Global Warming...New Report...and it ain't happy news

So let's see. If replacing one bulb would accomplish all that, if we replaced ALL the bulbs currently in our home with CFLs, I think that would be a total of 32 bulbs give or take one or two in my house, According to the calculations in the quoted paragraph, we would then be saving enough energy to light more than 96 million homes and reduce greenhouse gas emissions the equivalent of that produced by more than 25.6 million automobiles. That would pretty much take care of all the energy needed for virtually all the homes in the USA and an offset of emissions for around 1/3 or so of the cars.

If it would be that easy to reverse AGW and/or meet IPPC standards, why wasn't that one of the suggested mandates?

Or did whoever wrote that miss something?

Walter Hinteler wrote:

miniTAX wrote:

... not to speak of the incompatibilty with dimmers...

How do you call the "dimmers" which are used with lampes fluorescente compactes? They work perfectly well - and look at least similar to what is generally named dimmer.

Dimmers (variators if you like) DON'T work on CFL. Maybe you'll find a few but most don't, just look at the wrapping. Mine tells this: "ne pas utiliser avec variateurs de lumières, commutateurs électroniques, cellules photoélectriques, minuteries et détecteur".

I'm against the fact that the danger of mercury in CFL is not properly labelled. Maybe you know there is mercury vapour in it, but Joe Sixpack doesn't necessarily. Maybe Jim Hacker would like to salvage the electronic components for his indoor nuclear reactor prototype.

That's darwinism at it's finest, friend.

The mercury danger coming out of coal smokestacks isn't labeled either, but I haven't seen you complaining about that. Same for the uranium.

Cycloptichorn

Ethanol is turning out to be a boondoggle.

Dimmers (variators if you like) DON'T work on CFL. Maybe you'll find a few but most don't, just look at the wrapping. Mine tells this: "ne pas utiliser avec variateurs de lumières, commutateurs électroniques, cellules photoélectriques, minuteries et détecteur".

Cycloptichorn wrote:

That's darwinism at it's finest, friend.

The mercury danger coming out of coal smokestacks isn't labeled either, but I haven't seen you complaining about that. Same for the uranium.

Cycloptichorn

You're just throwing out every pro-environmentalist pretext you can think of, aren't you.
Smokestacks have scruber and environmental standards and controllers and regular inspections. And its content is dilluted in cubic miles of air. Mercury vapour in CFL breaking in a room is for you and your family nose

I#d thaught you live in France? Otherwise you would have noticed that the bulbs are signed "RoHS" (= according to 2002/96/EG).

I don't know about your house but here in America we have 'windows' and many people even have 'central air conditioning.' It's not complicated to deal with this problem, not that there's any guarantee of the problem - as I said earlier the chances of breaking one are pretty slim overall.

Compare that to smokestacks - pumping out pollutants even AFTER the scrubbers do their job, every hour, every day, every year. Not even close, man.

Cycloptichorn

On March 13, Brandy Bridges was installing some of the two dozen CFL (compact fluorescent lamp) bulbs she had purchased in an attempt to save money on her energy bill.

One month later, though, Bridges is paying much more than she had ever expected to.

On that Tuesday, Bridges was installing one of the spiral-shaped light bulbs in her 7-year-old daughter's bedroom. Suddenly, the bulb plummeted to the floor, breaking on the shag carpet.

Bridges, who was wary of the dangers of cleaning up a fluorescent bulb, called The Home Depot where she purchased them. She was told that the bulbs had mercury in them and that she should not vacuum the area where the bulb had broken. Bridges was directed to call the Poison Control hotline.

Poison Control directed her to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Environmental Protection.

Bridges still isn't convinced. She's worried about her daughter staying in the same house for the next 11 years, potentially having long-term exposure to mercury. She's worried about the rest of her family's health.

And she's worried about "the state downplaying the threat of mercury and not letting people know the dangers coming from one bulb" and "telling everybody to clean it up themselves."


"I think they are putting people's safety and health at risk because they know what the financial repercussions are going to be for the consumer," said Bridges.

Cowger said it is important to ventilate the area by opening windows and not to vacuum the area of the broken bulb, which may spread the mercury. While wearing appropriate safety gloves, glasses, coveralls or old clothing and a dust mask, a person can remove the glass pieces and put them in a closed container.

The dust can be cleaned up using either two pieces of stiff paper, a disposal broom and dustpan or a commercial mercury spill kit. Afterward, the area should be patted with the sticky side of tape, according to the DEP Web site.

Cowger said all the items used in cleaning up the spill should be treated as "universal waste" or a household hazardous waste that can be disposed of without hiring professionals. He said that almost every town has a program for recycling or removing universal waste, which includes computers, electronic devices and fluorescent bulbs, at the transfer station.

"We encourage people not to panic if they break a lightbulb," said Cowger.

Cowger said the instructions on the Web site are the same for if a mercury thermometer breaks. If a person breaks anything bigger than a thermometer, for example a thermostat, Cowger recommends calling a professional to clean up the spill.

The DEP spokesman said, though, it "isn't necessary to hire professionals at all" for a light bulb. The specialist who responded to Bridges' broken bulb was trained to respond to chemical spills and to clean up such spills to "appropriate standards."

All major and minor European brands - as well as nearly cheapest Chinese (though I wouldn't trust them) - produce energy saving bulbs which can be use with dimmers.

]Here in France, I have bought Philips and Osram CFLs.

You're going to have to try a little harder then this, mkay? Nobody is really buying your alarmism outside the anti-global warming crowd.

Cycloptichorn

Cycloptichorn wrote:

You're going to have to try a little harder then this, mkay? Nobody is really buying your alarmism outside the anti-global warming crowd.

Cycloptichorn

So you have nothing to say about the lack of mercury signaling on CFL? Well, well.

The whole human-caused-global-warming movement is turning out to be a boondoggle.

ican711nm wrote:

The whole human-caused-global-warming movement is turning out to be a boondoggle.

Unsupported argument... again.

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