A thread about harm reduction;

If you saw my latest video, in it I referenced the new refrigerant R-1234yf, a near drop-in replacement for R-134a. this is a huge deal because the global warming potential of R-134a is 1,300. It's a terribly potent greenhouse gas.

Here's the thing, though. In an ideal world refrigerants would not leak. HVAC technicians have to follow guidelines when removing refrigerant so that they are not vented to the atmosphere. It's very illegal to just vent it out.

So isn't that enough?

Well, no. Because refrigeration systems will leak. Mishaps will occur.

Precautions in handling refrigerant is one form of harm reduction, but it's not necessarily that effective in the long run.

R-1234yf has a GWP of < 1 which means it's essentially harmless

Another example of this is fluorescent lights. Fluorescent lights are very efficient, but they contain trace amounts of mercury. So why don't we just have a robust recycling system to deal with dead lamps?

Well, we did, but there was never any guarantee that people would recycle

Harm reduction is a fantastic thing. We should always strive to achieve it. However, we do eventually want to eliminate the harm if we can.

LED technology, similar to R-1234yf, has allowed use to move towards harm elimination. Which is excellent!

But I think it's easy for people to think that harm reduction isn't important, so long as there's a potential for harm elimination down the road

This is very dangerous thinking. we do want to get to a place where we can eliminate the harm, but until we are there we must mitigate

I myself have been struggling with this difference between harm mitigation and harm elimination. A stupid example is something like fixing a leaky window. You don't need to have a perfect seal, you just need to reduce water intrusion to a point where it is not harmful

I can get caught up thinking that unless I have a perfect fix, it's not worth fixing. But this is not true!

We need to do the best we can with the tools we have, but we also need to be looking for more tools.

These MUST occur simultaneously for the betterment of all