Leah Terry

Community adaptation is a process communities utilize to lessen the impacts of climate change locally. Community adaptation policies provide cooling and shade, reduce air and water pollution, mitigate the effects of flooding, and reduce health disparities. Implementing effective community adaptation policies that center health equity involves more than public health departments – it involves housing, energy, transportation, parks and recreation, and other agencies, with community engagement in each step of the process. Community adaptation will continue to be critical to ameliorating the health impacts of climate change and combatting environmental injustices.

Passed in 2020, the Great American Outdoors Act has made strides in conservation and the expansion of public lands and green spaces in the United States, which provide immense public health benefits. The Outdoors for All Act, currently awaiting Senate approval, would expand on this progress by increasing access to parks and green spaces in low-income communities and communities of color.