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Scientists Race To Find Who is Pumping a Dangerous Gas Into the Atmosphere (theoutline.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: When the research was published in Nature on May 16, it was like a bomb dropped. A greenhouse gas is billowing into the atmosphere from a source somewhere in East Asia that no one can identify at a rate scientists have never before seen, and it's ignited a scientific dash to get to the bottom of it. All countries are supposed to comply with the rules laid out in the 1987 Montreal Protocol, which banned the production of CFCs -- chlorofluorocarbons, which deplete the ozone layer and contribute to global warming -- with only temporary exception of a few economically developing countries. If everyone fulfills their end of the deal, the amount of CFCs in the atmosphere should gradually wane over the course of several decades. CFC levels plummeted through the 1990s, and then stagnated between 2002 and 2005. But in in 2014, mysterious toxic plumes of CFC-11 -- a type of CFC -- began to drift across the Pacific Ocean. Stephen Montzaka, a chemist who studies and monitors CFCs for The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), was shocked.

23 of 355 comments (clear)

  1. China by ickleberry · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Without a doubt. The only problem is how to pin it to them. The political will also isn't there to pin it to them - too much money changes hands in the West on the back of Chinese goods being traded and we've become far too dependent on the Chinese for trinkets and future ewaste.

    1. Re:China by Carewolf · · Score: 3, Informative

      Look at the map. The plume is the densest over Hawaii and spreads east from there, there is very little west of it. I had no idea Hawaii was classified as East Asia though..

    2. Re:China by HornWumpus · · Score: 3, Interesting

      What % of heavy Chinese industry does the Chinese communist party (aka the Chinese government) own? Hint: It's not 0.

      Add the % of heavy Chinese industry owned by family members of the Chinese central committee and you are closing in on 100%.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    3. Re:China by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Informative

      I wonder if the volcanic activity in Hawaii might be related....

      I don't think so. Volcanoes don't emit CFCs, and the plume starts further west.

      If you look at the map in TFA, the strongest concentration is near Johnston Atoll, where the US stored and processed chemical weapons.

  2. Someone is doing by AHuxley · · Score: 4, Interesting

    some quick old style enrichment of uranium and the CFC is the tell? Should have studied more and not released the one product the world still looks into.

    --
    Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    1. Re:Someone is doing by Rhipf · · Score: 5, Insightful

      From my quick checking it looks like uranium enrichment releases CFC 114. The CFC detected here is CFC 11. So unless there is a process of enrichment that releases CFC 11 that I didn't stumble upon it looks like this isn't due to uranium enrichment.

  3. I'm not saying by ArhcAngel · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm not saying it's aliens...But it's aliens! (The extra-terrestrial kind not the undocumented immigrant kind) They are terraforming the planet for their impending invasion.

    --
    "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
  4. Re:The usual suspects by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 4, Funny

    Wow, that narrows it down to only three billion people! Great detective work.

  5. Re:The usual suspects by AHuxley · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Most normal production lines and random consumer products would have advanced after the 1980's.
    Low cost, export approved. Keep CFC going just for domestic consumer use?
    A domestic factory and imports would soon out pace 1970's CFC tech.
    A production line that was perfected in 1970-80, needs lots of CFC and has never been replaced?
    What advanced industry, consumer use could that be? That is not now low cost for consumers?

    That opens up non consumer use. A secret that relates to a lot of CFC.
    What old military design can release a lot of CFC and is worth the risk for a nation to try?
    Someone is cooking and is in a rush for the result.

    --
    Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  6. Sigh. by ledow · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You know when you "recycle" all those old fridges and freezers.

    And it costs a bucket to throw them away.

    And then a market starts up around a slightly cheaper way to do it.

    And the company just takes your equipment, ships it abroad, to someone who just signs off that it's being disposed of properly (but who doesn't care because it's not his life he's hurting).

    And then the abroad country, not having any care at all for such things as they get a nice backhander to bury a bit of rubbish, just throws it in landfill..

    Yeah... there. That's where I'd start.

    Like when you GPS-track waste electronics and find out it almost all ends up in landfill in India, China, etc. and isn't even processed at all.

    1. Re:Sigh. by WindBourne · · Score: 5, Informative

      No, they have already figured out that it is WAY TOO MUCH to be coming from consumers. This is VERY LARGE scale.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  7. Re: The usual suspects by theshowmecanuck · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You can't save much if UV burns the shit out of everything.

    --
    -- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
  8. Re:Fake story by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 5, Informative

    Nowhere does it state that CFC-11 is a greenhouse gas

    They don't even need to, it should be common knowledge.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  9. Re:Environmental capital. by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Read up on marketable torts or watch a David Freidman lecture on the topic. Icelanders had this figured out a thousand years ago but the Church's systems of government got rid of it when they took over. What you erroneously describe as a failure of capitalism is actually a failure to select good systems of governance.

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  10. Troll [Re:Fake story] by XXongo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Oh, he knows it, the anonymous coward is simply trolling. The fact that the greenhouse gas in question is CFC-11 is clear in the article linked, and it takes some very deliberate misreading to not see that it is in the summary.

    CFC-11 is trichlorofluoromethane, for what it's worth. A better reference is here: https://www.nature.com/article...

  11. Re:Environmental capital. by HornWumpus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Check the history of eastern Europe and the USSR. Capitalism is fucking clean in comparison. All you have is a theory, Capitalism has history.

    Also: Fuck no. The UN is not sovereign. The general assembly are a bunch of self serving, corrupt clowns. Not just no, FUCK NO!

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  12. Re:Fake story by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 5, Informative

    Nowhere does it state that CFC-11 is a greenhouse gas

    Because most people realize CFCs are a powerful greenhouse gas. Oh, and because you posted a Wiki link, here's one right back for you, and here's the important quote you should take from it:

    the atmospheric impacts of CFCs are not limited to its role as an active ozone reducer. This anthropogenic compound is also a greenhouse gas, with a much higher potential to enhance the greenhouse effect than CO2.

    Emphasis added. Don't blame your ignorance on others.

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  13. Re:Fake story by CptPicard · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I wouldn't bet on "most people" knowing that CFCs are also greenhouse gases. I consider myself pretty well-read, and that was news to me -- to me the issue with CFCs was always ozone.

    But now I know. If I had been a journalist writing the piece, I would have clarified the issue.

    --
    I want to play Free Market with a drowning Libertarian.
  14. Reseachers say it's refrigerator recycling: by Dances+With+Sharks · · Score: 3, Insightful

    See: https://www.express.co.uk/news... "SCIENTISTS have concluded a spike in banned chemicals which threatens to cause fresh damage to the ozone layer can be traced to badly recycled air conditioning units and fridges in China."

  15. Re:Fake story by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I consider myself pretty well-read

    Did you read TFA?

    If I had been a journalist writing the piece, I would have clarified the issue.

    From TFA: "As greenhouse gases, CFCs are also thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide"

    How could it be more clear?

  16. Re:Environmental capital. by jwhyche · · Score: 3

    An I'm still waiting for someone to tell my why its important that we know how much is made per person. An to explain why the total a country produces as a whole doesn't matter.

    China dumps more green house gasses in the environment as a whole than any other country. By some studies, twice as much. And every study agrees that this is only going to go up.

    It doesn't matter how much one person emits. What matters is the total fucking amount emitted by every one.

    --
    I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
  17. Re:Fake story by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 4, Informative

    No, it's not natural. CFC-11 is fluorotrichloride, or CFCl3. C-Cl and C-F bonds are artificial- in nature you don't see them much. To form them you need to invest energy, because you're starting with ionic chlorides and fluorides, which are not terribly interested in forming covalent bonds with a non-metal like carbon. That's why these chemicals fall apart so easily when they reach the upper stratosphere. The fluorine doesn't stick around for long, but the chlorine with the unpaired electron attacks ozone and survives the encounter. A single chlorine radical will destroy billions of ozone molecules for the two years it spends in the air. It attacks its first ozone to form ordinary oxygen and chlorine monoxide, which still has an unpaired electron. The chlorine monoxide attacks a second ozone, yielding more oxygen and releasing the chlorine radical to kill again. Although the chlorine radical itself only lasts a few decades, its fluorotrichloromethane precursor hangs around for decades to replenish the supply.

    The fact that the molecule has four of these weird bonds makes it really suspicious. Someone is definitely making this shit.

  18. Definately China by nhtshot · · Score: 4, Informative

    I used to live in China and was in the data center cooling business. R12 is all over the place there in the HVAC industry. Officially, it's prohibited. Unofficially, you can buy it from any A/C dealer in just about any city. I've been gone for a few years, but when I was there, R12 air conditioners were still being made and installed new.