Hmm. Guess I'd better goto Walmart and stock up on R134A while I still can.

I know where this is eventually going though: "Air conditioning and refrigeration are a luxury that the planet cannot afford." Yeah, that'll go down well. Maybe the democrats can make that their battle cry for the 2010 midterm elections.

First, hate the chemical companies for ruining the environment...

Then, expect and demand that the chemical companies come up with new chemicals... (chemicals that will "save the world" - again)

Well, maybe not fickle. Maybe just out of touch with reality.

In the 1970's when my boys were born, the law said all children's sleepwear had to be treated to be flame-retardant.The items couldn't be washed with regular laundry soap or bleach, as that would wash out the retardant.

I just threw them in the regular wash, and ended up glad, because a few years later they found out the chemical they were using was a carcinogenic.

Then we had the government-mandated airbags...and then they discovered that the airbags could kill kids, and small drivers.  So did they stop installing them? No, they said put your kids in the back seat, and push the driver's seat back so you're not so close to the wheel. BTW, isn't a driver dealing with kids in the back seat  a major cause of accidents?  No matter.....

And now they find that their so-called "solution" to CFC's is itself a big problem.

Wow.  Color me shocked.

“A bigger question: What will replace these chemicals? Experts say that some substitutes, with less global warming impact, can be made with new HFCs or by using ammonia or butane. But others are needed,” Fahrenthold wrote.

   These chemicals have been used in the past and are not nearly as efficient as freon so the use of a less efficient gas means more energy will be used to get the same cooling effect, hence more of that ghastly CO2 will be produced.   There's no end to this!  Were all going to die!!

I've been working in the heating and air conditioning field for close to 25 years now. And personally the whole CFC destroying the ozone was a bunch of horse squeeze.  Even the scientist that orginally came up with the theory and come back and said he was wrong.  And the hole was never really a hole just a thinning that took place every year when the sun wasn't hitting the south pole, and guess what it takes sunlight to make ozone. And with the south pole not getting sunlight 6 months out of the year, the production of ozone is decreased.

Back in the late 70's early 80's when all of this got started, the rumor was that DuPont's patents were expiring on the refrigerants that were in wide use at that time. And once those expired then all the royalties they were getting was going to dry up. And to prevent that, the ozone crisis was "created".

And really unless a refrigeration or air conditioning system has a leak, it does not release any refrigerant into the atmosphere. And if there is no leak, a typical air conditioner can use the same refrigerant (freon) for 20 years or more with no loss of efficiency.  And that includes making sure the equipment is well maintained

  The entire earth and it's atmosphere act like a heat sponge.

  That is why there is a 20 degree difference between the temperature at 3:00 PM and the temperature at 3:00 AM. 

  The earth and atmosphere absorbs the energy of the sun and then releases that energy to space in the absence of the sun. 

Sincerely,

a Veteran of a 1000 psychic wars.

Please don’t tell these fools that a catalytic converter works by converting carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide. Yesterday’s fix is today’s crisis indeed. Round and round we go, when it stops nobody knows.

If stupidity got us into this mess,
then why can't it get us out?
--Will Rogers

All they ever needed to do is recover refrigerant. That means it is pumped out and reused in the same unit instead of released. It could have become SOP in the 80's and this would have limited releases to accidents. We never had to depart from the proven refrigerants and this mess is a real mess. It's a nisance for Contractors as well but we are the ones ROTFLATWTTB.

The old refrigerants simply displaced air. The new ones are harmful to people, (tumors, enlarged sex organs etc). It is not uncommon for a large rootop unit to dump it's refrigerant (60 pounds or so)  into a building due to cap tube chafing or coil damage and that's even more significant now. The new refrigerants work at higher pressures and temperatures (how would you like that change for your car?) and the jury is out on longevity. We've held out and sold the R22 systems as long as we could but now they're gone. Just about everybody recovers and recycles refrigerant now so WHERE is the problem coming from?

Refrigerant Timelines PDF 4 pages
http://refrigerants....

Someone needs to point out to the unnamed "scientists," and the liberal morons who quote them, that the refrigerants used in cooling system are not "greenhouse" gasses as they do NOT trap heat.  Those gasses are used because they quickly RELEASE heat in the hot part of the system.  You don't use gasses that trap heat in a cooling system, for that would defeat the entire purpose of a cooling system.  What good would they do if they didn't allow heat to be released quickly and efficiently?

The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.
The US Constitution

Unless you're a fetus.
The US Supreme Court