Adding carbon to the equation: environmental outcomes in critical care research.

Abstract

Intensivists will increasingly find themselves playing two roles in the era of climate change: treating the impacts of an increase in ambient temperatures on human physiology and minimising their contributions to the carbon emissions that are causing the planet to warm at an alarming rate. New data published in the British Journal of Anaesthesia quantify the carbon savings resulting from the choice of a lower oxygen saturation target rather than liberal oxygen use. We explore how environmental data can be integrated into clinical decision-making, and highlight the importance of system-level work to reduce the carbon footprint of clinical care.