14 DAY TRIAL // Carbon dioxide is a potent greenhouse gas, apparently responsible for the climate change effects that have started to become even more obvious in the last decades or so. We could say that we've learned our lesson but in fact, we haven't really, since more than 70 percent of the world's energy output is still obtained from the burning of fossil fuels. Yet, at least we're trying, although we're not doing a pretty good job at it. The 'general plan' is to cut the carbon dioxide emissions and maybe later get rid of some of the extra amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere to make things 'right' again.
However, it seems that we've lost some variables along the way, since the industry doesn't produce carbon dioxide only, which is not shocking news if you think about it for a second. Nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, is more than 300 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Simply put, a concentration of nitrous oxide 300 smaller than the current carbon dioxide concentration would have basically the same effects on Earth's atmosphere.
That may seem like a lot for some of us, but it's in fact quite little as compared to the potency of the new star of the industry, nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), which is some 17,000 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, according to atmospheric chemist Michael Prather. The really bad new is that nobody regulates the use of this compound.
Nitrous trifluoride is generally used in the manufacturing of Liquid Crystal Display Panels as well as in the semiconductors and synthetic diamond industry. At the time the Kyoto Protocol was established, the devastating effects of nitrous trifluoride were completely overlooked, simply because it was not used on a large scale. Currently, over 4,000 metric tons of nitrous trifluoride compound are used every year in the production of LCDs and semiconductors, an amount that is likely to double in just over a year.
The total quantity of nitrous trifluoride currently present in the Earth's atmosphere is said to have roughly the same effects as those determined by 67 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, or about the total emission output generated by Austria in a year. Even more frightening is the fact that scientists previously regarded it as a gas that can be used to prevent global warming, as LCD screens are renowned for their efficiency.
And to make matters worse, statistics indicate that up to 80 million analog TVs will reach the landfill as Americans switch to LCDs. Now, consider the current disposal methods and then ask yourselves again what is really triggering global warming. Nitrous trifluoride will remains in the atmosphere for about 550 years and there is no known means to remove it. If you think carbon dioxide is bad, we probably haven't seen the worst of it.