Chemicals That Eased One Woe Worsen Another

This is not the funny kind of irony: Scientists say the chemicals that helped solve the last global environmental crisis -- the hole in the ozone layer -- are making the current one worse.

The chemicals, called hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), were introduced widely in the 1990s to replace ozone-depleting gases used in air conditioners, refrigerators and insulating foam.

But researchers say what's good for ozone is bad for climate change. In the atmosphere, these replacement chemicals act like "super" greenhouse gases, with a heat-trapping power that can be 4,470 times that of carbon dioxide.

Now, scientists say, the world must find replacements for the replacements -- or these super-emissions could cancel out other efforts to stop global warming.

"Whatever targets you thought you were going to make," said David Fahey, a physicist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, "it will be undermined by the fact that you have . . . additional emissions that you hadn't planned on."

The colorless, odorless replacement chemicals enter the atmosphere in tiny amounts, often leaking out of refrigerators and air conditioners, or escaping when those machines break and are improperly dumped. They now account for about 2 percent of the climate-warming power of U.S. emissions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Another classic example of over-regulation.

If you study Ozone a bit (start at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone ), you’ll see that UV light produces Ozone, and without UV light, it will revert to Oxygen in half an hour. If we destroy Ozone in the atmosphere, more will immediately be created. If we increase the amount, it will destroy itself. There is and always has been nothing we could do to alter the amount of ozone in our atmosphere. There was no reason to come up with a refrigerant replacement in the first place, especially considering the insignificant amount of Cl- ions produced by refrigerant compared to, say, volcanic eruptions.

That said, the ozone has always been weakest at the poles. Why? Less UV radiation (duh). So what has happened recently that would affect the level of Ozone in the atmosphere? A lack of sunspots, and hence, radiation from the sun. Sunspots, along with lack of Ozone as a greenhouse gas, also explains the global cooling that has occurred, noticeably this summer.

What else points to over-regulation on this matter? How about the fact that we want ozone, but fight its production. The EPA fights ozone because it’s a pollutant and greenhouse gas. It appears that we’re at an impasse; do we want ozone to shield us from UV rays, or get rid of it, because it is a greenhouse gas and harmful to our health?

Ozone doesn’t matter, because the Ozone layer is merely the byproduct of the absorption of UV rays by Oxygen in the upper atmosphere. We know this because if it was produced at low altitudes, it would be low-level ozone, or break up into Oxygen on the way higher into the atmosphere.

If anything, we should get rid of Ozone whenever we can because it’s caustic, toxic, and a catalyst for global warming that multiplies the effect of the sun’s energy, and increase CO2 to compensate for the greenhouse effect. The straight line of CO2 is easier to manipulate than the parabolic multiplier Ozone creates for sunlight.

Hey EnviroWhackos...come try to take my AC from me. Please, just come to my house and try. I’ll be waiting.

They will not have to confront you at all.

They will use the armed power of Government to tell businesses that they may no longer manufacture the refrigerants and just let the A/C units, like yours, being used just break down. With no repairs being effected sooner or later their plans to get rid of A/C, except theirs, will come to fruition.

The chemicals, called hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), were introduced widely in the 1990s to replace ozone-depleting gases used in air conditioners, refrigerators and insulating foam. They worked: The earth's protective shield seems to be recovering. But researchers say what's good for ozone is bad for climate change. In the atmosphere, these replacement chemicals act like "super" greenhouse gases...

Hangin's too good for the bastards -- I mean all the scam artists enriching themselves with scientifically groundless claims about the human impact on the climate.

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