The Debate: Can Virus Response and Pollution Fight Learn From Each Other?

Environmental protection intersects with public health a considerable amount. Thousands of professionals work actively at the junction, protecting lives and livelihoods through measures to reduce exposure and resulting disease. It can be useful to draw lessons from one facet of the fight for life — and how society implements measures to counter a threat — for possible application in another.

The primary observation is that when thousands of lives are at risk, there can be an urgent response. That was true in the early days of environmental law, when Congress passed by huge majorities the signal statutes that are still at work today. But it has been 30 years since reauthorizion of the Clean Air Act despite the discovery that fine-particle pollution causes 100,000 deaths in the United States every year and the realization that climate change looms over humanity with the promise of even more death and destruction to come. A reauthorized CAA could tackle these problems more easily than the current law.

So those who work in the environmental field might envy the quick congressional action to combat COVID-19 and its economic effects, which hopefully will be contained in a year or so when a vaccine is developed — whereas the toll from air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions will continue to add up every year and will ultimately vastly exceed the deaths from the virus.

Another lesson is that when the crisis is clear, money is no object. After President Nixon refused to sign the Clean Water Act because of the cost, Congress enacted the law over his veto. Cost doesn’t seem to be a problem in enacting measures to fight the virus, either. Trillions of dollars have already been pumped into the U.S. economy.

Another lesson involves federalism. Fifty years ago, U.S. EPA led the fight for clean air and water, urging on the delegated states to carry out its legislative mandates through the regulatory apparatus. In the fight for turning the tide on the coronavirus, the situation has been reversed, as it has been the states in the lead enacting comprehensive measures to protect public health.

The Forum asked a quartet of experienced professionals from different sectors to shine a light on the common facets they observe, and to draw lessons from the fight against pollution for application in the coronavirus response and vice versa.