Now that the Paris Climate accords targeting carbon dioxide are being implemented, with regulatory restrictions and wealth redistribution systems being firmly established, climate alarmists need a new target.
It appears they have quickly found one: Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).
Nearly 200 nations have reached a deal to limit the use of greenhouse gases far more powerful than carbon dioxide in a major effort to fight climate change.The talks on hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, have been called the first test of global will since the historic Paris Agreement to cut carbon emissions was reached last year. HFCs are described as the world’s fastest-growing climate pollutant and are used in air conditioners and refrigerators.The agreement announced Saturday morning, after all-night negotiations, caps and reduces the use of HFCs in a gradual process beginning in 2019 with action by developed countries including the United States, the world’s second worst polluter. More than 100 developing countries, including China, the world’s top carbon emitter, will start taking action in 2024.
Hydrofluorocarbons are chemicals comprised of hydrogen, carbon, and fluorine atoms. They are used as an alternative to chlorofluorocarbons in foam production, refrigeration, and other key industrial processes.
Readers may remember that chlorofluorocarbons were once identified as “ozone-depleting agents” and are now strictly regulated under the Montreal Protocol of 1987 and several specific kinds are banned for use within the United States (per the regulations of the EPA). In fact, this new climate deal is an amendment of the Montreal Protocol.
How is the ozone layer doing now?
In a major new paper in the influential journal Science, a team of researchers report strikingly good news about a thirty year old environmental problem. The Antarctic ozone “hole” — which, when it was first identified in the mid-1980s, focused public attention like few other pieces of environmental news — has begun, in their words, to finally “heal.”
So, it already beginning to close, and the climate alarmists are pressing to phase out the replacements despite the evidence the “fix” worked?
Hence, the HFCs have been reclassified as “greenhouses gases”. This contemptible manipulation proves that the new deal is simply more of a power-and-money grab by environmental activists.
Interestingly studies have shown that climate patterns such as El Niño impact the size of the ozone hole. Furthermore, the levels of oxygen have been highly variable over the history of the earth, and it takes oxygen and ultraviolet radiation to generate ozone.
The main source of ultraviolet radiation is the sun. As I have noted before, the levels of solar energy may be decreasing as part of a natural sunspot cycle.
Therefore, I anticipate this new agreement will be toxic to the global economy and our prosperity while having no meaningful impact on the environment.
One last note: What do the climate alarmists intend to do about the most significant greenhouse gas on the plant…water vapor?
Perhaps the environmental activists will dream-up another cause for alarmism? I shudder to think.
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