When the solution creates another problem…

NPR reports:

More than twenty years ago, an international treaty known as the Montreal Protocol phased out a group of chemicals that were destroying the earth’s ozone layer.

But since then, scientists have discovered that that some of the chemicals developed to replace those destructive compounds might be contributing to another problem: global warming.

These new chemicals are known as HFCs, and they’re used as coolants in refrigerators. HFCs have largely replaced older refrigerants, such as CFCs. These replacements are non-flammable and don’t hurt the ozone.

But when it comes to global warming, HFCs aren’t so good, says Kert Davies of Greenpeace.

“We call them the super greenhouse gases,” Davies says. “They’re the global warming threat that no one has really heard about.”

[…]

By 2050, LaBudde says, the global warming from HFCs could cancel out all the reductions in CO2 likely to emerge from the United Nations climate talks that will take place in Copenhagen in December.