Concerns rising over greenhouse gas from HDTVs

Just when you thought your carbon footprint was the only thing you had to worry about in the fight vs. global warming, now comes news that another rare gas classified as a greenhouse emission and responsible for warming effects is dramatically on the rise. This one's not spewing out of cars and power plants: It's coming from the production processes that create flat panel televisions and some other electronics.

Nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) has historically been a very minor greenhouse gas, representing just 0.02 parts per trillion in our air. But in 30 years, that figure has risen to 0.454 parts per trillion. That still sounds awfully small, but NF3 is a far more powerful molecule when it comes to locking heat into the atmosphere: At an estimated 17,000 times the power of CO2 at blocking heat from escaping the atmosphere, it's now estimated to be responsible for 0.15 percent of human-caused global warming despite its minuscule proportions in the atmosphere. And all of those numbers are rapidly on the rise.

Even more cause for concern comes not just from the fact that NF3 arises from the production of a very popular item -- flat screen TVs -- but because the Kyoto protocol (to which most of the industrialized world adheres, but not the U.S.) does not regulate NF3's use. Back in 1997, nitrogen trifluoride wasn't an issue. In fact, NF3 became popular because it is an alternative to another set of greenhouse gases called perfluorocarbons, making the cure to the problem look potentially worse than the disease.

Scientists are now hoping to gain a more accurate understanding of how much NF3 is being used in industrial operations, plus have NF3 come under Kyoto regulations.