Elsevier Offers Free Special Issue for Earth Day 2020

NEW YORK, April 22, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Elsevier, a global leader in information analytics specializing in science and health, is releasing an Earth Day special issue collection in honor of Earth Day's 50^th anniversary. Thirty journal articles and 20 book chapters on various related topics will be freely available on Elsevier's ScienceDirect starting today, April 22, 2020 (#EarthDay2020) to commemorate the occasion.

The free content consists of journal articles and book chapters related to the United Nation's (UN) Sustainable Development Goals and are intended to support new research and raise awareness around sustainability.

The world's first Earth Day started in 1970. Twenty million Americans, at the time 10 percent of the US population, gathered to protect the environment. Today, the Earth Day Network is now the world's largest recruiter to the environmental movement, working with over 75,000 partners in more than 190 countries, mobilizing more than one billion individuals every year.

This year's Earth Day theme is on climate action. Climate change still represents the biggest challenge to the future of humanity and the life-support systems that make the world habitable. According to the UN, the human global population is estimated to reach 9.6 billion by 2050, and it would take the equivalent of three planets to produce enough natural resources to sustain our current lifestyle¹.

While emissions have a chance to fall up to five percent this year² due to ongoing restrictions from the Coronavirus pandemic, Director of the International Energy Agency, Dr. Fatih Birol, has said not to count this as a climate victory. "This decline is happening because of the economic meltdown in which thousands of people are losing their livelihoods, not as a result of the right government decisions in terms of climate policies," Dr. Birol said.

The Earth Day Network this year is creating multiple digital activities including a Citizen Science App to download. The app will be the world's largest ever coordinated citizen science campaign. The initiative integrates existing citizen science projects and builds capacity for new ones — all to grow citizen science worldwide. Using mobile technology and open citizen science data, the app will empower people around the world to monitor and mitigate threats to environmental and human health in their communities.

In an effort to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of Earth Day, Elsevier's Education, Reference, and Continuity group, along with scientific and technical journals, is devoting a free special issue for Earth Day, covering a range of topics including energy, food science, transportation, health and well-being, water quality, plastic waste, and sustainable cities. The goal in highlighting these 50 curated chapters and articles is to illustrate the dependability and care that scientific research offers in various aspects of civilization.

"As a global community, today more than ever we are aware that we are all in this together. Earth Day serves as a conscious reminder to all of us that our planet is fragile," said Laura Colantoni, Vice President, Reference Content, Elsevier. "It continues to be our great honor to protect it. Science continues to provide the path for all of us to think globally and act locally."

Peter Lee, Director of Publishing, Cell Press, Global STM Journals added, "Earth Day was initiated to mobilize citizens to take action on environmental issues. Fifty years on, the urgency has never been greater.

"These actions should be driven by sound scientific understanding so that they are thoughtful, deliberate and effective. We are humbled to play a part in fostering, curating and disseminating important scientific research to support this initiative."

Please see the links below to access these free chapters and articles. Access to the special issue collection of these articles and chapters can also be found on Elsevier's Twitter accounts. To view the special issue, visit SciTechConnect Earth Day or RELX's UN SDG Resources Center Special Issue on Earth Day.

About Elsevier

Elsevier is a global information analytics business that helps scientists and clinicians to find new answers, reshape human knowledge, and tackle the most urgent human crises. For 140 years, we have partnered with the research world to curate and verify scientific knowledge. Today, we're committed to bringing that rigor to a new generation of platforms. Elsevier provides digital solutions and tools in the areas of strategic research management, R&D performance, clinical decision support, and professional education; including ScienceDirect, Scopus, SciVal, ClinicalKey and Sherpath. Elsevier publishes over 2,500 digitized journals, including The Lancet and Cell, 39,000 e-book titles and many iconic reference works, including Gray's Anatomy. Elsevier is part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. www.elsevier.com

¹ Gane, Tamara. "50 Statistics You Should Know for Earth Day's 50^th Anniversary". Reader's Digest. Accessed April 15, 2020.

² Ambrose, Jillian. "Carbon Emissions from Fossil Fuels Could Fall 2.5bn tonnes in 2020". The Guardian. Accessed April 15, 2020.

Media contact

Christopher Capot
Elsevier Communications, US
+1-917-704-5174
[email protected]

SOURCE Elsevier