Inspired by President Biden’s goal to drastically reduce the United States’ greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, a U-M Medical student and resident teamed up to research how the medical community can contribute to climate change reductions. In a recent paper, Victor Agbafe and Nicholas Berlin, M.D., M.P.H., M.S., outline how surgery, particularly cancer surgery, contributes to climate change and offer solutions to combat the problem. Agbafe and Berlin found that operating rooms are a significant source of greenhouse gas production for hospitals, representing 70% of their waste and generating three to six times as much carbon as the rest of health systems.
