Chilling statistics on air conditioning

Another topic indicating the rapid growth in greenhouse gas emissions likely to be experienced as the poorer world catches up to the richer world.  The article notes the "potential cooling demands of upwardly mobile Mumbai, India, alone have been estimated to be a quarter of those of the United States."

In Rising Use of Air-Conditioning, Hard Choices - NYTimes.com:

"The oldest CFC coolants, which are highly damaging to the ozone layer, have been largely eliminated from use; and the newest ones, used widely in industrialized nations, have little or no effect on it.
But these gases have an impact the ozone treaty largely ignores. Pound for pound, they contribute to global warming thousands of times more than does carbon dioxide, the standard greenhouse gas.
The leading scientists in the field have just calculated that if all the equipment entering the world market uses the newest gases currently employed in air-conditioners, up to 27 percent of all global warming will be attributable to those gases by 2050."

In Rising Use of Air-Conditioning, Hard Choices - NYTimes.com: