Remite Ruben Piacentini.

The UN General Assembly in September, 2021, will bring  countries together at a critical time for marshalling  collective action to tackle the global environmental  crisis. They will meet again at the biodiversity summit in  Kunming, China, and the UN Climate Change Conference  of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, UK. Ahead of these  pivotal meetings, we—the editors of health journals  worldwide—call for urgent action to keep average  global temperature increases below 1·5°C, halt the  destruction of nature, and protect health. 

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.1 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.2,3 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 Comment  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 risks to health of increases above 1·5°C are now  well established.2 Indeed, no temperature rise is “safe”…

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