Climate crisis: Over 200 health journals urge world leaders to tackle “catastrophic harm”

Abstract

More than 200 health journals have called on governments to take emergency action to tackle the "catastrophic harm to health" from climate change.A joint editorial says that while recent targets to reduce emissions and conserve biodiversity are welcome, they are not enough and need to be matched with credible short and longer term plans. 1

What is the carbon footprint of primary care practices? A retrospective life-cycle analysis in Switzerland

“…The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), warned that global warming will significantly affect hundreds of millions of people [ 1 ], but also found that mitigation options are available in every major sector and on every scale, from local to international. The medical scientific community has increasingly urged for emergency action on climate change [ 2 , 3 ]. In this context, The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change started to review annually forty-one indicators that explore the relation between health and climate change and to assess the progress made by governments towards their engagement to the 2015 Paris agreement [ 4 – 6 ].…”

The unintended contribution of clinical microbiology laboratories to climate change and mitigation strategies: a combination of descriptive study, short survey, literature review and opinion

“…On September 6, 2021, 233 health and clinical medicine journals published an editorial calling on governments to take emergency action to tackle the catastrophic harm to health from climate change [1]. This call was published a decade after the Lancet Commission naming climate change the biggest global health threat of the 21st century [2], and it follows a recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report that stated that 'it is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean, and land' [3].…”

Health leaders urge PM to meet hunger striker’s demand that MPs be briefed on climate change

“…Last year the climate crisis was described by more than 200 health journals, in an unprecedented joint editorial,4 as risking “catastrophic harm to health that will be impossible to reverse,” the letter adds.…”