I am fascinated by the information I am gleaning from the Massive Online Outreach Course (MOOC) I am doing. I knew we have around 78.1% Nitrogen in the atmosphere and 20.9% oxygen…And I knew the Co2 in July 2013 was 389.6%, well above the 350 ppm that was hoped for only a few years ago, but not being a scientists or a mathematician I hadn’t thought about the o2 that is decreasing as we convert carbon to carbon dioxide. Of course we will never go back to the primordial times of more Co2 that oxygen with cyano bacteria, because thankfully of plant’s photosynthesizing and the oceans being carbon sinks.
Other stuff on Green House Gases well… as we know Ozone over Tasmania is all but gone because of Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s), but is improving now we changes refrigerants, propellants (as seen in this advertisement from Dupont) etc. But is seems we still don’t get it. We are creating new Green House Gasses which are possibly just as troublesome. One that I have been learning about is Nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), it is the bi-product of computer memory production and the manufacture of flat panel displays. Different Green house gasses have different life time potential for example the global warming potential of Co2 is about 1 year, but other gasses hang around much longer eg methane if 23 years…Nitrogen trifluoride will hang around for maybe 500 years.
As we enter the next commitment phases of the Kyoto agreement I wonder how our new government will act. So as I type this on my laptop, and wonder when I can afford some more thin filmed solar panels, or all those microelectronics with their inbuilt obsolescence that my family would love to own…at the very least I recognise that I need to be better informed!
Katoomba Street Permaculture 