OUP journals to publish unprecedented climate change editorial from health journals

Over 60 medical journals published by Oxford University Press have announced their support for a joint editorial which calls for emergency action on climate change and nature crisis.

Medical, nursing, and public health journals across the world will simultaneously publish an editorial calling for world leaders to take emergency action to transform societies and limit climate change, restore biodiversity, and protect health. The editorial will be published in over 200 leading journals, including The Lancet, the East African Medical Journal, the Chinese Science Bulletin, the New England Journal of Medicine, the International Nursing Review, the National Medical Journal of India, The British Medical Journal, the Revista de Saúde Pública (Brazil), and the Medical Journal of Australia. Never have so many journals combined to publish the same editorial.

The editorial warns that while recent targets to reduce emissions and conserve nature are welcome, they are not enough and are yet to be matched with credible short and longer term plans. It urges governments to intervene to transform societies and economies, for example by supporting the redesign of transport systems, cities, production and distribution of food, markets for financial investments, and health systems. Such investments will produce huge positive benefits, including high quality jobs, reduced air pollution, increased physical activity, and improved housing and diet. Better air quality alone would realise health benefits that easily offset the global costs of emissions reductions. These measures will also improve the social and economic determinants of health, the poor state of which may have made populations more vulnerable to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The editorial has been co-authored by 19 people, including the editors in chief of 17 health journals from around the world, and coordinated by the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change (UKHACC). It will be published in supporting journals throughout the month of September. It states: “Health is already being harmed by global temperature increases and the destruction of the natural world, a state of affairs health professionals have been bringing attention to for decades. The science is unequivocal; a global increase of 1.5°C above the pre-industrial average and the continued loss of biodiversity risk catastrophic harm to health that will be impossible to reverse. Despite the world’s necessary preoccupation with Covid-19, we cannot wait for the pandemic to pass to rapidly reduce emissions. Reflecting the severity of the moment, this editorial appears in health journals across the world. We are united in recognising that only fundamental and equitable changes to societies will reverse our current trajectory.”

The full editorial is available here and will be published by the following OUP journals:

• Nutrition Reviews
• Journal of Travel Medicine
• Occupational Medicine
• IJQHC Communications
• Health Policy and Planning
• The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
• The Journal of Nutrition
• Advances in Nutrition
• Current Developments in Nutrition
• Medical Mycology
• Physical Therapy
• Journal of Public Health
• International Journal of Epidemiology
• Paediatrics & Child Health
• Family Practice
• Journal of Tropical Pediatrics
• European Heart Journal - Case Reports
• European Heart Journal - Acute Cardiovascular Care
• European Journal of Preventive Cardiology
• European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing
• European Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology
• Europace
• European Heart Journal - Cardiovascular Imaging
• European Heart Journal Quality of Care and Clinical Outcomes
• European Heart Journal Digital Health
• European Heart Journal
• European Heart Journal Cardiovascular Research
• American Journal of Hypertension
• European Journal of Public Health
• Oxford Open Climate Change
• Human Reproduction
• Rheumatology
• British Medical Bulletin
• EJCTS
• Inflammatory Bowel Diseases
• Crohn's & Colitis 360
• Nicotine & Tobacco Research
• Alcohol and Alcoholism
• Journal of Surgical Case Reports
• Journal of Surgical Protocols and Research Methodologies
• Oxford Open Immunology
• Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation (NDT)
• Health Promotion International
• Annals of Behavioral Medicine
• Translational Behavioral Medicine
• Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association
• Innovation in Aging
• The Gerontologist
• Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology
• International Journal of Pharmacy Practice
• Journal of Pharmacuetical Health Services Research
• NeuroOncology Advances
• Brain Communications
• Brain
• Neuro-Oncology Practice
• American Journal of Clinical Pathology
• Lab Medicine
• Schizophrenia Bulletin Open
• Schizophrenia Bulletin
• American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy
• SLEEP
• SLEEP Advances
• JAMIA Open
• The Journals of Gerontology, Series A
• Human Molecular Genetics
• JNCI
• JNCI Cancer Spectrum
• Age and Ageing