lhc_connectionbrief_climate_v5

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Making the Connection: Linking Policies to Prevent Climate Change and Childhood Obesity

Over the last 50 years, the global climate has been affected by changes in the amount

of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, in the atmosphere.1 Scientists say these

changes can dramatically influence weather patterns and sea levels, which can, in turn,

affect different regions, ecosystems and sectors of the economy in many ways.2 Recent

reports indicate that some of these changes are occurring already, ranging from shifting

precipitation patterns, to melting Arctic ice and acidification of the oceans.3 Experts

predict that climate change will lead to increased prevalence of some health problems,

including higher rates of malnutrition, asthma, respiratory and cardiovascular disease,

heat-related illnesses and death.4,5

Policy-makers can take steps to minimize the impact of climate change by implementing

sustainable policies to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions.6,7

Policy strategies that support healthy eating and active living, in particular, can help

communities reduce their carbon emissions.8,9 Policy-makers can advance win-win

solutions by making the connection between policies that support the environment and

those that support people’s health.

Making the ConneCtion Brief | feBruary 2011

Leadership for Healthy Communities

is a national program of the

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Leadership for healthy Communities

Making the Connection Brief

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www.leadershipforhealthycommunities.org

Making the ConnectionThough not directly correlated, both U.S. obesity rates and worldwide climate change effects have increased over the last few decades.10,11 Recent reports indicate that climate change is accelerating at a pace faster than expected.12 Meanwhile, U.S. obesity rates have nearly tripled over the last four decades.13–16 Nearly one-third of American children and adolescents are overweight or obese,17,18 placing them at greater risk for developing certain diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease.19 Unless significant action is taken, climate change and obesity are projected to persist or worsen in the coming years.20,21

However, many of the policy interventions that could help to mitigate climate change also could help reverse the childhood obesity epidemic.22,23 Research shows the value in implementing policy strategies that address both the environment and public health. For example:

Green spaces help capture carbon and greenhouse gas emissions, and help communities adapt to climate change by providing cooling shade and reducing run-off.24,25 Research shows that green spaces—such as parks, nature centers and community gardens—also increase the likelihood that young people will be physically active, reducing their risk for obesity.26 One study found that young people with access to a variety of built and natural open spaces and recreation areas were 43 percent more likely to exercise for at least 30 minutes on most days.27 Green spaces also have been linked to healthier eating habits among young people.28 A study in Marion County, Ind., found that the body mass indexes (BMIs) of young people living in neighborhoods with green spaces were less likely to increase over a two-year period.29

Increasing the number of people who use active forms of transportation can reduce daily carbon emissions associated with car travel. Research also has shown that people who walk, bike or use public transit are more likely to be at a healthy weight or fitness level.30,31 To that end, transit-oriented development and mixed-use strategies provide compact access to residential and commercial spaces and encourage residents to walk or bike to attend to daily activities.32,33,34 Additionally, research shows that well-connected trails with direct access to community resources increase biking and walking among residents, in particular women and people from lower socioeconomic groups.35 People in walkable communities are more than twice as likely to walk or bike than those in less walkable communities, and residents living within easy walking distance of a mix of shops and businesses have a 35 percent lower risk of obesity than residents of communities that do not have these services within easy walking distance.36,37

Mixed-use development settings also improve community access to food retail, which increases healthy food options for young people and families. According to one study, children with greater perceived access to shops (including various food markets with fresh produce) consume more fruits and vegetables and less dietary fat.38 These children also are less likely to be overweight or obese.39

Improving safety conditions for sidewalks, crosswalks and bike paths can encourage increased active transport, and thus decrease carbon emissions in a community. Young people are three times more likely to walk or bike after safety improvements have been made to bicycle lanes, traffic signals, sidewalks and crosswalks.40 Children in neighborhoods with sidewalks and controlled intersections are more likely to be physically active than children in neighborhoods with road hazards and unsafe intersections.41 In addition, a parent’s perception of neighborhood safety, from concerns about traffic to strangers, plays an important role in determining the level

Transit-oriented development is a development pattern created around a transit facility or station that is characterized by higher density, mixed uses; a safe and attractive pedestrian environment; reduced parking; and direct and convenient access to the transit facility.

Mixed-use strategies are used by planning and zoning authorities to place residential, retail, office and school facilities in close proximity to encourage walking and biking as a routine part of community life.

Walkable communities facilitate pedestrian transportation by locating homes, businesses, schools, shops and other services, which are connected by sidewalks, bicycle lanes and trails, within an easy and safe walk from each other.



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of physical activity a child receives outside the home or school.42 A study in Chicago found that young people living in safe neighborhoods engaged in physical activity for almost an hour longer than young people living in unsafe neighborhoods.43 Additionally, Safe Routes To School (SRTS) programs have shown successful results in increasing the number of young people who walk or bike to school each day.44 An SRTS program in Marin County, Calif. showed a 64 percent increase in the number of young people who walked to school after the first two years.45 After the fourth year, the Marin County program calculated that the percentage of children arriving and leaving school in a family car dropped from 55 percent to 42 percent, or 4,250 fewer car trips per day. This represents an annual reduction of roughly 1,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions and 70 tons of other environmental pollutants.46

Local-procurement strategies can reduce the environmental cost of food production while also improving community access to healthy foods.47 These strategies, which include promoting farmers’ markets and farm-to-school programs, can decrease carbon emissions by reducing the distance over which food is transported. Before reaching a person’s plate, fresh produce travels over 1,500 miles before being consumed.48 Studies suggest food processing, transportation, refrigeration and preparation account for 80 percent of the energy used for food production in the United States.49 According to the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, the state of Iowa could reduce its carbon emissions by 7 million pounds if it substituted 10 percent of its current distribution system with fruits and vegetables from regional or local systems.50

These programs also can increase the availability of fresh produce where it would otherwise not be widely accessible. According to Farm Aid, farm-to-school program participants have reported increases of 25 percent to 84 percent in student consumption of fruits and vegetables.51

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Safe Routes to School (SRTS) is a growing movement to get more children walking and bicycling to school and to make it safer and more convenient to do so. Programs combine the five Es of SRTS—evaluation, education, encouragement, engineering and enforcement–and are typically led by parents, teachers, students, elected officials, government agencies and community members.



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Policy RecommendationsWhile addressing climate change, policy-makers have a unique opportunity to help prevent or reverse childhood obesity in the United States. These goals can be achieved through a variety of measures that make it easier for young people and families to incorporate healthy eating and active living into their daily routines. Policy initiatives to consider include:

Encouraging the development and use of green spacesPolicy-makers can increase community access to green spaces by supporting measures that:

� Ensure new recreation areas are built along trails or public transit routes;

� Provide funding to support greenways, trails and parks;

� Integrate green-space planning into land-use and transportation plans; and

� Restore blighted areas by turning them into community gardens, farmers’ markets, parks and other green spaces, including through the federal Community Development Block Grant.52

Investing in walkable, transit-oriented and mixed-use community design Policy-makers can invest in these features by supporting measures that:

� Adopt ordinances for transit-oriented development which place housing, offices and shops in close proximity to transit stations;

� Adopt form-based zoning codes to ensure that the location of buildings, streets and public spaces create a green, livable and walkable community;

� Place businesses, grocery stores, recreation areas and other facilities near public transportation, major roads and trails;

Form-based zoning codes concentrate first on the visual aspect of development: building height and bulk, façade treatments, the location of parking and the relationship of the buildings to the street and to one another.



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� Create public-private partnerships with developers to identify land near residential areas to use as space for grocery stores;

� Improve trail and sidewalk connectivity to homes, public transit stations, businesses and schools;

� Ensure that entrances to downtown, retail and civic buildings are directly accessible to pedestrians and bicyclists, and that amenities such as bicycle racks, are available for use;

� Develop pedestrian and bicycle master plans to improve access to food markets and recreation areas;

� Require that sidewalks are wide, accessible and lined with trees and benches;

� Convert out-of-service rail corridors into accessible pedestrian trails; and

� Build new schools and parks within a 10- to 15-minute walk from residential areas.53,54

Increasing opportunities for safe active transportPolicy-makers can improve safety on sidewalks and bike lanes by supporting measures that:

� Adopt complete streets policies to ensure safe-street access for all users;55

� Promote “eyes-on-the-street” safety features, such as adequate lighting and storefronts with windows overlooking sidewalks;

� Implement SRTS programs;

� Apply for SRTS funding through federal surface transportation legislation and state departments of transportation; and

� Adopt policies that would generate additional revenue for SRTS programs, such as a license plate fund.56,57

Improving community access to local, healthy foodsPolicy-makers can help make local, healthy foods more accessible by supporting measures that:

� Provide incentives for environmentally friendly mobile food markets to offer affordable healthy foods in underserved communities;

� Promote and protect community gardens through resolutions, land-use plans or zoning ordinances;

� Encourage farm-to-school programs, through which schools purchase fresh foods from local farmers;

� Provide incentives to organizations to create and manage community gardens, such as reducing or waiving plot fees;

� Establish grants and subsidies to create farmers’ markets, especially in underserved neighborhoods where access to healthy foods is limited; and

� Provide financial support to operators of farmers’ markets to reduce the vendor fees that farmers must pay, in order to decrease costs to consumers.58

Complete streets are streets designed to function in ways that enable safe access for all users. Pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists and bus riders of all ages and abilities are able to safely move along and across a complete street.



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Endnotes1 Climate and Health Fact Sheet. World Health Organization, July 2005. Available at: www.who.int/

globalchange/publications/factsheets/fsclimandhealth/en/index.html2 Climate Change Science Facts. Washington: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, April 2004.3 Ibid.4 Fact Sheet: Climate Change and Health. World Health Organization: 2010, Available at: www.who.int/

mediacentre/factsheets/fs266/en/. 5 Climate Change and Public Health. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009,

available at: www.cdc.gov/climatechange/effects/default.htm.6 Progress Report of the Interagency Climate Change Adaptation Task Force. Washington: Executive Office

of the President, 2010.7 Policy Position of National Resources Committee: Climate Change. Washington: National Governors

Association, 2010.8 Roberts I. “The health co-benefits of climate change policies: doctors have a responsibility to future

generations.” Clinical Medicine, 9(3): 212-213, 2009. 9 Galvez, M, Pearl, M, and Yen I. “Childhood Obesity and the Built Environment.” Pediatrics, 22:

202-207, 2010.10 China Passes U.S., Leads World in Power Sector Carbon Emissions. Washington: Center for Global

Development, 2008, www.cgdev.org/content/ article/detail/16578/ (accessed on October 25, 2010) (No authors given).

11 Obesity and the Economics of Prevention: Fit not Fat. Paris, France: Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), 2010. Available at: http://www.oecd.org/document/ 31/0,3746,en_2649_33929_45999775_1_1_1_1,00.html

12 The Copenhagen Diagnosis. Sydney, Australia: The Copenhagen Diagnosis: Updating the World on the Latest Climate Science, 2009.

13 Bethell C, Simpson L, Stumbo S, et al. “National, State, and Local Disparities in Childhood Obesity.” Health Affairs, 29(3): 347-356 (2010).

14 Ludwig DS and Pollack HA. “Obesity and the Economy: From Crisis to Opportunity.” Journal of the American Medical Association, 301(5): 533-535, 2009.

15 U.S. Obesity Trends: Trends by State 1985-2009. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: 2010.

16 CDC Vital Signs: Adult Obesity, Obesity Rises Among Adults. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010.

17 Ogden CL, Carroll MD, Curtin LR, et al. “Prevalence of High Body Mass Index in US Children and Adolescents, 2007–2008.” Journal of the American Medical Association, 303(3): 242–249, 2010.

18 Ogden CL, Flegal KM, Carroll MD, et al. “Prevalence and Trends in Overweight Among US Children and Adolescents, 1999–2000.” Journal of the American Medical Association, 288(14): 1728–1732, 2002

19 Health Consequences. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/causes/health.html

20 Fact Sheet: Climate Change and Health. World Health Organization: 2010, Available at: www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs266/en/.

21 Ludwig DS and Pollack HA. “Obesity and the Economy: From Crisis to Opportunity.” Journal of the American Medical Association, 301(5): 533-535, 2009.

22 Sheffield P and Galvez M. “U.S. Childhood Obesity and Climate Change: Moving Toward Shared Environmental Health Solutions.” Environmental Justice, 2(4): 207-214, 2009.

23 Sallis J and Glanz K. “Physical Activity and Food Environments: Solutions to the Obesity Epidemic.” The Milbank Quarterly, 87(1): 123-124, 2009.

24 Climate Change and Urban Green Spaces. United Kingdom: Communities and Local Government, 2007.25 Sheffield P and Galvez M.



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26 Bell J, et al. “Neighborhood Greenness and 2-Year Changes in Body Mass Index of Children and Youth.” American Journal of Preventative Medicine, 35(6): 547-553, 2008.

27 Giles-Corti B and Donovan R. “The Relative Influence of Individual, Social, and Physical Environment Determinants of Physical Activity.” Social Science and Medicine, 54(12):1793-1812, June 2002.

28 Galvez, M, Pearl, M, and Yen I. 29 Bell J, et al.30 Higgins P and Higgins M. “A healthy reduction in oil consumption and carbon emissions.” Energy Policy,

33 1-4 (2005). 31 Gordon-Larsen P, Boone-Heinonen J, Sidney S, et al. “Active Commuting and Cardiovascular Disease

Risk.” Arch Intern Medicine, 169:13 1216-1223 (2009). 32 CDC Recommendations for Improving Health through Transportation Policy. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention, 2010.33 Smart Growth: A Guide to Developing and Implementing Greenhouse Gas Reduction Programs. Washington:

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2010. 34 Giles-Corti B and Donovan R. 35 Brownson R, Housemann R, Brown D, et al. “Promoting Physical Activity in Rural Communities: Walking

Trail Access, Use, and Effects.” American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 18(3): 235-241, April 2000.36 Aytur S, Rodriguez D, Evenson K, et al. “Promoting Active Community Environments through Land Use

and Transportation Planning.” American Journal of Health Promotion, 21(4S): 397-407, March/April 2007.37 Designing for Active Transportation. San Diego: Active Living Research, February 2005. 38 Veugelers P, Sithole F, Zhang S, et al. “Neighborhood Characteristics in Relation to Diet, Physical Activity

and Overweight of Canadian Children.” International Journal of Pediatric Obstetrics, 3:152-159, 2008.39 Ibid.40 Walking and Biking to School. Making it Safe. Traffic Safety Center Evaluation Delivered to the State

Legislature. Berkeley, CA: Online Newsletter of the UC Berkeley Traffic Center, 3 (4), Winter 2006-2007. Available at www.tsc.berkeley.edu/newsletter/winter2006-07/safetoschool.html.

41 Davison KK and Lawson CT. “Do attributes in the physical environment influence children’s physical activity? A review of the literature.” International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. 3(19), 2006.

42 Committee on Physical Activity, Health, Transportation, and Land Use. Does the built environment influence physical activity? Examining the evidence. (Special Report 282). Washington: Transportation Research Board/Institute of Medicine, March-April 2005. Available at http://onlinepubs.trb.org/ onlinepubs/sr/sr282.pdf.

43 Molner B, Gortmaker S, Bull F, et al. “Unsafe to play? Neighborhood disorder and lack of safety predict reduced physical activity among urban children and adolescents reduced physical activity among urban children and adolescents.” American Journal of Health Promotion, 18(5): 378-386, May 2004.

44 Safe Routes to School: Steps to a Greener Future: How walking and bicycling to school reduces carbon emissions and other air pollutants. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2008.

45 Staunton C, Hubsmith D, and Kallins W. “Promoting Safe Walking and Biking to School: The Marin County Success Story.” American Journal of Public Health, 93(9): 1431-1434, September 2003.

46 Safe Routes to School: Steps to a Greener Future: How walking and bicycling to school reduces carbon emissions and other air pollutants. Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2008.

47 Nourishing News, Topic of the Month: Farm to School, Idaho: Idaho State Department of Education, Child Nutrition Programs, 2009, available at www.sde.idaho.gov/site/cnp/nourishingNews/docs/newsletters/09-10/sept09.pdf.

48 Hill H. Food Miles: Background and Marketing. Fayetteville, AR: ATTRA: National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service, National Center for Appropriate Technology, 2008.

49 Ibid.50 Tips for a Healthy, Low-Carbon Life. Environmental Defense Fund: 1998. 51 Farm to School Fact Sheet. Farm Aid. Available at: http://www.farmaid.org/site/c.qlI5IhNVJsE/b.5283051/

k.53DD/Farm_to_School_Fact_Sheet.htm



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52 Action Strategies Toolkit. Washington: Leadership for Healthy Communities, 2009.53 Ibid.54 Press Release: Mayor Bloomberg Launches The PLANYC Schoolyards to Playgrounds Initiative. New York City:

News from the Blue Room, The City of New York, 2007.55 “Complete streets are streets designed to function in ways that enable safe access for all users. Pedestrians,

bicyclists, motorists and bus riders of all ages and abilities are able to safely move along and across a complete street.” See Action Strategies Toolkit.

56 Action Strategies Toolkit. Washington: Leadership for Healthy Communities, 2009.57 Childhood Obesity – 2009 Update of Legislative Policy Options. Washington: National Conference of State

Legislatures, 2009. 58 Action Strategies Toolkit. Washington: Leadership for Healthy Communities, 2009.

Copyright 2011 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

This brief was produced by Global Policy Solutions with direction from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) for RWJF’s Leadership for Healthy Communities program.

To request permission to reprint: If you wish to reprint any portion of this document, please visit http://www.rwjf.org/policies/copyrights.jsp. You’ll need to download and complete the form that’s linked from that page, e-mail it to [email protected] and wait to receive a response.

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