An insecticide used to fumigate termite-infested buildings is a strong greenhouse gas that lives in the atmosphere nearly 10 times longer than previously thought. Read more at Science blog.
Melinda Wenner at Discover’s blog says carbon dioxide may be the least of our warming worries: New studies show an even greater accumulation of other, potentially more potent greenhouse gases.
- methane from landfills and melting permafrost remains in the atmosphere one-tenth as long as CO2—about a decade—but traps 20 times as much heat.
- nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) used to make microchips and flat-screen TVs, increasing 11 percent each year, lingers for 550 years, is 17,000 times better at trapping heat than CO2.