Green Options

This ancient, mutually beneficial arrangement insures each new generation of the flowering plant. It has probably been going since shortly after the first flowering plants (angiosperms) appeared on earth some 250 million years ago. Industrial air pollution is now hampering this ancient relationship.

Hydrocarbon (HC) refrigerants are a “natural” cooler widely used in domestic and commercial refrigerators all over the world, except in the U.S. and Canada. HC refrigerants produce less greenhouse gasses than hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) technology, but they aren’t approved for the U.S. market - yet.  Now Greenfreeze, the Greenpeace-developed HC refrigerant, is poised to enter the U.S. thanks to a boost from an unlikely pair of companies, Ben & Jerry and General Electric.  It’s not a moment too soon: a new study has fingered HFC refrigerants and other so-called F-gasses as a rapidly growing source of emissions responsible for global warming.