WORLDWIDE JOINT EDITORIAL ON CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ON HEALTH

Editors of 228 leading medical, nursing and public-health journals from around the world called for urgent action on climate change, in a joint editorial. They warn that current efforts aren’t enough to address health problems resulting from rising global temperatures caused by emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. “Health is already being harmed by global temperature increases and the destruction of the natural world,” the journals’ editors say in the editorial. If unchecked, they say, rising temperatures “risk catastrophic harm to health that will be impossible to reverse.” In their shared statement, the editors press for “fundamental changes in how our societies and economies are organized and how we live” to limit future global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels—a goal arising from the 2015 Paris climate summit.

The editorial is aimed at world leaders participating in a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly that begins on Sept. 14, as well as those who will be gathering in November at a global climate treaty conference in Glasgow, Scotland. The latter gathering, known as COP26, is expected to address more ambitious efforts to cut greenhouse-gas emissions.

Rising temperature and other manifestations of climate change have brought higher rates of heart and lung ailments and infectious diseases, as well as of injuries and premature deaths tied to extreme weather, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Climate change also takes a toll on mental health. Heat waves, floods and other extreme weather events—which research shows have become more common as a result of climate change—can cause anxiety and depression, according to the American Psychiatric Association. A 2019 study published in Nature Climate Change linked increased temperatures to a rise in suicides.

The editorial warns that the health impacts of climate change disproportionately affect children, elderly people and those with underlying medical conditions as well as ethnic minorities—which vary from country to country. These and certain other communities—including pregnant women, immigrants, indigenous people, disabled people and workers exposed to extreme weather—are especially vulnerable to climate change, according to the American Public Health Association.

The editorial comes on the heels of a report issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in August, which said record heat waves, extreme  droughts, more intense storms, melting ice sheets and rising seas were attributable in large part to heat-trapping gases such as methane released by agriculture and carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.

Full list of authors and signatories to climate emergency editorial September 2021

This editorial is being published simultaneously in the following journals (alphabetical order)

1. Acta Orthopaedica et Traumatologica Turcica
2. Advances in Nursing Science
3. Advances in Nutrition
4. African Journal of Laboratory Medicine
5. Afro-Egyptian Journal of Infectious and Endemic Diseases
6. Age and Ageing
7. Alcohol and Alcoholism
8. Allergy
9. Alpha Psychiatry
10. American Journal of Clinical Pathology
11. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy
12. American Journal of Hypertension
13. American Society of Microbiology
14. Animal Bioscience
15. Annals of African Surgery
16. Annals of Behavioral Medicine
17. Annals of Oncology
18. Annals of Global Health
19. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases
20. Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England
21. Archives of Disease in Childhood
22. Archives of the Turkish Society of Cardiology
23. Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health
24. Balkan Medical Journal
25. Belgian Journal of Medicine
26. Biosis: Biological Systems
27. BJOG
28. BMJ Case Reports
29. BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine
30. BMJ Global Health
31. BMJ Health & Care Informatics
32. BMJ Innovations
33. BMJ Leader
34. BMJ Military Health
35. BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health
36. BMJ Open
37. BMJ Open Gastroenterology
38. BMJ Open Ophthalmology
39. BMJ Open Quality
40. BMJ Open Respiratory Research
41. BMJ Open Science
42. BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine
43. BMJ Paediatrics Open
44. BMJ Quality & Safety
45. BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health
46. BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care
47. BMJ Surgery, Interventions, & Health Technologies
48. Bosnian Journal of Basic Medical Sciences
49. Brain
50. Brain Communications
51. British Dental Journal
52. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology
53. British Journal of General Practice
54. British Journal of Ophthalmology
55. British Journal of Sports Medicine
56. British Medical Bulletin
57. Bulletin of the World Health Organization
58. Cadernos de Saúde Pública
59. Canadian Journal of Respiratory Therapy
60. Canadian Medical Association Journal
61. Cardiovascular Research
62. Caribbean Medical Journal
63. Chinese Science Bulletin
64. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing
65. Clinical Medicine
66. Croatian Medical Journal
67. Crohn's & Colitis 360
68. Cureus Journal of Medical Science
69. Current Developments in Nutrition
70. Danish Medical Journal
71. Diseases of the Colon & Rectum
72. Dutch Journal of Medicine
73. East African Medical Journal
74. EBioMedicine
75. EClinicalMedicine
76. Emergency Medicine Journal
77. EP Europace
78. European Heart Journal
79. European Heart Journal - Acute Cardiovascular Care
80. European Heart Journal - Cardiovascular Imaging
81. European Heart Journal - Case Reports
82. European Heart Journal - Digital Health
83. European Heart Journal - Quality of Care and Clinical Outcomes
84. European Heart Journal – Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy
85. European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery
86. European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing
87. European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy
88. European Journal of Preventive Cardiology
89. European Journal of Public Health
90. Evidence-Based Mental Health
91. Evidence-Based Nursing
92. Family Medicine and Community Health
93. Family Practice
94. Finnish Medical Journal
95. Frontline Gastroenterology
96. Gaceta Sanitaria
97. Gastrointestinal Nursing
98. General Psychiatry
99. Global Health Action
100. Global Heart
101. Global Journal of Medicine and Public Health
102. Health Policy and Planning
103. Health Promotion International
104. Health Promotion Journal of Australia
105. Heart
106. Huisarts en wetenschap
107. Human Molecular Genetics
108. Human Reproduction
109. IJQHC Communications
110. Indian Journal of Medical Ethics
111. Indian Journal of Medical Research
112. Inflammatory Bowel Diseases
113. Injury Prevention
114. Innovation in Aging
115. Integrated Healthcare Journal
116. International Journal of Epidemiology
117. International Journal of Gynaecology & Obstetrics
118. International Journal of Gynecological Cancer
119. International Journal of Health Policy and Management
120. International Journal of Integrated Care
121. International Journal of Medical Students
122. International Journal of Nursing Studies
123. International Journal of Older People Nursing
124. International Journal of Pharmacy Practice
125. International Nursing Review
126. JAMIA Open
127. JMIR Public Health & Surveillance
128. JNCI Cancer Spectrum
129. Journal of Child Health Care
130. Journal of Clinical Pathology
131. Journal of Crohn’s and Colitis
132. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health
133. Journal of Health and Caring Sciences
134. Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition
135. Journal of Medical Ethics
136. Journal of Medical Genetics
137. Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Sciences
138. Journal of Nepal Paediatric Society
139. Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry
140. Journal of Open Health Data
141. Journal of Pharmaceutical Health Services Research
142. Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology
143. Journal of Public Health
144. Journal of Surgical Case Reports
145. Journal of Surgical Protocols and Research Methodologies
146. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association
147. Journal of the Medical Association of Thailand
148. Journal of the National Cancer Institute
149. Journal of the Norwegian Medical Association
150. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine
151. Journal of Travel Medicine
152. Journal of Tropical Pediatrics
153. Journal of Turkish Society of Microbiology
154. Kafkas Universitesi Veteriner Fakültesi Dergisi
155. Khyber Medical University Journal
156. Lab Medicine
157. Medical Humanities
158. Medical Journal of Australia
159. Medical Mycology
160. Medwave
161. Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation
162. Neuro-Oncology Advances
163. Neuro-Oncology Practice
164. Neurology
165. New England Journal of Medicine
166. Nicotine & Tobacco Research
167. Nurse Author & Editor
168. Nursing Inquiry
169. Nutrition Reviews
170. Occupational and Environmental Medicine
171. Occupational Medicine
172. Oxford Open Climate Change
173. Oxford Open Immunology
174. Pacific Rim Journal of International Nursing Research
175. Paediatrics & Child Health
176. Palliative Medicine
177. Pan American Journal of Public Health
178. Pediatric Infectious Disease Society of the Philippines Journal
179. Pediatric Nursing
180. The Pharmaceutical Journal
181. PLOS Medicine
182. Postgraduate Medical Journal
183. Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology
184. PTJ: Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Journal
185. Revista de la Facultad de Medicina Humana
186. Revista de Saúde Pública
187. Rheumatology
188. RMD Open
189. Schizophrenia Bulletin
190. Schizophrenia Bulletin Open
191. Sexually Transmitted Infections
192. SLEEP
193. SLEEP Advances
194. Stroke and Vascular Neurology
195. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
196. The BMJ
197. The Gerontologist
198. The Journal of Climate Change and Health
199. The Journal of Nutrition
200. The Journals of Gerontology, Series A
201. The Lancet
202. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health
203. The Lancet Global Health
204. The Lancet Microbe
205. The Lancet Planetary Health
206. The Lancet Psychiatry
207. The Lancet Public Health
208. The Lancet Regional Health - Americas
209. The Lancet Regional Health - Europe
210. The Lancet Regional Health - Western Pacific
211. The National Medical Journal of India
212. The Pan-American Journal of Ophthalmology
213. Thorax
214. Tobacco Control
215. Translational Behavioral Medicine
216. Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research
217. Turkish Archives of Otorhinolaryngology
218. Turkish Archives of Pediatrics
219. Turkish Journal of Anaesthesiology and Reanimation
220. Turkish Journal of Biochemistry
221. Turkish Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing
222. Turkish Journal of Orthodontics
223. Turkish Thoracic Journal
224. Veterinary Record
225. VOICE
226. Western Journal of Emergency Medicine
227. Women’s Healthcare: A Clinical Journal for NPs
228. World Journal of Pediatric Surgery

In addition, the following journals are supporting the editorial (but are not publishing)

1. American Family Physician
2. International Journal of Cancer
3. Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics
4. Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences
5. Philippine Journal of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery
6. The Lancet Digital Health
7. The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology
8. The Lancet Haematology
9. The Lancet Healthy Longevity
10. The Lancet HIV
11. The Lancet Respiratory Medicine
12. The Lancet Rheumatology
13. Open Journal of Bioresources
14. Veterinary Anaesthesia and Analgesia
15. Journal of Advanced Nursing
16. Journal of Clinical Nursing
17. Nursing Open
18. Revista Venezolana de Salud Pública
19. Revista Médica del Uruguay
20. Revista Argentina de Salud Pública
21. GeoHealth
22. American Geophysical Union Journals
23. Methodist DeBakey Cardiovascular Journal