Day 011 - 12 Jul 94 - Page 57


     
     1   Q.   Who gave you that figure?
              A.  The estimate of the cattle associated with McDonald's
     2        came from McDonald's; so that could obviously ------
 
     3   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, the McDonald's figures and the figures
              for world beef consumption are appended to the third
     4        witness statement of Fernando Gomez Gonzales which is
              witness bundle IX and X.
     5
         MR. JUSTICE STEEL:  Let me just ask you and then Miss Steel can
     6        ask you more questions about the conclusion, but I am not
              going to ask you any more about the source, what were the
     7        actual figures?
              A.  The figure I used was that McDonald's had about 0.6
     8        per cent of the world total of beef cattle use.
 
     9   MISS STEEL:  You did not have any figures relating to how many
              cattle that related to?
    10
         Q.   OK.  I wanted to move on to pentane now.  I think you said
    11        that pentane was extremely reactive under most
              circumstances and does not survive long enough to act as a
    12        greenhouse gas?
              A.  Yes.
    13
         Q.   What happens to it then?
    14        A.  It is destroyed in the lower atmosphere by the same
              reaction or the same reaction chain that tend to destroy
    15        HCFC-22, namely, reaction with the hydroxyl radical.
 
    16   Q.   What are the ultimate end products then?
              A.  Water and carbon dioxide.
    17
         Q.   You told us, did you not, that carbon dioxide was a
    18        greenhouse gas so, effectively, the release of pentane
              does bump up the greenhouse gases?
    19        A.  Very slightly.
 
    20   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Can you give proportions?
              A.  Yes, as a proportion of the total UK -- for example,
    21        if you take it as a UK production of carbon dioxide which
              is primarily from power stations on the internal
    22        combustion engine, if you were to work out the proportion
              that you would get from a small amount of blowing agent
    23        leaking into the atmosphere, it would be a fraction of a
              per cent.
    24
         Q.   I mean, carbon dioxide to water.
    25        A.  It is roughly in the proportion of the -- if you were
              to completely destroy ------ 
    26 
         MISS STEEL:  Is it right that you would end up with five carbon 
    27        dioxide molecules for every molecule of pentane and six
              water molecules?
    28        A.  You would certainly get five carbon dioxides.
              Precisely what happens to the rest of it is going to
    29        depend on the processes in the atmosphere.
 
    30   Q.   Right.
 

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