More Than 200 Medical Journals Call For Immediate Action To Combat Climate Change
Editors of medical journals warn that governments must take action now.
Medical journals worldwide are publishing an editorial, urging world leaders to take emergency action to tackle climate change and to safeguard public health.
The editorial that is written by editors-in-chief of more than 200 journals including the Lancet, the East African Medical Journal, Brazil's Revista de Saude Publica and the International Nursing Review, said the rising of temperatures has caused a plethora of health problems.
The British Medical Journal, another contributor said that this is the first time so many publications have made a coordinated effort to make the same statement, reflecting the grimness of the situation.
The editorial is going to be published before the UN general assembly and the Cop26 climate summit that will be held in Glasgow this November.
Part of the editorial says that “health is already being harmed by global temperature increases and the destruction of the natural world, a state of affairs health professionals have been bringing attention to for decades”.
It adds: “The greatest threat to global public health is the continued failure of world leaders to keep the global temperature rise below 1.5C and to restore nature.
"We, as editors of health journals, call for governments and other leaders to act, marking 2021 as the year that the world finally changes course.
“Despite the world’s necessary preoccupation with Covid-19”, the editorial says, “we cannot wait for the pandemic to pass to rapidly reduce emissions."
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