• LCD’s could have a worse impact on environment than coal

  • lcd-tv.jpg According to a recent repost, chemical used to make LCD televisions and semiconductors could cause more global warming than coal-fired power plants. Nitrogen trifluoride is a “missing greenhouse gas,” and is used in chemical vapor deposition, which makes liquid crystal displays, semiconductors, and synthetic diamond. This chemical’s globe-warming effect could be 17,000 times stronger than that of carbon dioxide. What’s alarming is that the production of this chemical can double up to 8,000 metric tons in 2009, however this gas is not among the six gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol international climate change agreement. This year alone, its production would release the equivalent of the global-warming emissions from Austria, totaling some 67 million metric tons. This spells doom, because it amounts to more global-warming pollution than all the industrialized world’s emissions of perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and of sulfur hexafluoride that are considered more intoxicating.


    Kyoto’s terms left out nitrogen trifluoride and another dozen other gases, in part because they weren’t produced at a scale large enough to cause significant harm. Although LCD televisions are often painted as eco-friendly because they consume less power than plasma and older rear-projection sets, this potent ingredient could cause more harm in the coming years that one can imagine.
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    Posted in Topics:Gadgets and Tech, Tags: , on July 4, 2008