I’m delighted to report that the multi-journal editorial “Time to treat the climate and nature crisis as one indivisible global health emergency” has been published today. You'll find it in the BMJ (https://www.bmj.com/content/383/bmj.p2355) and Lancet (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)02289-4/fulltext). Over 250 medical journals around the world have undertaken to publish this editorial in the coming months.
The editorial has two clear objectives: 1) to advocate for tackling the public health impact of climate change and the loss of biodiversity as a single crisis, and 2) to call on WHO to designate this as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
To demonstrate public support for these objectives, an online petition calling for WHO to declare a global public health emergency at the World Health Assembly in May 2024 has been posted on the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change website at https://action.ukhealthalliance.org/page/134456/petition/1 . Everybody is invited to sign this petition.
Chris Zielinski
Senior Advisor, UK Health Alliance on Climate Change, and
President-elect, World Association of Medical Editors (WAME)
Blogs; http://ziggytheblue.wordpress.com and http://ziggytheblue.tumblr.com
Publications: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Chris-Zielinski and https://winchester.academia.edu
HIFA profile: Chris Zielinski: As a Visiting Fellow and Lecturer at the Centre for Global Health, University of Winchester, Chris leads the Partnerships in Health Information (Phi) programme, which supports knowledge development and brokers healthcare information exchanges of all kinds. He is the elected Vice President (and President-in-Waiting) of the World Association of Medical Editors. Chris has held senior positions in publishing and knowledge management with WHO in Brazzaville, Geneva, Cairo and New Delhi, with FAO in Rome, ILO in Geneva, and UNIDO in Vienna. He served on WHO's Ethical Review Committee, and was an originator of the African Health Observatory. He also spent three years in London as Chief Executive of the Authors Licensing and Collecting Society. Chris has been a director of the UK Copyright Licensing Agency, Educational Recording Agency, and International Association of Audiovisual Writers and Directors. He has served on the boards of several NGOs and ethics groupings (information and computer ethics and bioethics). chris AT chriszielinski.com. His publications are at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Chris-Zielinski and https://winchester.academia.edu/ChrisZielinski/ and his blogs are http://ziggytheblue.wordrpress.com and https://www.tumblr.com/blog/ziggytheblue