A reader writes concerning SF6, the insulating gas used in industrial electrical switchboxes, and of possible concern in climate change, as reported in this BBC story:
One has to wonder if that story was a plant by the hydrocarbon fuel industry.
I suppose it’s possible. This ScienceDaily article may be of interest:
Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) is a gas whose molecules consist of one sulfur atom and six fluorine atoms.
It is colorless, odorless, non-toxic, and non-flammable, and is soluble in water and some other liquids.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, SF6 is the most potent greenhouse gas that it has evaluated, with a global warming potential of 22,200 times that of CO2 over a 100 year period (for countries reporting their emissions to the UNFCCC, a GWP of 23,900 for SF6 is used as it was decreed at the third Conference of the Parties: GWP used in Kyoto protocol).
Its mixing ratio in the atmosphere is lower than that of CO2 (about 4 parts per trillion ppt in 1990 versus 365 ppm of carbon dioxide), its contribution to global warming is accordingly low.
The final remark about its mixing ratio, the ratio of some constituent divided by the total of all constituents in a mixture, being low is probably out of date (1990!), and the BBC story was concern about the future, not today. My inclination is to take the BBC story at face value.
