Working with air conditioning is enough to make a libertarian out of anyone. Once you realize that freon was abandoned for R-134a for fraudulent reasons, and all it has done is increase prices and complicate everyone’s lives (because the two gases are incompatible), you might start to become very cynical about politics. And “science.”
But didn’t freon harm the environment? Freon sounds really scary!
Not so fast! Other than the scary, theatrical assertions from activists in the scientific community, there is no conclusive evidence that freon in any way caused a hole in the ozone layer. There is, however, evidence that freon would not do this. So why was freon abandoned? Du Pont’s new patent? Read this:
Many people may be unaware of both Du Pont and ICI’s vested financial interest in the banning of CFCs. These two corporations have worked together for decades, maintaining their dominance in the world chemical market.[31] The Du Pont Corporation’s monopoly patent on CFCs was about to expire and become public domain. It was therefore in Du Pont’s interest to sponsor the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit conference, and surprise, surprise; Du Pont secured the patent on the replacement HFC 134a gas.[32] The Montreal Protocol to limit CFCs was revised and on 11th February, 1992, President Bush announced a ban on CFCs by 1995.[33]
The new stuff is known to be corrosive, which causes early compressor failure (maybe in my post-freon car) and there is now some serious speculation that it may have caused the thermal tile flake-off problems in the latest Columbia fiasco! (If so, don’t hold your breath.)
There is steady, accumulating evidence of this scientific fraud, but I don’t think people care anymore. With Bush in the White House, freon is no longer a popular cause among conservatives, and big business has adjusted to the new laws (and to the new profits gleaned from retrofitting, higher prices, etc.)
If scientific fraud is being covered up, you can be sure that the coverup is bipartisan.
The best coverups always are.