The Climate and Ecological Emergency is one of the greatest challenges of our time. It threatens all alive today. We all must do our part to significantly reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and halt loss of biodiversity.
Human activity has caused atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations to soar, with CO2 emissions rising to levels not seen for the past 3.6 million years.
1, 2 Despite a short stall related to pandemic shutdowns, their concentrations have continued their relentless rise.
2
Such gases trap energy - the equivalent of 5 Hiroshima Bombs every second. The result is massive energy gain by our oceans and atmosphere. Land surface and ocean temperatures, and sea levels, are rising and extreme weather events are becoming ever more frequent. The ice caps and permafrost are melting. With immediate severe and rapid impacts, such changes may now also continue to progress for millenia- even if emissions rapidly cease, and large-scale drawdown of these gases is implemented.
1
These are matters of life and death. The time to act is now- and the Intensive Care Society is committed to doing so.
Critical Care Susnet
The Intensive Care Society and the British Association of Critical Care Nurses (BACCN) are proud to endorse the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare’s (CSH) Critical Care Susnet.
The Susnet is a network where those working in intensive care can come together to share their sustainability-focussed projects and ideas. We are strongest and most effective when working together, which is why the British Association of Critical Care Nurses and the Intensive Care Society are delighted to announce our endorsement of the platform. Many useful resources are already available via the Susnet, to help our community tackle climate change, and we look forward to seeing this expand in the future.
Read our full statement
Join our working group
Are you a member of the Society and passionate about sustainability? Then we need you to be part of our working group and help us develop plans to operate sustainability as an organisation, and to drive sustainable intensive care practice.
We’ll be working with partner organisations, setting standards and guidelines to embed sustainable operating throughout healthcare, and facilitating educational sessions to increase knowledge of carbon literacy and environmentally sustainable practice in our community.
The group is open to all members of the Society, and if you’d like to know more you can check out our Terms of Reference.
To express your interest please complete the form below and return it to communicationsteam@ics.ac.uk.
Terms of Reference Expression of Interest
Our webinar series
In the lead up to the UN climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow we ran our Climate Change Urgency and Action webinar series, to help us understand what actions we can take to make a difference.
The programme ran across seven lunchtime sessions and included presentations from outstanding speakers, all of whom are experts in their fields.
If you missed out on attending any of the sessions you can find the recordings below, or catch up on our YouTube channel.