Your Flat-Screen TV is Worse for the Environment than a Coal Burning Power Plant
Nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) has been deemed the "missing greenhouse gas", because it is not covered by the Kyoto Protocol, yet it is 17,000 times stronger than carbon dioxide! NF3 used to be produced in tiny amounts, but the boom in flat-screen TVs has changed that. According to the
Guardian:
Manufacturers use a greenhouse gas called nitrogen trifluoride to make the televisions, and as the sets have become more popular, annual production of the gas has risen to about 4,000 tonnes...Writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, Prather and a colleague, Juno Hsu, state that this year's production of the gas is equivalent to 67m tonnes of carbon dioxide, meaning it 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".
Now, I have another good reason to convince my hubby we should hang on to our old TV besides the cost of a flat-screen. Until our TV breaks, there is no reason to upgrade.
Via:
The Guardian and
The Grist
Read More in: Entertainment | environment
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Posted by Jennifer Lance at August 21, 2008 1:25 AM
According to Wikipedia, it seems as though only about 2% of the total produced escapes into the atmosphere. Clearly that's still a bad thing, but luckily it's not 100%. Therefore unlikely to become the number one greenhouse gas.
How do you think I learn about going green... on my flat screen! Okay, I cut back everywhere else, I try to be as green as green can be, but really, this is where my family draws the line! I don't think my kids or husband would appreciate me smashing ours in a protest for "going green" either. Otherwise they may stick ME in the compost pile!
If people would spend less time in front of mind suck t.v.'s and more time educating themselves and or spending more time outdoors in the real world, our planet would be much better off. The idea of bigger screens to enhance the illusion of reality is really, very sad.
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