Inhaled Anesthetic 2020 Challenge: Reduce Your Inhaled Anesthetic Carbon Emissions by 50%!

Climate change has been named the number-one public health threat of the 21st century. An estimated 150,000 deaths occur annually worldwide due to climate change-mediated health hazards such as extreme weather events, poor air quality, food and water-borne illnesses, vector-borne disease, food and water insecurity, and social instability. Loss of an additional 250,000 lives per year is projected to occur between 2030-2050 from climate change,¹  and critical earth systems will be further disrupted in decades to come unless significant action to mitigate emissions is taken urgently.²  The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report concluded that anthropogenic CO₂ emissions need to fall by 45% by 2030 compared to pre-industrial baselines, and reach “net zero” by 2050, to limit warming to an average increase of 1.5°C by 2100 in order to avert some of the worst planetary health outcomes. IPCC Co-Chair Debra Roberts, Ph.D., stated that “the...