The Ethical Case for Fossil Fuels

A growing number of industrialized countries are questioning the ethical use of fossil fuels, considering climate change is primarily due to greenhouse gas emissions. Many leaders are removing subsidies for fossil fuel companies, pushing against offshore drilling, and divesting from fossil fuel projects like pipelines and refineries. While this may seem like the right thing to do, many economically developed nations tend to forget about the rest of the world. Countries in the developing world rely on fossil fuels to generate economic growth. If these more economically developed countries fail to take the needs of the developing world into consideration, large swaths of the globe will fall into poverty. Clearly such an approach is not ethical. Developed countries must continue to develop renewable energy worldwide while simultaneously investing in fossil fuel projects abroad as the necessary infrastructure for renewable energy systems are designed, tested, and constructed – only then can the world move on from fossil fuels in a safe, effective, and ethical way.

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Running Low on Gas: Technologies Affected by the Helium Shortage

Advanced technologies such as MRI scans and quantum computing are at risk of losing one of their most important elements: liquid helium. The unique properties of helium lend it to a wide array of scientific uses, but these properties also make helium difficult to capture and reuse. The ongoing shortage of helium has prompted researchers to find ways to recycle or replace helium to conserve this dwindling resource.

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FDA Advisory Panel Asks for Improvements in Pulse Oximeters

An FDA Anesthesiology and Respiratory Therapy Devices advisory panel met this week to discuss racial and skin-pigmentation bias in pulse oximeter devices. This comes in the wake of research demonstrating that inaccurate blood oxygen readings may have contributed to the greater number of Covid-19 deaths in minority patients compared to white patients.

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War and Progress: The Invasion of Ukraine and Its Impact on Renewable Energy

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to an energy crisis in much of the world. As a result, Western leaders are pushing for increased interest and investment in renewable energy. This introduces an ethical dilemma of the impacts of war on technological progress, and what it says about humanity that such motivations are required for change to be made.

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