…Climate Change Infects Healthcare…
How best to cut back on such things as anesthesia?
That is the question now being raised by climate alarmists.
Healthcare Without Harm, another NGO, has published a new report:
“Healthcare Climate Footprint Report”
The report says:
“If Healthcare was a country, it would be the fifth-largest greenhouse gas emitter on the planet.”
The report segregates problems into three “scopes” as follows.
- Scope 1: Emissions emanating directly from health care facilities and health care owned vehicles, 17%
- Scope 2, Indirect emissions from purchased energy sources such as electricity, steam, cooling, and heating, 12%
- Scope 3, Energy, 71%
So once again, the villain is largely fossil fuels.
The report says:
“Energy — primarily the combustion of fossil fuels — makes up well over half of health care’s climate footprint when measured across all three scopes.”
The report highlights anesthesia and inhalers, such as used for asthma, as an important source of potent greenhouse gasses, but says they are not included under any of the Scopes and are in addition to them.
The report is merely a regurgitation of the usual litany of disastrous consequences of climate change caused by CO2 and other greenhouse gasses, and the need to adhere to the Paris Accord.
This graphic from the report shows why this healthcare report is merely another example of climate fear-mongering.
The report singles out anesthetics, which, for people in pain, is an important issue.
One should assume that anesthesiologists and hospitals select the type of anesthesia that is best for the patient. Not doing so would expose these health practitioners to costly lawsuits.
In spite of that, the report admonishes against using what may be one of the best anesthetics.
Quoting from the report:
“Commonly used anesthetics include nitrus oxide and fluorinated gases sevoflurane, isoflurane, and desflurane. Meanwhile, a study in three health systems in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada found that preferential use of desflurane resulted in a ten-fold higher quantity of anesthetic-related GHG emissions.”
The entire report can be seen at https://noharm.org
A recent Wall Street Journal OpEd by a former associate dean of curriculum at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine said that medical school education is being affected by social issues such as climate change. Quoting from the article:
“Why have medical schools become a target for inculcating social policy when the stated purpose of medical education since Hippocrates has been to develop individuals who know how to cure patients?
“A new wave of educational specialists is increasingly influencing medical education. They emphasize ‘social justice’ … Curricula will increasingly focus on climate change, etc.”
Climate change activists are now threatening the quality of our healthcare.
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One of the costs of the recent PG&E Public Safety Power Shutoff was the cancellation of community flu shot events in the affected areas.
Thanks.
Interesting. Unintended consequences from the lack of power.