4,000 tons of nitrogen triflouride is used each year in the production of flat screen TVs and monitors. Michael Prathner of the Environment Institute of the University of California in Irvine claims that the stuff is 17,000 times as potent a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide, and writes in Geophysical Research Letters that it has “a potential greenhouse impact larger than that of the industrialised nations’ emissions of perflourocarbons (PFCs) or sulfur hexaflouride (SF6), or even that of the world’s largest coal-fired power plants”. It survives in the atmosphere for 550 years, and if this year’s supply got out, it would be equivalent to 67 million tonnes of CO2.
”Nitrogen trifluoride can be called the missing greenhouse gas. It is a synthetic chemical produced in industrial quantities, it is not included in the Kyoto basket of greenhouse gases, or in national reporting under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,” Professor Prather said in the Sentinel.
In 2008, about three-quarters of the chemical is now used to manufacture computer microchips; the rest is used to make LCD panels.
– from www.canberratimes.com.au
More info: http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/10-08GreenhouseGas.asp
Try to reduce buying new models of computers/electronic equipments.
Try to reuse as much as possible.