[opendtv] Off topic: Researchers uncover potent greenhouse gas
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2008 18:03:57 -0400
My bet is, we'll be hearing a lot more stories like this one. Mostly,
because I can't understand why CO2 is getting so much publicity.
If you look this stuff up, you'll find that human contribution to
overall CO2 emissions is tiny, compared with what nature dumps into the
atmosphere. Maybe 3 percent. And that when combined with water vapor,
which is also a much more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2, the effect
of human contribution of CO2 plus H2O vapor is even more minuscule. Well
under 1 percent. Does that suggest that curbing human production of CO2
will solve global warming? Not to me.
If human activity truly is creating, or exacerbating, global warming,
wouldn't it be nice to know why? Instead of going into this anti-CO2
frenzy?
I'll bet that NF3 is just the tip of the iceberg. There's an
inconvenient truth for you.
Bert
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Researchers uncover potent greenhouse gas
Gina Roos
(10/24/2008 2:54 PM EDT)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=211600500
A greenhouse gas, nitrogen trifluoride or NF3, is at least four times
more prevalent in the atmosphere than previously estimated, according to
new research at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. NF3
is used in the manufacture of liquid crystal flat-panel displays,
thin-film photovoltaic cells and microcircuits.
Using new analytical techniques, a team of researchers led by Scripps
geochemistry professor Ray Weiss made the first atmospheric measurements
of NF3, which is said to be thousands of times more effective at warming
the atmosphere than an equal mass of carbon dioxide.
The amount of the gas in the atmosphere, which could not be detected
using previous techniques, had been estimated at less than 1,200 metric
tons in 2006. The new research shows the actual amount was 4,200 metric
tons. In 2008, about 5,400 metric tons of the gas was in the atmosphere,
a quantity that is increasing at about 11 percent per year, according to
the report.
The research will be published Oct. 31 in Geophysical Research Letters,
a journal of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Co-authors of the
paper are Scripps researchers Jens Muhle, Peter Salameh and Christina
Harth.
The research now indicates the gas is 17,000 times more potent as a
global warming agent than a similar mass of carbon dioxide, and survives
in the atmosphere about five times longer than carbon dioxide. Current
NF3 emissions, however, contribute only about 0.15 percent of the total
global warming effect contributed by current human-produced carbon
dioxide emissions, according to the study.
Initially, emissions of NF3 were thought to be so low that it was not
covered by the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 agreement to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions signed by 182 countries. In response to the growing use of
the gas and concerns that its emissions are not well known, scientists
have recently recommended adding it to the list of greenhouse gases
regulated by Kyoto.
The Scripps team analyzed samples from coastal clean-air stations in
California and Tasmania for this research. The researchers found
concentrations of the gas rose from about 0.02 parts per trillion in
1978 to 0.454 parts per trillion in 2008. The samples also showed
significantly higher concentrations of NF3 in the Northern Hemisphere
than in the Southern Hemisphere, which the researchers said is
consistent with its use predominantly in Northern Hemisphere countries.
The current observed rate of increase of NF3 in the atmosphere
corresponds to emissions of about 16 percent of the amount of the gas
produced globally, according to Scripps researchers.
See related article: Chemical widely used in chips, LCDs under fire
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