Remember when the world got its collective shit together and decided to do something — really do something — to address the depletion of the Ozone? I used to hang my hope hat on that response as proof that nation states were capable of adapting to the science of Climate Change.
Well- now of course its a Climate Crisis and as if to hammer home how extraordinarily complex this issue is- y’know- chaotic systems , weather, climate , culture , economics and ecology….who’d a guessed right? -we now get news that the replacement gas for CFC -HFC-23- used in refrigerators and air conditioners. is making things worse….These were the products designed to replace those chlorofluorocarbons, the refrigerants that had major ozone-depleting properties . Here’s the abstract:
Under the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, new controls are being implemented to reduce emissions of HFC-23 a by-product during the manufacture of HCFC-22 (CHClF2) Starting in 2015, China and India, who dominate global HCFC-22 production (75% in 2017), set out ambitious programs to reduce HFC-23 emissions. Here, we estimate that these measures should have seen global emissions drop by 87% between 2014 and 2017. Instead, atmospheric observations show that emissions have increased and in 2018 were higher than at any point in history Given the magnitude of the discrepancy between expected and observation-inferred emissions, it is likely that the reported reductions have not fully materialized or there may be substantial unreported production of HCFC-22, resulting in unaccounted-for HFC-23 by-product emissions. The difference between reported and observation-inferred estimates suggests that an additional ~309 Tg CO2-equivalent emissions were added to the atmosphere between 2015 and 2017. [emphasis added]www.nature.com/...
As Yessenia Funes wrote in Earther, earther.gizmodo.com/...
They found that rather than the expected 87 percent drop in emissions, HFC-23 reached new heights in 2018. The extra emissions from 2014 to 2017 are roughly equivalent to all of Spain’s 2017 greenhouse gas emissions. The researchers hypothesize that this is largely due to China not meeting its HFC targets and emissions remaining unreported. As we’ve seen with methane here in the U.S., we don’t always realize where these emissions come from until, well, we do.
If China did actually reduce its emissions, then other developed countries would’ve had to increase their emissions by 780 percent between 2015 and 2017, a pretty drastic jump in a small timeframe for countries that are struggling. If India’s to blame, it would’ve had to ramp up its emissions by 690 percent in these years.
That this come on the heels of a recent report that implicates much of the earlier CFC emissions in current Arctic warming earther.gizmodo.com/… is further evidence that A] its gonna take a hell of a lot more than just herbal tea and group hugs and international “agreements” for ANY real change to happen — this is ALL about enforcement [see any of that yet? me either] ...and B] according to that NaCom report- these gasses have a 228 year atmospheric life span. We continue to bake in catastrophic climate influencers….
Greta admonishes the world to “Act as if you loved your children above all else” ….. I would add that child abusers rank at the bottom of any prison hierarchy …..and there’s a reason for that.