Ann Coulter On why global warming is religion on the left: "Because we can't prove them wrong for a thousand years, and I think the other thing about it is, it goes back to Chesterton's statement: that when people stop believing in God, the problem isn't that they believe in nothing, it's that they'll believe anything. And that's what you constantly see with people who don't believe in God: They're always imitating the most ridiculous, primitive religions. And it is like a primitive religion, thinking if we just change these light-bulbs, we can change the temperature of the ocean. It's the craziest thing! Even primitive people wouldn't believe something that silly."
Update: What you throw into the ocean comes back in on the tide. [See: NPR : CFL Bulbs Have One Hitch: Toxic Mercury "Mercury is a potent neurotoxin, and it's especially dangerous for children and fetuses."]
Lots of folks, it turns out, have problems with the mercury component of CFLS as a pollution problem in the home -- See Even downplayed, it still seems problematic @ Bookworm for a good summary with links. Nobody, it seems to me, has yet to attack the problem of exactly what we do with one billion CFLs (if we ever get there) and the 5 billion mgs of mercury that return to the environment every time we flip those bulbs for a billion new ones,and then, in time, flip those for a billion more. Will there be a new Federally mandated recycle bin in our backyards just for the bulbs? And will that mercury be recycled into more bulbs or into a salt-dome in Nevada?
Wal-Mart, which sells a lot of these bulbs to the new believers, is worried: "Wal-Mart to cut mercury in CFL bulbs."
Lest we forget what too much mercury just floating around your immediate abode can do:
The Minamata Disease
Then there's always the hope that this movement will wither on the vine as soon as people discover just how crappy the CFLs are as, well, lights.
Posted by Vanderleun at October 4, 2007 12:31 PM | TrackBackHow many CFL lightbulbs will I need to buy to offset just one of George Clooney's private jet jaunts to his villa in Lake Como, Italy?
Posted by: Mumblix Grumph at October 4, 2007 3:39 PMI hate those CFL bulbs. Cold, impersonal lighting.
Posted by: Norm at October 5, 2007 12:11 AMThe mercury problem is really exagerated.
5E9 milligram = 5E6 gram = 5E3kg = 5 tonn. Of mercury. For the entire world. I bet you 20 years ago a single sizable city had more mercury in mercury thermometers.
Also, what form is the mercury in? Metallic mercury is more or less harmless, vapors can cause acute poisoning, some organic compounds casue teh problems you refer to.
Thanks for the link. It is amazing how we leap blithely from one crisis to another, proving correct two timeless sayings: "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions" and "the law of unintended consequences."
Posted by: Bookworm at October 5, 2007 9:33 AMArkadiy has a point. Five tons of mercury is pretty small potatoes compared to what else is floating around "out there". I'm thinking particularly of the millions of tons of coal ash from coal-fired power-power plants, ash accumulated over many decades and stored in specially-contructed landfills. The ash is generally laden with heavy metals (lead, cadmium, etc., the mercury having been boiled off during combustion), and the landfills are built in such a way as to prevent leachate from getting into the groundwater.
In short, the coal ash is harmless because the nasty stuff can't get at anybody, and the mercury is spread out so thinly through the atmosphere that levels of it in our bodies never gets very high, due to lack of concentration.
The same idea applies to the CFLs. Yes, five tons is a lot of mercury. But how is all of it supposed to get into everybody all at once?
And don't forget that regular fluorescent tubes contain mercury, that they've been in widespread use since the '40s, and we aren't twitchy wrecks yet.
Lastly, my electricity use has dropped considerably since I converted to CFLs. Yeah, the light isn't the best, but I'm glad I saved $30 a month on my electric bill over this past summer (compared to last summer), much of that saving due to lower air-conditioner use-- the A/C doesn't have to run as much, not having to remove from my apartment all that heat that incandescent bulbs throw off.
Heck, the CFLs may even be preventing the addition of mercury to the environment-- lower electricity use means less coal burned, meaning less mercury going up the plants' stacks and into the atmosphere. And less lead and cadmium and other nasties in those special landfills.
Posted by: Hale Adams at October 5, 2007 5:25 PMA point. A sensible point. Several in fact. Thanks
Posted by: vanderleun at October 5, 2007 5:29 PMI think that this is another worthwhile point: I don't know the exact figures, but it is a known fact that coal power plants emit a significant amount of radioactive material - quite a lot more, in fact, than a nuke plant does in normal operation. This is from radionuclides found as impurities in the coal. Therefore, using less power leads to a lower-radiation environment, too.
Another point possibly worth mentioning is that LED lighting might well be replacing CFLs in the reasonably near future. LED lights are criticised for being harsh, but how about putting a few red and yellow LEDs in the fitting to make the light "warmer"? A room-light fitting would use quite a few LEDs, after all. And such a fitting would last pretty well forever. Oh, wait - maybe that's why nobody sells such fittings?
Posted by: Fletcher Christian at October 15, 2007 3:03 AM"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated to combat spam and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.