Mystery Gas: Potential Threat To Global Warming
posted in Global Warming |The latest study discovered that a chemical’s emissions are 4 times more widespread in our atmosphere than formerly thought, and a lot more times more efficient at heating up than Carbon Di Oxide (CO2).
What is this unknown gas?
The answer to the question is Nitrogen trifluoride.
Nitrogen trifluoride is 1of the numerous gases used during the making up of some computers and TV screens; it is also used in the manufacture of thin-film photovoltaic cells.
So, once again we have the same old dilemma for us. The production of the very object meant to resolve the crisis, is in reality adding up to this crisis.
Many manufacturers have been using Nitrogen triflouride as a substitute for perfluorocarbons, which is another sort of strong greenhouse gas. Then it was considered that merely 2 % of nitrogen trifluoride being used actually escapes into atmosphere.
Nitrogen trifluoride is almost 17,000 times more potent at heating up the atmosphere than CO2, carbon dioxide. Though, this gas emission at present adds up to only 0.15 % of total effects of global warming produced by humans. It is predicted that the quantity of the gas in our atmosphere is rising by 11 % per year.
Carbon Dioxide, CO2, still remains the chief gas causal of global warming.
By means of new technology, research teams in California sponsered by Nasa, revealed that thousands additional metric tons of this chemical exists in our atmosphere than what was formerly thought.
As this gas is used very frequently, its potential harmful effects are not well known, researchers now recommend to include nitrogen trifluoride in the greenhouse gases controlled by Kyoto Protocol.