Acid rain is still there, it’s just been trumped by other, more fashionable environmental disasters. When I was in grade school we were headed into an ice age. Middle school, it was acid rain. High school it was the ozone layer. Now it’s carbon dioxide. And the sad thing is that when one disaster becomes fashionable it seems to become OK to forget about, or cause, others. For example: Ozone layer. CFC (Chloroflorocarbon) refrigerants such as R12 were banned in the 90’s because they destroy ozone. Their replacement, HFC’s (Hydroflorocarbons) such as R134A are easy on the ozone but are major greenhouse gases. We traded ozone destruction for global warming. Now there’s a move to outlaw HFC’s and replace them with HFO 1234yf. This new gas doesn’t destroy ozone or contribute to global warming as much as older refrigerants, but it’s extremely flammable – so much so that Mercedes Benz is flat out refusing to use it in their cars, despite EU laws that pretty much force them to. So now you won’t get skin cancer or drown in rising seas, you’ll just roast to death inside your car after an accident…
Acid rain is still there, it’s just been trumped by other, more fashionable environmental disasters. When I was in grade school we were headed into an ice age. Middle school, it was acid rain. High school it was the ozone layer. Now it’s carbon dioxide. And the sad thing is that when one disaster becomes fashionable it seems to become OK to forget about, or cause, others. For example: Ozone layer. CFC (Chloroflorocarbon) refrigerants such as R12 were banned in the 90’s because they destroy ozone. Their replacement, HFC’s (Hydroflorocarbons) such as R134A are easy on the ozone but are major greenhouse gases. We traded ozone destruction for global warming. Now there’s a move to outlaw HFC’s and replace them with HFO 1234yf. This new gas doesn’t destroy ozone or contribute to global warming as much as older refrigerants, but it’s extremely flammable – so much so that Mercedes Benz is flat out refusing to use it in their cars, despite EU laws that pretty much force them to. So now you won’t get skin cancer or drown in rising seas, you’ll just roast to death inside your car after an accident…