If you're anything like us here at Envirowonk, you like to put your feet up and watch some TV from time to time after a hard day's work. But, as the LA Times reported today, relaxing in front of a flat screen set might be worse—way worse—for the environment than originally thought.

According to chemists at UC Irvine, it turns out that flat screen televisions and computer monitors contain a chemical, nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), that has up to 17,000 times the warming effect of carbon dioxide. This problem is multiplied because nobody—not the International Panel on Climate Change, not the EPA—considers NF3 a greenhouse gas. The most potent greenhouse gas according to the IPCC is sulfur hexafluoride (SF6); its global warming potential is 23,000 times that of carbon's. Hydrofluorocarbon No. 23 (HFC-23) ranks second on the IPCC's list with a global warming potential of 11,700.

That all said, at least Energy Star, the federal government's program for more energy-efficient appliances, has certified numerous makes and models of plasma and LCD sets on its Web site.