For the same reason there are signs not to feed the bears there should be signs that warn not to encourage the environmentalist. In both cases, it has become painfully clear that if you do they won’t leave you alone.

So what are the jack-booted greenies up to now? It seems that their latest claim to running our life is that your new plasma or LCD TV is responsible for destroying the planet.

Almost half of the televisions sold around the globe so far this year have been plasma or LCD TVs. But this boom could be coming at a huge environmental cost. The gas, widely used in the manufacture of flat screen TVs, is estimated to be 17,000 times as powerful as carbon dioxide. Ironically, NF3 is not covered by the Kyoto protocol as it was only produced in tiny amounts when the treaty was signed in 1997. Levels of this gas in the atmosphere have not been measured, but scientists say it is a concern and are calling for it to be included in any future emissions cutting agreement.

Professor Michael Prather from the University of California has highlighted the issue in an article for the magazine New Scientist. He has told ABC’s The World Today program that output of the gas needs to be measured. “One of my titles for this paper was Going Below Kyoto’s Radar. It’s the kind of gas that’s made in huge amounts,” he said. “Not only is it not in the Kyoto Treaty but you don’t even have to report it. That’s the part that worries me.” He estimates 4,000 tons of NF3 will be produced in 2008 and that number is likely to double next year.

“We don’t know what’s emitted, but what they’re producing every year dwarfs these giant coal-fired power plants that are like the biggest in the world,” he said. “And it dwarfs two of the Kyoto gases. So the real question we don’t know is how much is escaping and getting out.”

Let me get this straight – levels of this earth crushing gas, nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), in the atmosphere hasn’t been measured nor do they know how much is escaping into the atmosphere, but the conclusion is that it must be destroying the planet? It’s like watching a faux-Nostradamus make predictions that never come true.

The hoax department of the local Greenies OU812 really dropped the ball on this one and now it’s just embarrassing. At least we now have indisputable proof that environmentalist will do or say anything in their efforts to push the world toward some ill-conceived vision of a socialist utopia.

Yep, this is what happens when you encourage the environmentalist – lies and deceit. Oh don’t worry, they won’t be showing up on your doorstep to retrieve that new plasma TV or LCD computer screen. Their objective is to tax you for the privilege of watching it. If you prefer an euphemism, extortion seems to cover it.