Flat screen TVs are killing the planet
As TV in the US gets ready to go 100% digital next February, scientists are getting really worried about the skyrocketing number of LCD and Plasma screen TVs flying of the shelves at the local Best Buy. The reason: the greenhouse gas used to make flat panel TVs is 17,000 times more powerful than CO2. That's all, no big deal. The gas -- nitrogen trifluoride -- is not monitored under Kyoto, but it's effect might dwarf many of the recognized heat-trapping gases in our atmosphere beginning this year. According to Professor Michael Prather from UC Irvine, TV makers will produce about 4,000 tons of NF3 in 2008 and he expects that to double in 2009. That comes out to an equivalent of 68 million tons of CO2 in 2008, and 136 million tons in 2009. Wow. The key, according to the professor, is to start measuring NF3 levels in order to find out what percentage of the gas is actually leaking into the atmosphere.
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