Obviously there are reams of comprehensive reviews on this which would take days to read, but I'd like to respond with a short excerpt from the Lancet 2009;373:1693-733.
"Industrial human activity has released vast quantities of greenhouse gases: about 900 billion tonnes of CO2, of which about 450 billion tonnes has stayed in the atmosphere. About 80% of CO2 is caused by industrialisation and the rest by land use such as deforestation. The first direct measurements of atmospheric CO2 concentrations were made in 1958 at
an altitude of about 4000 m on the summit of Mauna Loa in Hawaii, a remote site free from local pollution. Ice-core data indicate preindustrial CO2 concentrations of 280 parts per million by volume (ppmv). In 1958,
atmospheric CO2 concentration was 316 ppmv, and has risen every year reaching 387 ppmv in 2008. CO2 concentrations over the last 650 000 years have ranged between 180 and 300 ppmv, with changes of 80 ppmv between the regular waxing and waning of the great ice ages. Pollution that we have caused in one century is thus comparable to natural variations that have taken thousands of years."
And from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gases:
"Water vapor accounts for the largest percentage of the greenhouse effect, between 36% and 66% for water vapor alone, and between 66% and 85% when factoring in clouds. However, the warming due to the greenhouse effect of cloud cover is, at least in part, mitigated by the change in the Earth's albedo. According to NASA, "The overall effect of all clouds together is that the Earth's surface is cooler than it would be if the atmosphere had no clouds." Water vapor is the only greenhouse gas whose concentration is highly variable in space and time in the atmosphere and the only one that also exists in both liquid and solid phases, frequently changing to and from each of the three phases or existing in mixes. Such considerations include clouds themselves, air and water vapor density interactions when they are the same or different temperatures, the absorption and release of kinetic energy as water evaporates and condenses to and from vapor, and behaviors related to vapor partial pressure. For example, the release of latent heat by rain in the intertropical convergence zone drives atmospheric circulation, clouds vary atmospheric albedo levels, and the oceans provide evaporative cooling that modulates the greenhouse effect down from an estimated 67 °C surface temperature."
The NHS is responsible for 3.2% of the nation's carbon emissions and 25% of all public sector emissions. (Figures from the NHS Sustainable Development Unit.) Within the NHS, clinical laboratories typically use around four to six times as much energy per square foot as offices, as well as increased water and plastic consumption. This gives us the ability to make significant changes.
I fully agree with Martin's point that green efforts are a good idea anyway, even if you disregard the environmental aspects. Lean process management and other efforts to become more sustainable can have immediate financial savings, will increase the security and robustness of your service, and could improve the clinical value of the service, e.g. by demand management. It's simply good business practice and I believe it's inextricable from total quality management.
Regards,
-Neil Squires
-----Original Message-----
From: Clinical biochemistry discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Martin Holland
Sent: 19 January 2010 10:47
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: More green thoughts.......
Why all the hype about "green" analysers when CO2 accounts for only 3% of
the greenhouse gases (water vapour about 95%) and man's contribution to the
atmospheric CO2 is only 2% of that? i.e. our CO2 emissions contribute only
0.06% to the worlds total greenhouse gases. What effect are we really going
to have?
Looking on the bright side, reducing electricity consumption will save money
and reduce our consumption of energy sources.
Regards,
Martin.
"There is no such thing as renewable energy, even the sun is running out of
fuel."
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