When it comes to fumigating greenhouses, we have a tricky choice: wreck the ozone layer or accelerate global warming.rnMethyl bromide, the previous fumigant of choice, is being phased out because it destroys the stratospheric ozone layer that protects us from harmful solar radiation. Now it turns out that the chemical gradually replacing it, sulphuryl fluoride, helps to heat the atmosphere. What'srnmore, sulphuryl fluoride is 4780 times as potent at trapping heat as carbon dioxide, the most abundant greenhouse gas. The good news is that current use of sulphuryl fluoride, at around 2000 metric tonnes per year, is tiny compared with the 26 billion metric tonnes of CO_2 being churned out per year.
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