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Newly Discovered Greenhouse Gas Is 7,000 Times More Powerful Than CO2
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Suzanne Goldenberg writes at The Guardian that researchers at the University of Toronto's department of chemistry have identified a newly discovered greenhouse gas, perfluorotributylamine (PFTBA), in use by the electrical industry since the mid-20th century, that is 7,000 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at warming the Earth. 'We claim that PFTBA has the highest radiative efficiency of any molecule detected in the atmosphere to date,' says Angela Hong. Concentrations of PFTBA in the atmosphere are low – 0.18 parts per trillion in the Toronto area – compared to 400 parts per million for carbon dioxide but PFTBA is long-lived. There are no known processes that would destroy or remove PFTBA in the lower atmosphere so it has a very long lifetime, possibly hundreds of years, and is destroyed in the upper atmosphere. 'It is so much less than carbon dioxide, but the important thing is on a per molecule basis, it is very very effective in interacting with heat from the Earth.' PFTBA has been in use since the mid-20th century for various applications in electrical equipment, such as transistors and capacitors. 'PFTBA is just one example of an industrial chemical that is produced but there are no policies that control its production, use or emission,' says Hong. 'It is not being regulated by any type of climate policy.'"
Glad this has been discovered buthow soon can we get a new tax to reduce this new gas? Is it too late? Otherwise the climate will change even faster
Newly Discovered Greenhouse Gas Is 7,000 Times More Powerful Than CO2
... emitted whenever a politician speaks.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
Do you know what else has high leakage rates, and are a much higher source of methane emissions? Lakes, ponds, marshes, and swamps. Do you know what higher atmospheric levels of carbon and methane, and rising global temperatures lead to? More lakes, ponds, marshes, and swamps. If we want to get real serious about methane emissions, the best thing we could do is drain all the wetlands.