Flat Screen Televisions: A Global Warming Time Bomb?

Alarmist Report or A Cause For Concern?

clipped from www.foxnews.com Flat-Screen TV Gas 'a Climate Time Bomb' Booming demand for flat-screen televisions could have a greater impact on global warming than the world's largest coal-fired power stations, scientists warn. A greenhouse gas called nitrogen trifluoride, used to make the TVs, is 17,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide, said Michael Prather, director of the environment institute at the University of California, Irvine. But no one yet knows how much of it is being released into the atmosphere by industry, a report in Britain's The Guardian said. Prather's research shows production of the gas, which remains in the atmosphere for 550 years, is "exploding". But unlike other key greenhouse gases — such as carbon dioxide, sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) and perfluorocarbons (PFCs) — emissions of the gas are not restricted under the Kyoto protocol or similar agreements, The Guardian report said. It is expected to double by next year, from the current 4,000 tons produced annually.