Whether you believe in Global Warming or not, you can still reduce your impact on the environment by following this tip from An Inconvenient Truth. Replacing just one regular incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb makes a difference in your electric bill as well as the amount of carbon dioxide your home emits. This simple switch will save about 300 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. It might be a little more expensive in the short run, CFLs cost about $3.25 each, but you'll quickly make up the cost on your electric bill. They use 60% less energy than a regular bulb and need to be replaced less often. You can purchase CFLs online from the Energy Federation, and they are available at some local and chain hardware stores. If every family in the U.S. changed JUST ONE bulb, we’d reduce carbon dioxide by more than 90 billion pounds! Imagine what we could do if we switched the bulbs in ALL of our lamps.
If you work in a place where you are comfortable doing so, talk to your boss about replacing the bulbs there, as well. Many people are interested in doing little things to help the environment but they feel overwhelmed or insignificant. Others just can't be bothered to find out what they can do to reduce their carbon footprint. Take the initiative and let them know. Your grandchildren will thank you for it.
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Who will rage against the dying of the light? People should not be afraid of their government. A government should be afriad of its people.
Who will rage against the dying of the light? People should not be afraid of their government. A government should be afriad of its people.
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13 comments:
Also, out of the wattage used by each standard light-bulb, only about 10% is light, the rest is heat. That means that the four sixty-watt bulbs in your dining room ceiling fan give you 40 watts of light and 200 watts of heat. That's good in the winter time, but becomes the equivalent of having small space heaters scattered around your house during the summer (the same can be said for LCD TVs and monitors vs. CRTs, though not for plasma).
Excellent point. My laptop gives off a lot of heat!
Excellent idea, we have changed out most of our light bulbs. I read somewhere (I'll try to find it) that over the life of a CFL you save $30.00 in the cost of replacement incandescent bulbs and the electricity. We have several in lamps that have been going strong for at least 5 years and survived and move cross country.
Saving money, resources and the planet....win, win, win!
I think the major problem is convincing people that the planet needs to be saved. I don't understand why people wont take the initiative to do a few simple things that would have a positive impact on the environment. You don't have to be a hippie. I think it's plain laziness.
When it comes to global warming I find when I talk in terms of pollution everyone agrees we are polluting the earth. When you keep the buzz phrase "global warming" out of the discussion even those who are skeptical about GW agree we need to keep taking steps to reduce pollution and they will suddenly become more amenable to doing actions like you brought up.
Its funny how one phrase can set people off. So I try hard to avoid it when talking to the neocons.
I use compact flourescent bulbs where we can. However, the wiring in our apartment must be completely craptacular because the CF bulbs burn out just as often as incandescent in many of our fixtures. So it's quite expensive to keep buying them.
I'm waiting for the price of LED bulbs to come down. Once those are affordable, they'll make a HUGE difference in energy usage.
That movie should be mandatory viewing, don'tcha think?
Sorry I've been away, your posts are excellent, need to read more to get more but keep 'em coming!
Mandatory viewing of "An Inconvenient Truth"? I hope not. I say, let's get infared goggles and turn our lights off altogether. We're so worried about carbon and methane...why don't you suggest we kill all termites, in order to eliminate thousands of metric tons of methane in our atmosphere. Eliminate all foods with lentils, beans, sulphuric foods like broccoli and cauliflower, and Italian cuisine so that we don't give off methane.
SHEESH! There's more lunacy here than Mordor.
No, the lunacy only started when you commented, "frodo".
Your red herring about termites and such is kind of old. There is a carbon balance in the earth and atmosphere. Your lentils removed CO2 from the atmosphere as they grew, and then they release it back when they decompose, whether in your gut or in the compost.
The balance can shift slightly up or down over long periods of time, and the earth's organisms can adapt.
It is quite different when you take CO2 collected from plants and animals over a period of many millions of years and release it into the atmosphere over a period of 200 years. It's even worse when you spew them out of a turbine 8 miles in the air.
Your comparison is like comparing getting a chest Xray for a thousand years with an atomic explosion which takes a few seconds.
I'll take the Xray, and eat the lentils. I'd rather skip the nuke and the CO2 supercharger, thank you.
Dusty,
Maybe it is the buzz word that gets people up in arms, but we have to call it something. The conservative right has been the king of buzz words, or the buzz word tzars through the whole of this administration, so they really don't have the right to complain.
Laura,
It does sound like bad wiring. complain to your landlord. If the faulty wiring is costing you money, it can also be dangerous. You don't want the place to catch on fire.
Dr. Deb,
I agree. I think it should be mandaroty viewing in schools and colleges. You can't really do much about adults, but you CAN convince your churches, libraries, YMCA's, PTA's and community centers to show it for free.
Frodo,
No one is sugesting that we do anything outlandish, we're merely suggesting that you cange a few lightbulbs. What the hell is your problem?
Moi? Have a problem? I love my lightbulbs and have no desire to change them. I'll burn them guilt free.
Fine. We're aslo not forcing you to do anything, but tha doesn't mean you can act like an asshole.
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