ecogeek.org — OK, I'm officially sick of it. Let's stop talking about changing our world by changing your light bulbs. There are a few reasons why people tell you that switching from incandescents to CFLs should be done, and they're all crap reasons. I'm tired of it.
Aug 30, 2008 View in Crawl 4
doodAug 31, 2008
The resources could have been used to continue wasting power and burning more fuel to do so. I don't see that as a win, but I'm not in the business of generating power or mining for energy.
derrekitoAug 31, 2008
Hopefully sooner.
mouskyAug 31, 2008
"When costs are raised artificially (as they are whenever legislation mandates this or that technology), resources are squandered."Not really. When the price or cost of something is increased, artificially or otherwise, it forces people to use their resources more efficiently. You squander resources when a policy forces prices or costs down, because the incentive to be efficient has been removed.
docbob84Sep 1, 2008
I'm not too worried about the mercury, to be honest. Most have about 4 milligrams of mercury (about the size of the "ball" on a ballpoint pen), compared to about 500 mg in the old thermometers (which I also keep, maybe it's a mercury thing). Unless you're breaking bulbs like that every day there's nothing to worry about, and mercury doesn't leak if the bulbs aren't broken. Plus when I figure all fluorescent bulbs in stores, the hospital and office I work at, all have mercury, it's just not something I worry about. It's kind of like the radiation dose you get from living in a brick house with granite countertops, measurable but not enough for me to worry about. I think it's a reason to not ban incandescents, though; if you feel that strongly about mercury or radiation, you should be allowed to avoid CFL's or MRI machines, respectively. It's about having the choice, I've made mine and I'll respect yours. :)
Closed AccountSep 2, 2008
"and yet, the price of gas (just as a bit of energy) is dropping now. high prices aren't inevitable. "Oil supplies will eventually dwindle (it's a finite resource after all) and prices will go up (unless demand falls sharply, which I believe is the cause of the small price dip currently)."Now...the problem will come when politicians offer "solutions" to the "energy crisis," primarily consisting of mandated low prices to end users."Now I agree, this is freaking scary and quite possible. This is why the only business government should have in the marketplace is trust-busting.
Closed AccountSep 4, 2008
I have the cheapest ones I could find :)