.)
More frequent and extreme heat events also promote the formation of smog, a lung-irritant. Longer, hotter summers facilitate the chemical reactions that create dangerous ground-level ozone. Tropospheric ozone reduces lung function, exacerbates bronchitis and emphysema, aggravates asthma by increasing sensitivity to allergens, and inflames and damages the lining of the lungs, sometimes leading to permanent scarring of the lung tissue and even death.
Harmful blue-green Algal blooms (cyanobacteria) in the Potomac River watershed are caused by nutrients from agriculture and urban industry, most notably nitrogen and phosphorus, making their way into the region’s waters. Humans can be exposed to cyanobacterial toxins not only through drinking water, but also by eating contaminated fish. Symptoms include skin irritation, kidney and liver damage, gastrointestinal disturbances, and even cancer.
In the Washington, D.C. metro areas, bug-bite season now lasts an average of 152 days, an increase of 37 days since 1980. This allows for more infections from mosquito-transmitted viruses like Zika and West Nile. In 2018, approximately 9% of West Nile cases nationwide occurred in the Potomac River watershed. The virus affected the central nervous system of 75% of individuals infected in our region.
For each of the health impacts listed above, the report proposes just, equitable, science-based policy solutions recommended for local elected leaders and public health officials.
Part 3B: Climate Justice Findings
Climate Justice is the natural evolution of the Environmental Justice movement in the United States.
Just as with environmental justice, it is critical to note why climate justice issues are not a matter of happenstance. It is not a coincidence that the climate emergency is felt more acutely by some communities. This is the result of a western capitalist philosophy mixed with institutionalized racism: the result of a long history of policy and legislation designed explicitly to benefit White communities.
In the Potomac River watershed, the disproportionate burden on frontline Environmental Justice Communities is the result of not only our racist past (including intentional redlining), but also current permitting, zoning, and enforcement decisions that turn a blind eye to where pollution flows and who is exposed to it and lack consideration of cumulative impacts.
Climate justice solutions, done correctly, place those most impacted at the center of the climate response and demand that attention be placed on the frontline communities who are systematically rendered least capable of adapting.
In this report, we take a look at a few frontline environmental and climate justice communities in the Potomac River Watershed who are fighting for their human right to a healthy environment.
• We explore the issue of fishing in the Anacostia River, where organizers and advocates are concerned about the exposure of recreationists to water contaminants from Pepco’s Benning Road facility, as well as other legacy pollution sites along Washington DC’s southeastern river. They were particularly concerned about the health of low-wealth community members who fish the Anacostia to supplement their diet with missing sources of protein.
• Buzzard Point in Washington DC, which lies where the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers meet. This 83% Black community faces a deluge of environmental hazards which contribute to greenhouse gasses as well as high rates of cancer and asthma. To combat flooding, Buzzard Point is currently in the process of flood-proofing its infrastructure. However, these giant, new residential units are displacing affordable private housing. Buzzard Point community organizers are concerned that once the neighborhood is flood-proofed and the toxins cleaned up, gentrification will push them out.
• Brandywine, Maryland is an unincorporated community with no town council or mayor. Its population is 74% Black. According to the Center for Community Health, Education, and Environmental Justice, “This lack of political representation has led to Brandywine being exploited by County leadership and state officials to act as a dumping ground for industrial hazards and locally unwanted land uses (LULUs) and a sacrifice zone for the rest of Prince George’s County, the state of Maryland, and the Washington, D.C. region.” Testimonies provided by Dr. Sacoby Wilson, Kamita Gray, and other members of the community helped stop a special exception permit for the Brandywine Coal Ash Landfill. However, it was recently overturned in court, and must again be contested, noted Dr. Wilson.
• The New Community Project Climate Farm in Mount Clinton, VA is an example of climate justice solutions led by those most impacted by climate change – in this case, immigrant climate refugees with traditional ecological knowledge of regenerative agriculture methods from their home countries. This is an excellent example of investing in an intersectional community-led project for climate justice solutions led by those most impacted.
The report concludes by exploring policy and community-led solutions for the climate justice issues that are particularly impacting our region.