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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.

11 of 355 comments (clear)

  1. 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.

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    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.

  2. 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.

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

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

  4. 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.

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    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  5. 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.

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    Ezekiel 23:20
  6. 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.

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  7. 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...

  8. 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.

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  9. 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.

  10. 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.