By Vijay Jayaraj
Turbulence that sent a Singapore Airlines flight plummeting 6,000 feet in minutes was blamed on climate change by a hysterical media. After killing the passengers and injuring more than 70 others, the incident was one of the worst and most tragic. However, related to the alleged human-made changes to the atmosphere is the fear of opportunistic doomsayers.
This irresponsible promotion of climate fear is more dangerous than a falling plane because it affects the future of billions of people and is a threat to their lives. The global effort to limit greenhouse gas emissions by limiting the use of fossil fuels is causing people to pay more to power their homes and businesses and causing commodity prices to rise. Today, climate obsession has infiltrated even medical facilities.
To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, hospitals in Europe and North America are implementing (or considering) measures that will alter or complicate operating room practices – and put patients at risk.
A delicate dance between life and death takes place in the operating room. Decisions and actions are carefully calibrated to ensure the best results. Introducing unnecessary noise or distractions into this environment can have consequences.
Limits designed to limit the use and emissions of gases with global warming potential in operating rooms often involve monitoring systems that trigger alarms when gas levels exceed thresholds set by hospital administrators. Such alarm, justified in the name of fighting an imaginary climate crisis, can disrupt the surgeon’s focus and good judgment. The stress associated with managing these alarms only adds to the mental and emotional strain on the medical staff.
Imagine a critical operation in progress. Intent on a gentle procedure, the surgeon’s attention is suddenly directed to a blaring alarm that forces people to adjust the equipment settings to save the planet from harmless gases whose effects pale in comparison to medical errors. The distraction is an imposition on surgical precision, time management and patient safety.
Concerned about the carbon footprint of anesthetic gases such as nitrous oxide, isoflurane, sevoflurane and desflurane, more and more hospitals are trying to limit their use even if operating rooms are not listed in the emitter catalog.
The National Health Service (NHS) in Scotland has been on the frontline of the fake climate emergency. The official website says staff will be needed in three main areas: surgery, anesthesia and respiratory medicine. The NHS proudly states that it has “set an ambitious target of being net-zero for anesthetic gases by 2027.”
Among the draconian proposals for “environmentally sustainable healthcare” are measures that compromise the type of inhaler given to patients, the amount of anesthetic gas released and the overall energy used in the operating room. Remember, all of these proposals lack detailed analysis of climate science and merely make political statements about climate threats.
All of these emission reduction strategies are based on the assumption that planetary warming is detrimental. This notion is in stark contrast to the actual metrics that show that humans have progressed so quickly because of the progress made possible by using fossil fuels, that civilizations flourished during relatively warm periods and high levels of the greenhouse gas CO.2 Significantly increase plant growth.
It is a shame that medical professionals—like those in the NHS in Scotland—are now being asked to define the safety standards of operations or hospital functions based on pseudo-scientific proposals that come from political bodies like the United Nations.
It is not funny that these professionals consider themselves climate experts who focus on fake crises that have nothing to do with the patients who depend on them for their health.
The politics of the climate movement should not come before patient safety!
This comment was first published on Human Events on June 4, 2024.
Vijay Jayaraj is a Research Associate at CO2 coalition, Arlington, Virginia. He holds a master’s degree in environmental science from the University of East Anglia, England
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