scholarly journals A chance for reform: the environmental impact of travel for general surgery residency interviews

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Fung ◽  
Isabelle Raiche ◽  
Tyler Lamb ◽  
Nada Gawad ◽  
Andrea MacNeill ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Co2 Emissions ◽  
General Surgery ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Application Process ◽  
General Surgery Residency ◽  
Alternative Structures ◽  
Two Cities ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Co2 ◽  
Climate Crisis

Background: In light of the global climate emergency, it is worth reconsidering the current practice of medical students traveling to interview for residency positions. We sought to estimate carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions associated with travel for general surgery residency interviews in Canada, and the potential avoided emissions if interviews were restructured. Methods: An 8-item survey was constructed to collect data on cities visited, travel modalities, and costs incurred. Applicants to the University of Ottawa General Surgery Program during the 2019/20 Canadian Resident Matching Service (CaRMS) cycle were invited to complete the survey.  Potential reductions in CO2 emissions were modeled using a regionalized interview process with either one or two cities. Results: Of a total of 56 applicants, 39 (70%) completed the survey. Applicants on average visited 10 cities with a mean total cost of $4,866 (95% CI=3,995-5,737) per applicant. Mean CO2 emissions were 1.82 (95% CI=1.50-2.14) tonnes per applicant, and the total CO2 emissions by applicants was estimated to be 101.9 (95% CI=84.0 – 119.8) tonnes. In models wherein interviews are regionalized to one or two cities, emissions would be 57.9 tonnes (43.2% reduction) and 84.2 tonnes (17.4% reduction), respectively. Overall, 74.4% of respondents were concerned about the environmental impact of travel and 46% would prefer to interview by videoconference. Conclusion: Travel for general surgery residency interviews in Canada is associated with a considerable environmental impact. These findings are likely generalizable to other residency programs. Given the global climate crisis, the CaRMS application process must consider alternative structures.

scholarly journals The travel-related carbon dioxide emissions of atmospheric researchers

2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 7373-7389 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Stohl
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Co2 Emissions ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Emissions ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Air Travel ◽  
Ozone Production ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Co2

Abstract. Most atmospheric scientists agree that greenhouse gas emissions have already caused significant changes to the global climate system and that these changes will accelerate in the near future. At the same time, atmospheric scientists who – like other scientists – rely on international collaboration and information exchange travel a lot and, thereby, cause substantial emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2). In this paper, the CO2 emissions of the employees working at an atmospheric research institute (the Norwegian Institute for Air Research, NILU) caused by all types of business travel (conference visits, workshops, field campaigns, instrument maintainance, etc.) were calculated for the years 2005–2007. It is estimated that more than 90% of the emissions were caused by air travel, 3% by ground travel and 5% by hotel usage. The travel-related annual emissions were between 1.9 and 2.4 t CO2 per employee or between 3.9 and 5.5 t CO2 per scientist. For comparison, the total annual per capita CO2 emissions are 4.5 t worldwide, 1.2 t for India, 3.8 t for China, 5.9 t for Sweden and 19.1 t for Norway. The travel-related CO2 emissions of a NILU scientist, occurring in 24 days of a year on average, exceed the global average annual per capita emission. Norway's per-capita CO2 emissions are among the highest in the world, mostly because of the emissions from the oil industry. If the emissions per NILU scientist derived in this paper are taken as representative for the average Norwegian researcher, travel by Norwegian scientists would nevertheless account for a substantial 0.2% of Norway's total CO2 emissions. Since most of the travel-related emissions are due to air travel, water vapor emissions, ozone production and contrail formation further increase the relative importance of NILU's travel in terms of radiative forcing.

scholarly journals Observing carbon dioxide emissions over China's cities and industrial areas with the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (14) ◽  
pp. 8501-8510 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bo Zheng ◽  
Frédéric Chevallier ◽  
Philippe Ciais ◽  
Grégoire Broquet ◽  
Yilong Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Co2 Emissions ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Emissions ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Independent Evaluation ◽  
Paris Climate Agreement ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Co2 ◽  
The Individual

Abstract. In order to track progress towards the global climate targets, the parties that signed the Paris Climate Agreement will regularly report their anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions based on energy statistics and CO2 emission factors. Independent evaluation of this self-reporting system is a fast-growing research topic. Here, we study the value of satellite observations of the column CO2 concentrations to estimate CO2 anthropogenic emissions with 5 years of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) retrievals over and around China. With the detailed information of emission source locations and the local wind, we successfully observe CO2 plumes from 46 cities and industrial regions over China and quantify their CO2 emissions from the OCO-2 observations, which add up to a total of 1.3 Gt CO2 yr−1 that accounts for approximately 13 % of mainland China's annual emissions. The number of cities whose emissions are constrained by OCO-2 here is 3 to 10 times larger than in previous studies that only focused on large cities and power plants in different locations around the world. Our satellite-based emission estimates are broadly consistent with the independent values from China's detailed emission inventory MEIC but are more different from those of two widely used global gridded emission datasets (i.e., EDGAR and ODIAC), especially for the emission estimates for the individual cities. These results demonstrate some skill in the satellite-based emission quantification for isolated source clusters with the OCO-2, despite the sparse sampling of this instrument not designed for this purpose. This skill can be improved by future satellite missions that will have a denser spatial sampling of surface emitting areas, which will come soon in the early 2020s.

scholarly journals Observing carbon dioxide emissions over China's cities with the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bo Zheng ◽  
Frederic Chevallier ◽  
Philippe Ciais ◽  
Gregoire Broquet ◽  
Yilong Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Co2 Emissions ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Emissions ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Independent Evaluation ◽  
Paris Climate Agreement ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Co2 ◽  
The Individual

Abstract. In order to track progress towards the global climate targets, the parties that signed the Paris Climate Agreement will regularly report their anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions based on energy statistics and CO2 emission factors. Independent evaluation of this self-reporting system is a fast-growing research topic. Here, we study the value of satellite observations of the column CO2 concentrations to estimate CO2 anthropogenic emissions with five years of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) retrievals over and around China. With the detailed information of emission source locations and the local wind, we successfully observe CO2 plumes from 60 cities and industrial regions over China and quantify their CO2 emissions from the OCO-2 observations, which add up to a total of 1.6 Gt CO2 yr−1 that account for 17 % of mainland China's annual emissions. The number of cities whose emissions are constrained by OCO-2 here is three to ten times larger than previous studies that only focused on large cities and power plants in different locations around the world. Our satellite-based emission estimates are broadly consistent with the independent values from the detailed China's emission inventory MEIC, but are more different from those of two widely used global gridded emission datasets (i.e., EDGAR and ODIAC), especially for the emission estimates for the individual cities. These results demonstrate some skill in the satellite-based emission quantification for isolated source clusters with the OCO-2, despite the sparse sampling of this instrument not designed for this purpose. This skill can be improved by future satellite missions that will have a denser spatial sampling of surface emitting areas, which will come soon in the early 2020s.

scholarly journals Protesting for the Future in Pandemic Contexts. Comparing Participants in Fridays For Future Global Climate Strikes in Austria and Germany

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Neuber ◽  
Antje Daniel ◽  
Beth Gharrity Gardner
Keyword(s):  
Global Climate ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Institutional Trust ◽  
Policy Action ◽  
Youth Movement ◽  
Longitudinal Patterns ◽  
Two Cities ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Crisis Scenarios ◽  
Climate Crisis

Drawing on new survey data on protesters at the September 2020 Fridays for Future Global Climate Strike in Berlin and Vienna, this report examines protesters’ socio-de- mographic profiles, political engagement and attitudes before and after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. The longitudinal patterns we find are largely consistent across the two cities. However, the results from Berlin point to a greater dynamic in the sense of a transformation of FFF to a broader youth movement as well as a more marked increase in protesters’ institutional trust and self-efficacy. Among protesters in both cities we find indications of dissonance between positive perceptions about the government’s capacity to take scientifically-informed policy action in crisis scenarios (i.e., Covid-19) and con- cerns that such actions will not be adequately applied to the climate crisis.

What we can learn from the parallels between the COVID-19 and the future climate change crises

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rubén D. Manzanedo ◽  
Peter Manning
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Substantial Portion ◽  
Preventative Measures ◽  
The Future ◽  
Behavioral Norm ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
Global Population

The ongoing COVID-19 outbreak pandemic is now a global crisis. It has caused 1.6+ million confirmed cases and 100 000+ deaths at the time of writing and triggered unprecedented preventative measures that have put a substantial portion of the global population under confinement, imposed isolation, and established ‘social distancing’ as a new global behavioral norm. The COVID-19 crisis has affected all aspects of everyday life and work, while also threatening the health of the global economy. This crisis offers also an unprecedented view of what the global climate crisis may look like. In fact, some of the parallels between the COVID-19 crisis and what we expect from the looming global climate emergency are remarkable. Reflecting upon the most challenging aspects of today’s crisis and how they compare with those expected from the climate change emergency may help us better prepare for the future.

scholarly journals Improving the Sustainability of Dairy Slurry by A Commercial Additive Treatment

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (18) ◽  
pp. 4998 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federica Borgonovo ◽  
Cecilia Conti ◽  
Daniela Lovarelli ◽  
Valentina Ferrante ◽  
Marcella Guarino
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Mineral Fertilizer ◽  
Cattle Slurry ◽  
N Loss ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
Environmental Impact Categories ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Co2

Ammonia (NH3), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from livestock farms contribute to negative environmental impacts such as acidification and climate change. A significant part of these emissions is produced from the decomposition of slurry in livestock facilities, during storage and treatment phases. This research aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of the additive “SOP LAGOON” (made of agricultural gypsum processed with proprietary technology) on (i) NH3 and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, (ii) slurry properties and N loss. Moreover, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method was applied to assess the potential environmental impact associated with stored slurry treated with the additive. Six barrels were filled with 65 L of cattle slurry, of which three were used as a control while the additive was used in the other three. The results indicated that the use of the additive led to a reduction of total nitrogen, nitrates, and GHG emissions. LCA confirmed the higher environmental sustainability of the scenario with the additive for some environmental impact categories among which climate change. In conclusion, the additive has beneficial effects on both emissions and the environment, and the nitrogen present in the treated slurry could partially displace a mineral fertilizer, which can be considered an environmental credit.

scholarly journals Estimating CO2 Emissions from Large Scale Coal-Fired Power Plants Using OCO-2 Observations and Emission Inventories

Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 811
Author(s):  
Yaqin Hu ◽  
Yusheng Shi
Keyword(s):  
Power Plant ◽  
Co2 Emissions ◽  
Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Gaussian Model ◽  
Point Sources ◽  
Emission Inventories ◽  
Bottom Up

The concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) has increased rapidly worldwide, aggravating the global greenhouse effect, and coal-fired power plants are one of the biggest contributors of greenhouse gas emissions in China. However, efficient methods that can quantify CO2 emissions from individual coal-fired power plants with high accuracy are needed. In this study, we estimated the CO2 emissions of large-scale coal-fired power plants using Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite data based on remote sensing inversions and bottom-up methods. First, we mapped the distribution of coal-fired power plants, displaying the total installed capacity, and identified two appropriate targets, the Waigaoqiao and Qinbei power plants in Shanghai and Henan, respectively. Then, an improved Gaussian plume model method was applied for CO2 emission estimations, with input parameters including the geographic coordinates of point sources, wind vectors from the atmospheric reanalysis of the global climate, and OCO-2 observations. The application of the Gaussian model was improved by using wind data with higher temporal and spatial resolutions, employing the physically based unit conversion method, and interpolating OCO-2 observations into different resolutions. Consequently, CO2 emissions were estimated to be 23.06 ± 2.82 (95% CI) Mt/yr using the Gaussian model and 16.28 Mt/yr using the bottom-up method for the Waigaoqiao Power Plant, and 14.58 ± 3.37 (95% CI) and 14.08 Mt/yr for the Qinbei Power Plant, respectively. These estimates were compared with three standard databases for validation: the Carbon Monitoring for Action database, the China coal-fired Power Plant Emissions Database, and the Carbon Brief database. The comparison found that previous emission inventories spanning different time frames might have overestimated the CO2 emissions of one of two Chinese power plants on the two days that the measurements were made. Our study contributes to quantifying CO2 emissions from point sources and helps in advancing satellite-based monitoring techniques of emission sources in the future; this helps in reducing errors due to human intervention in bottom-up statistical methods.

scholarly journals The impact of coronavirus 2019 on general surgery residency: A national survey of program directors

2021 ◽  
Vol 65 ◽  
pp. 102285
Author(s):  
Maxwell F. Kilcoyne ◽  
Garrett N. Coyan ◽  
Edgar Aranda-Michel ◽  
Arman Kilic ◽  
Victor O. Morell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
National Survey ◽  
General Surgery ◽  
Program Directors ◽  
General Surgery Residency ◽  
The Impact

scholarly journals Big data for climate action or climate action for big data?

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 205395172098203
Author(s):  
Maria I Espinoza ◽  
Melissa Aronczyk
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Intergovernmental Organizations ◽  
Address Climate Change ◽  
Data Practices ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
User Data ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
Depth Interviews

Under the banner of “data for good,” companies in the technology, finance, and retail sectors supply their proprietary datasets to development agencies, NGOs, and intergovernmental organizations to help solve an array of social problems. We focus on the activities and implications of the Data for Climate Action campaign, a set of public–private collaborations that wield user data to design innovative responses to the global climate crisis. Drawing on in-depth interviews, first-hand observations at “data for good” events, intergovernmental and international organizational reports, and media publicity, we evaluate the logic driving Data for Climate Action initiatives, examining the implications of applying commercial datasets and expertise to environmental problems. Despite the increasing adoption of Data for Climate Action paradigms in government and public sector efforts to address climate change, we argue Data for Climate Action is better seen as a strategy to legitimate extractive, profit-oriented data practices by companies than a means to achieve global goals for environmental sustainability.

scholarly journals Telemedicine Experience of General Surgery Trainees: Impact on Patient Care and Education

2021 ◽  
pp. 000313482110234
Author(s):  
Brandon J Nakashima ◽  
Navpreet Kaur ◽  
Chelsey Wongjirad ◽  
Kenji Inaba ◽  
Mohd Raashid Sheikh
Keyword(s):  
Patient Care ◽  
Surgical Training ◽  
General Surgery ◽  
Southern California ◽  
University Of Southern California ◽  
General Surgery Residency ◽  
Surgical Training Program ◽  
Current Utilization ◽  
Surgery Resident ◽  
The Impact

Objective The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on patient care, including the increased utilization of contact-free clinic visits using telemedicine. We looked to assess current utilization of, experience with, and opinions regarding telemedicine by general surgery residents at an academic university–based surgical training program. Design A response-anonymous 19-question survey was electronically distributed to all general surgery residents at a single academic university–based general surgery residency program. Setting University of Southern California (USC) general surgery residency participants: Voluntarily participating general surgery residents at the University of Southern California. Results The response rate from USC general surgery residents was 100%. A majority of residents (76%) had utilized either video- or telephone-based visits during their careers. No resident had undergone formal training to provide telemedicine, although most residents indicated a desire for training (57.1%) and acknowledged that telemedicine should be a part of surgical training (75.6%). A wide variety of opinions regarding the educational experience of residents participating in telemedicine visits was elicited. Conclusions The COVID-19 pandemic brought telemedicine to the forefront as an integral part of future patient care, including for surgical patients. Additional investigations into nationwide telemedicine exposure and practice among United States general surgery residencies is imperative, and the impact of the implementation of telemedicine curricula on general surgery resident telemedicine utilization, comfort with telemedicine technology, and patient outcomes are further warranted. Competencies Practice-based learning, systems-based practice, interpersonal and communication skills

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