Dear colleagues, Decades after our careers have ended very significant quantities of the anaesthetic gases we have administered to patients will still be in the atmosphere.* These super potent greenhouse gases will continue to overheat our planet long after we have gone. Perhaps we do not reflect sufficiently on the long term consequences of what we do every day. Our hopes, dreams and short-term desires can sometimes blind us from facing up to the reality of a particular situation. It appears that such is the case in humanity’s approach to the climate crisis and biodiversity collapse that are currently happening on planet Earth. We are in real trouble and have a relatively short period of time in which to mitigate the ongoing destruction of nature from human activity. Do not be blinded by the words, actions or in-actions of governments, organisations and large parts of human society. As anaesthesiologists, all of us have the potential to reduce by tonnes or even tens of tonnes the annual carbon footprint of our practices. As you will learn during green anaesthesia week such reductions will come from modifying our approaches to certain types of clinical cases. In order to determine the optimal path for patient care we must learn to incorporate the new clinical paradigm of ‘environmental footprint’ into the existing pillars of risk-benefit and cost-benefit analysis. What is the benefit in using anaesthetic techniques that contribute to the extinction of tens of thousands of species when they can be substituted with alternatives of much less environmental impact? If humanity’s goal was to transform our paradise planet into a hell we have made a very good start. Look at the droughts in Africa. Look at the fires in Australia, California and Greece. Look at the increasing ferocity of the hurricane season in North America and the Caribbean. Look at the floods in Western Europe. Look at the mass displacement of populations by failing rains in South East Asia. Look at the melting polar icecaps. Look at the starving polar bears and collapsing pollinator populations. Look at the heat waves cooking fruit on trees and roasting the exposed shellfish at low tide. There is undoubtedly a problem but we can personally contribute to the solution every day in the way we practice anaesthesiology. You can make a difference. Log on to our webcasts and learn how to become part of a more sustainable healthcare future. The best kind of hope is the hope you grow yourself. Plant some seeds today. Is mise le meas, Dónall Ó’Cróinín Chair, Sustainability Committee, College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland. *N₂O has an atmospheric half-life of 114 years