Greenwashing - energy saver light bulbs

After decades of ignoring and ridiculing climate change, both business and government are running to catch up. Ever since the Economist Sir Nicholas Stern’s report spelt out the financial cost of global warming, those who had invested so much energy in laughing at green ideas (bloody hippies) are falling over themselves to move towards green solutions.

However their green solutions are not green but mostly toxic substitutes. Take the energy saver light bulb. This is the light bulb every one who went to see Al Gores ‘Inconvenient truth’ were asked to buy in order to counter the affects of climate change. This was a joke to authentic greenies who knew that changing a light bulb would do didly squat in reducing green house gas emissions, especially when one had to personally drive their used light bulbs to the hazardous waste dump on account it had small amounts of mercury in it.

Suddenly the entire world is being asked to replace an Edison light bulb with a toxic but longer lasting one. Don’t worry about the mercury it’s only a tiny amount the spin misters tell us, But real authentic organic greenies would tell you that like all the different chemical residues continually found in our food from pesticide spray, these things will accumulate over time the more they become popular. So if the entire world raced out and bought these energy saver mercury light bulbs the world would be awash in a sea of mercury that it never had before. 

How can that be good for the environment?

Going green is about taking toxins out of the environment – not putting them back in!

Each bulb contains an average of 5 milligrams of mercury, which is just enough to cover a ballpoint pen tip.

Obviously its good for the makers of CFL’s who stand to make billions or even trillions of dollars as good green minded global citizens drive in droves to shops in order to feel good about doing their bit for global warming and reducing their ecological foot print.  Ironically this feel good option will increase your ecological foot print, not reduce it.

Here's a hint: As "Deep Throat" famously told Washington Post "Watergate" reporter Bob Woodward, "Follow the money."

If my house, which is a large 1+ brm which needs six new toxic light bulbs and yours is a 3 brm that needs in excess of six new bulbs and there are how many houses in New Zealand who make the change, then how many toxic light bulbs will be spewing how much mercury into our hazardous waste dump – you do the math.  And after you do that, figure out how much global warming emissions each of us will be leeching into the environment as we drive our single dead mercury filled light bulb to the tip.

But – then it occurs to me that if we are environmentally minded we might store up our used/broken mercury light bulbs in our home until we have enough to justify a trip to the hazardous waste station – would that be dangerous? Will driving to the hazardous waste station become a new family adventure; Toxic waste tours any one? and is it free to dispose of these bulbs?

All this and we haven’t even factored in how fluorescents can affect some people.   If we are seriously concerned about the environment we need to be vigilant of toxic substitutes that add more dangerous waste into our environment. Perhaps all this is going to wake people up to the third crisis this planet refuses to acknowledge – the saturation of toxic chemicals built up in our environment from our extensive use of cheap petro based chemical.

Energy saver CFL light bulbs may save us X amount on our electricity bills but they cost more to make, and cost us much more to dispose of.

Promoting these light bulbs is not a green alternative, the production is energy intensive, and its end product is toxic requiring hazardous waste disposal as contrasted with the bulbs we have now which are made from the most abundant substances on earth, glass and steel and are totally recyclable. And if we were really serious about being energy efficient what are we to make of the American trend of using a years worth of energy wattage by covering your house in Christmas lights.

No, I’m not the Grinch, but the fact is that climate change is going to force us – willing or not to make some radical changes in our lives and its obvious that if we are at all sincere about the impact our mostly unconscious lifestyles have on the environment, we are going to have to become ever vigilant of greenwashing alternatives like these ‘feel good’ toxic light bulbs that require us to use more energy and place us in hazardous situations.

This is not good environmentalism its more hype and spin from governments and industry that have vested interest in getting you to continue a business as usual approach so that nothing really need change. Mercury is a Neuro toxin and we want to work to reduce these in our environments not add more.

Disposing of a broke mercury fill light bulb brings something into your life that you never had to think about before – heres one piece of advice found on a web site, “Open the windows and let the room air out for 15 to 30 minutes, then remove as much material as possible without a vacuum cleaner. Using disposable gloves, scoop the glass onto a piece of cardboard and wipe the area with a wet paper towel. For smaller pieces of glass and powder, use duct tape to pull up the fragments and wash your hands after cleaning up the debris.”

Consumers in dark over risks – a must read article of what happened to one women when one of these toxic light bulbs broke in her daughters room

Dangers of energy saving light bulbs