A team of more than 200 health journals and experts issued a joint statement on September 5, in which they implore world leaders to take faster actions against gas emissions and all other types of pollution that trigger climate change. The statement mentions a need to limit global temperature increases, protect and restore biodiversity and avoid climate changes that could become the number one threat to public health.
The joint statement has been published in journals worldwide
To spread awareness and make their message heard, the team published the statement in several journals, including the Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine, the Medical Journal of Australia, the Chinese Science Bulletin, the National Medical Journal of India the British Medical Journal and more. Experts warn that the build-up of greenhouse gases severely damages the earth’s atmosphere, and future consequences could be so harsh that it might become impossible to revert them.
The World needs to act now
The natural habitat of many species has been damaged, the rising temperatures are causing the destruction and loss of biodiversity, and the World is in a race to reduce emissions. Although the Covid19 crisis continues to unfold, other ‘pandemics’ are damaging our planet. The statement mentions that there is little time before the COP26 summit in Glasgow, and it is urgent to ensure the average global temperature remains below 1.5° C.
From the Industrial Revolution, the global average surface temperatures have risen by 1.2 ° C, and by 2100, they could increase more than 3.1 ° C. The World is already experiencing consequences of this increase in surface temperatures, such as wildfire smoke, heat waves, floods, and more.
The 2021 summer has been characterized as the summer of wildfires, and European countries such as Greece, Italy, Turkey, and parts of the U.S have been struggling to keep fires under control.
