Climate Change and Schools: Environmental Hazards and Resiliency

Abstract

The changing climate is creating additional challenges in maintaining a healthy school environment in the United States (U.S.) where over 50 million people, mostly children, spend approximately a third of their waking hours. Chronic low prioritization of funds and resources to support environmental health in schools and lack of clear regulatory oversight in the U.S. undergird the new risks from climate change. We illustrate the extent of risk and the variation in vulnerability by geographic region, in the context of sparse systematically collected and comparable data particularly about school infrastructure. Additionally, we frame different resilience building initiatives, focusing on interventions that target root causes, or social determinants of health. Disaster response and recovery are also framed as resilience building efforts. Examples from U.S. Federal Region 2 (New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands) and nationally are used to illustrate these concepts. We conclude that better surveillance, more research, and increased federal and state oversight of environmental factors in schools (specific to climate risks) is necessary, as exposures result in short- and long term negative health effects and climate change risks will increase over time.

Keywords: adaptation; built environment; children; disaster preparedness; environmental health; health effects of climate change; mitigation; school environment; students; vulnerability.

Figure 1

Map of U.S. Federal Region 2: New Jersey (NJ), New York, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands (image created from Google Maps).

Figure 2

Health Impact Pyramid with climate change preparedness efforts that influence schools or the communities in which schools exist (modified from Frieden [80]).

Figure 3

Socio-ecologic model showing the multiple levels from individual school to regional/national initiatives that influence schools’ resilience to climate. Adapted from Ecological Systems Theory model [78].