Global Warming claiming flatscreen TV's now?

[213th]

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".
It is expected to double by next year, from the current 4,000 tons produced annually.
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.
Prather and his colleague Juno Hsu — writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters — said this year's production of nitrogen trifluoride is equivalent to 67 million tons of carbon dioxide.

That meant the gas has "a potential greenhouse impact larger than that of the industrialised nations' emissions of PFCs or SF6, or even that of the world's largest coal-fired power plants".
Air Products, which produces the gas for the electronics industry, told New Scientist that very little nitrogen trifluoride is released into the atmosphere.
But Prather raised concerns about companies being careless with the gas, given the lack of a regulatory framework.

[Willowdared]

I wonder if they are just talking about plasma screens, or if this includes LCD's?

[Xiphos]

I can't wait to shoot my plasma TV when I next upgrade. I'll bet there's quite a kick when a bullet slams through all that gas and crap in there.

[Bob Loblaw]

Environmental Friendliness Tip #628

instead of watching TV, just get a cardboard box, remove one side, place several dwarves inside and have them act out well-known scenes from your favorite TV shows ("I'm so excited! I'm so excited! I'm...so.....scared!")

[Ducky]

I wonder if they are just talking about plasma screens, or if this includes LCD's?

A quick search says both.

[MacLean]

A quick search says both.

A quick search finds this in the article...


But no one yet knows how much of it is being released into the atmosphere by industry...

Which, if true, makes the rest of the article garbage.

[pgg]

Oh God!!! what are they going to take away from me next? I can't have my cattle (flatuence) anymore, my atv, my boat, my guns, my trucks, my a/c. I can't hunt. I can't garden because it tears up the earth. What am I supposed to do for fun now?

[Cidp24]

...cattle (flatuence)

Say what??

[pgg]

Enviromentalist extremists say that cow farts ruin the ozone and hurt the enviroment by putting to much methane in the air. I have cattle up at our property.

[Cidp24]

Ahh. (Lordy, I wonder what those environmentalist would say about me after a good bowl of chili and onions)

God made cows. God made the ozone layer. I don't think he would let the cow farts mess up his ozone.

[pgg]

haha. We are also having a problem up here with people growing there "medicine" (marijuana) and creating erosion, and other enviromental problems.

[Rhino]

Virtually the entire environmentalism movement is complete BS!

[pgg]

Virtually the entire environmentalism movement is complete BS!

I completely agree so I still have my cattle, horses, boat, atv, trucks and guns. I also like to point and laugh at the hippies.

[CTR man]

Which is why I keep waiting for San Francisco and Los Angeles to fall off into the ocean at the next earthquake so our state can be rid of all these environmentalist wackos. The red counties will take over and then we might just have a halfway decent state.

[2 Blue 4 U]

After last winters heating bills and worse yet, next winters heating bills people are going to be wishing for Global Warming and telling Al Bore to F**k Off with his Bullcrap!

[Cidp24]