Cosmetic Surgery and Climate Change

Yilian Jiang ’25

Julia Liu ’26

In recent years, the topic of cosmetic surgery has become entrenched with controversy due to its association with health risks, along with its culture of promoting poor self-esteem. Yet, much of the debate around these physical transformations centers around the social consequences that arise from these procedures rather than their connection to the dilemma of global warming. Despite this lack of coverage, reconstructive and cosmetic surgery entail unique environmental ramifications and contribute to climate change on an unprecedented scale.

In the healthcare industry, surgeries are resource-intensive procedures that emit greenhouse gases and contribute to global warming. While the relationship between climate change and medical surgery has been extensively studied, the exact correlation with cosmetic surgery remains a subject of inquiry. With few scientific studies having been conducted to quantify the industry’s production of greenhouse gases, insufficient data is available to conclude its impact. The limited studies that have been conducted, however, provide carbon footprint estimates that can be used to approximate the environmental impact of cosmetic surgery on the international level. For instance, the results from a Chilean study that tracked the carbon emissions of three common plastic surgery procedures–rhinoplasty, abdominoplasty, and bilateral breast augmentation–can be extrapolated and cross-compared with existing data to estimate the greenhouse gas emissions produced by other countries (Hyland et al., 2022). 

The rise in the popularity of plastic surgery can partially be attributed to the increasingly tolerant culture surrounding it. On social media platforms, prominent influencers have normalized cosmetic surgeries, often excessively. Oli London, a popular British influencer with over 2 million followers, for instance, has openly undergone over 30 plastic surgeries, promoting cosmetic procedures in a problematic manner. While this scenario is an extreme example of cosmetic surgery’s increased popularity, general societal trends also point to a rise in these procedures; for example, cosmetic procedures have increased by 22% in the United States between 2000 and 2020 (Hyland et al., 2022). The societal pressure to conform to prescribed beauty standards through surgical procedures consequently correlates with the increased production of greenhouse gases.

Ultimately, reconstructive and cosmetic surgery constitutes its specialized category within the healthcare and beauty industries. The impact of these increasingly popular procedures is multifaceted, simultaneously promoting body dysmorphia and producing excessive greenhouse gas emissions as byproducts. More comprehensive studies on the scale of these emissions must be conducted to reach an accurate projection of how these numbers will continue to grow and to research methods to reduce these effects.

References

Hyland, C. J., Yates, E. F., & Broyles, J. M. (2022, December 16). A narrative review of plastic surgery and climate change: Context and

considerations. Plastic and reconstructive surgery. Global open. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9760625/#R16 

Kennedy, D. (2023, September 8). Ex trans influencer oli london regrets his 32 cosmetic surgeries. New York Post.

https://nypost.com/2023/09/08/ex-trans-influencer-oli-london-regrets-32-elective-surgeries/