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| China-Japan-Koreas | |
| Obama and Xi Jinping Agree to Limit Hydroflurocarbons | |
| 2013-09-07 | |
| The United States and China announced Friday they would seek to eliminate some of the world's most potent greenhouse gases through the 1987 Montreal Protocol, the landmark treaty that successfully phased out ozone-depleting substances decades ago. The move, announced at the Group of 20 summit in St. Petersburg, is significant because it provides a clear path for curbing a major contributor to global warming in the near term as world leaders grapple with the more challenging task of cutting carbon dioxide in the coming decades. I though carbon dioxide was THE problem, right after water vapor. Now they tell us there is something else to worry about? Obama and Xi Jinping said they would work to phase out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) -- a class of chemicals commonly used in refrigerators and air conditioners -- through the Montreal Protocol, even as they tried to make progress through the annual climate talks held by the United Nations. Some refrigerant has already been phased out of cars and homes - CFC-12, maybe? Other G-20 leaders also endorsed the approach Friday in a joint statement. The president of the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development, a Washington-based nonprofit group, called HFCs "the biggest climate prize available to the world in the next few years." In an e-mail, he estimated that the accord could cut the equivalent of 100 billion tons of carbon dioxide by 2050 and would avoid up to nearly 1 degree in global warming. Now we're back to CO2? I am so confused! The Montreal Protocol succeeded in phasing out nearly 100 chemicals, but an unintended consequence was that it spurred the production of HFCs, which are short-lived and do not damage the ozone but are far more potent greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide. In addition to being used as refrigerants, they are used in insulating foams, solvents and aerosol products. But they are short-lived, breaking down into what, Mr. Journalist? Unless your only purpose in the article was to make an empty suit look presidential. Left unabated, HFC emissions could grow to nearly 20 percent of carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. I wonder what unintended consequences will come out of this action?
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| Posted by:Bobby |
| #3 ...possibly the two of them could agree to personally demonstrate via PPV the positive effects of reducing to zero respiration-induced production of the known greenhouse gas CO2 via auto-erotic asphyxiation...? |
| Posted by: Uncle Phester 2013-09-07 23:52 |
| #2 Syria? SQUIRREL! |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2013-09-07 23:27 |
| #1 |
| Posted by: tu3031 2013-09-07 19:03 |