On Monday 6 September, just days before the opening of the United Nations General Assembly, more than 200 scientific journals published an editorial signed by all their editors. The aim: to send a warning message to policymakers, urging action to limit the consequences of climate change and the loss of biodiversity — the two factors that weigh most heavily on health risks, particularly the possibility of new zoonoses (diseases transmitted from animals to humans) and the resulting pandemics.

Greta Thunberg ✓ @GretaThunberg

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"The science is unequivocal; a global increase of 1.5C above the pre-industrial average and the continued loss of biodiversity risk catastrophic harm to health that will be impossible to reverse."
Over 200 health journals call for urgent climate action.
theguardian.com/environment/20…

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A study published last March in the scientific journal Frontiers in veterinary science confirmed the thesis of coronavirus transmission from animals to humans. It also issued a warning: the destruction of biodiversity, in all its forms, dangerously exposes us to epidemics. The authors reviewed official statistics on forest cover, plantations, population and epidemics for the period between 1990 and 2016. Specifically, they examined 3,884 different zoonoses and 1,996 outbreaks of 69 infectious diseases transmitted by vectors, chiefly mosquitoes, flies and ticks. The study clearly shows that epidemics become more frequent precisely where forest cover decreases and the area given over to large plantations increases.

Rising mortality linked to extreme heatwaves

The appeal was also published by the world's most prestigious medical journals: British Medical Journal, Lancet, Journal of the American Medical Association (Jama), New England Journal of Medicine. "The greatest global public health threat – the document states – is the continued failure of governments to limit the rise in average global temperature to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, together with the failure to protect biodiversity."

"Urgent changes are needed – the signatories continue – in societies to create a fairer and healthier world. As editors of journals specialising in health, we call on leaders, making 2021 the year in which the Planet finally changes course." The editors themselves explain that over the past twenty years mortality attributable to extreme heat waves has grown by more than 50 per cent among elderly people. This is due to problems of dehydration, loss of kidney function, cardiovascular or pulmonary problems. Risks to pregnancies and so-called "indirect" problems were also cited.

Health effects linked to food and agriculture

Among these, in particular, are those linked to fine particulate emissions from the proliferation of large wildfires across the world: from the United States to Canada, from Africa to Siberia and Australia. Not to mention the repercussions on agriculture and food: the rise in average global temperature, the scientific journal editors explain, has already reduced yields of the world's main staple crops by as much as 5.6 per cent. This has happened within just 40 years.

International Journal of Cancer @IntJCanc

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As world leaders prepare to meet at #UNGA, over 200 health journals from across the world have simultaneously published an editorial calling for emergency action to limit climate change, restore biodiversity & protect health. #HealthyClimate

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@TheLancet

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"Having thriving ecosystems available – the editorial adds – is essential for human health. The widespread destruction of nature, particularly in terms of habitats and living species, undermines water and food security, increasing the risk of pandemics." Despite this, the editors stress that none of the targets set by the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity back in 1992 has yet been met.

In 2019, Ipbes raised the alarm over species threatened by climate change

A report published by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystems (Ipbes) in 2019 also explained that the state of biodiversity worldwide is alarming. So much so that the number of threatened species could reach one million (out of a total of eight million) in the coming decades.

Experts noted that several "independent lines of evidence point to an imminent and rapid acceleration in the rate of species extinction". This has led numerous scientists to state that the Earth is at the beginning of the "Sixth mass extinction" in the planet's history. The first to be attributed to humans and their activities. Which have already led to the disappearance of 680 species of vertebrates over the past few centuries.