Action on climate change is urged by 220 medical journals

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To the Editor:

Code Blue!

As we witness the raging Caldor wildfires and Hurricane Ida’s lethal destruction, one in three Americans is now affected by climate change. On September 5th, 2021 worldwide health journal editors issued this alert: “Call for Emergency Action to Limit Global Temperature Increases, Restore Biodiversity, and Protect Health” (https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2113200?query=featured_home).

They emphasize that many governments have utilized unprecedented emergency funds for our COVID-19 pandemic and that extreme climate change threats need a similar, if not greater, response. We will need enormous funding, yet such investments will produce huge beneficial economic and public health outcomes offsetting the costs of reducing global carbon emissions with associated catastrophic environmental collapse.

Furthermore, they underline that the biggest threat to our health is the continued world leadership failure to halt global temperature rising over 1.5 degrees Celsius to save nature’s necessary biodiversity for our survival and to urgently usher fairer environmental social changes for a healthier general population. In their own words, “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.” Yes, stat call for all hands on deck! Call for carbon pricing legislation as our best and fastest tool.

Minta Phillips, M.D.
Julian