Protecting the environment is never cut and dry. Take, for example, the issue of  hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Used in the 1990s to replace ozone-depleting gases that air conditioners, refrigerators and insulating foam emitted, HFCs helped to shrink the hole in the ozone layer, seen as a serious global environmental crisis of the time.

But now scientists are saying that these very same HFCs are no longer helping the environment. Instead, they are actually making things worse. These odorless chemicals are leaking out of refrigerators and air conditioners in minute amounts (and in larger amounts when these appliances break or are dumped), creating “super” greenhouse gases that result in carbon dioxide emissions. All told, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that the leaked HFCs account for about two percent of U.S. carbon emissions.

If left unchecked, some scientists believe that HFC related emissions could rapidly increase.

As this Washington Post article reports, diplomats meeting in Geneva last week agree that something needs to be done about replacing or at least reducing HFCs. Just how that will happen remains to be seen.

Image: Andres Rueda

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