Medical Journals Say Climate, Not COVID-19, Is Top Public Health Threat

September 7, 2021 ☼ climatepandemic

Source: NPR (Link)

The rapidly warming climate is the “greatest threat” to global public health, more than 200 medical journals are warning in an unprecedented joint statement that urges world leaders to cut heat-trapping emissions to avoid “catastrophic harm to health that will be impossible to reverse.”

The editorial, which was published in leading journals such as The Lancet, The New England Journal of Medicine and the British Medical Journal, says the world can’t wait for the COVID-19 pandemic to pass before addressing climate change.

The article goes on to mention health threats due directly to heat – fires, flooding, heat deaths. It does not mention the problems associated with homelessness, migrations, and crop failure. It may be in the journals, but is not mentioned in this article.