URGENT ACTION ALERT:
Let California Air Resource Board know: their strategy for reducing greenhouse gases must include the toxic fumigant and fluorinated gas sulfuryl fluoride (SO2F2).
SO2F2 has been identified as a significant driver of global warming and is increasingly used in California as a replacement for methyl bromide (being phased out globally for its ozone depleting properties).
Please take a minute to submit a short comment urging CARB to include the fumigant pesticide SO2F2 in their reduction strategy
here
.
What is a Short-Lived Climate Pollutant (SLCP)?
SLCPs are pollutants that contribute to global warming. They persist in the atmosphere for a much shorter time than CO2 but their potency as drivers of climate change can be thousands of times greater than CO2's.
The existing body of science unequivocally supports the need to immediately reduce emissions of SLCPs. It is estimated that reducing SLCPs worldwide with existing technology will cut the rate of global warming in half by 2050.
What is CARB's Reduction Strategy for SLCPs?
CARB's draft outlines California's ambitious plan to take immediate steps to reduce all types of SLCPs, including a projected 40% decrease in fluorinated gases, or F-gases (refrigerants) by 2030. F-gases are the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in California and globally. Read more
here
Sounds good. What's the problem?
Unfortunately, the draft does not require reductions of
SO2
F2 in its plan for reducing F-gases, because SO2F2 was not identified as having high global warming potential until 2009.
What you need to know about sulfuryl fluoride:
- It's a very potent greenhouse gas with high toxicity
- It builds up as residue on food and poses a threat to children
- It is in increasing use in California as a replacement pesticide for methyl bromide
- California uses an astonishing 50% of the global total - 3 million pounds in 2013, according to DPR
- If it were added to CARB's greenhouse gas inventory, it would increase California's F-gas total by 25%
Yikes! That's bad... How can I help?
Don't let CARB sweep this powerful driver of global climate change under the rug.
Time is short but you can still let CARB know that they have a prime opportunity to raise the profile of the threat posed by SO2F2 to climate change reduction efforts.
The comment period ends tomorrow Oct 30 at 5pm PST.
Click
here
to make your voice heard.
- Tell CARB that they have known for six years that SO2F2 is a potent greenhouse gas - it's time to add it to their inventory of greenhouse gases.
- Tell CARB that their strategy must include a serious study of alternatives to this harmful pesticide.
- Tell CARB that California can't lead the world both in efforts to reduce SLCPs, and in global use of SO2F2. Which is it to be?
- Tell CARB that Dow's preferred replacement for methyl bromide doesn't solve anything. Methyl bromide was phased out under the Montreal Protocol for its ozone depleting properties. Don't replace it with another driver of global warming.
