Flat Screen TVs More Damaging Than CO2

The concept has been around for some time that carbon dioxide is probably not the most atmosphere destroying gas we are pumping out of our cars and factories.

A new study believes that other gases are doing far more damage than CO2.

A Californian research team has made use of analytical techniques to discover that the atmosphere contains dangerous levels of the gas known as nitrogen trifluoride.

The study showed that there was far more CO2 in the atmosphere than nitrogen trifluoride, but they point out that nitrogen trifluoride is several thousand times more dangerous to the atmosphere than CO2, so even at low levels it poses a serious threat.

The report, which had the backing of NASA, appears in this month’s respected scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters.

It goes on to say that there is approximately 5400 metric tons of the gas floating around high in the atmosphere.

They are also of the opinion that that amount is increasing by more than 10% each year.

The release of this gas is not even mentioned in the 1997 Kyoto agreement to limit greenhouse gases.

The new discovery is worrying because according to the scientists, it is capable of trapping around 17,000 times more heat than CO2.

The sudden jump in the presence of this gas is probably due to the fact that it is used in the production of flat-panel displays of the type used in flat screen TVs.

Flat screen TVs have seen a huge surge in sales over the past three or four years resulting in many new manufacturing plants for these units, as well as other items such as microcircuits and thin-film photovoltaic cells which also make use of the gas in manufacturing.

Scientists are now pressing that this gas be added to the list of Kyoto gases that need to be reduced to protect the environment.