University of Arizona

Adm. Rachel L. Levine, U.S. assistant secretary for health, said helping people requires first knowing who's at risk, and the index will help that.

U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health Adm. Rachel Levine recently traveled to Tucson, where she presented a new Environmental Justice Index. The effort stems from a January 2021 executive order formalizing the Biden administration’s commitment to environmental justice.

The index will rank the collective health impacts of environmental injustice and map it by census tract.

From her lectern in the UA Environment and Natural Resources 2 building, Dr. Levine said helping people requires first knowing who's at risk, and the index will help that.

"Our policy decisions, our approach to workforce training, our urban design choices, our agricultural policies and so much more must account for the fact that people are getting sick, and they are literally dying from climate-related causes," she said.

The effort stems from the Jan. 27, 2021, executive order 14008: Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, which among other things formalized the Biden administration's commitment to environmental justice.

Dr. Levine called continuing business as usual "unacceptable."

"We have to work to build better things for the future, and we cannot do that by exacerbating these environmental injustices," she said. "And we certainly cannot create new ones in the future."

The year-old Office of Climate Change and Health Equity (OCCHE) is tasked with uniting larger, better-funded agencies like the CDC, FDA and NIH behind treating climate change as a health crisis and tackling its many related social justice issues.

"We're the ones that bring people together for communication, for collaboration, for coordination; that's our role," said Dr. Levine. "The secretary has called us the 'connective tissue' of the department."

Dr. Levine said it's time to recognize that the same communities have borne the brunt of climate change, pollution and other environmental challenges, as well as COVID 19, institutional racism, and health, food and transportation deserts.

Despite its outsized mission, OCCHE currently has no Congressional funding.