Do the light thing to help prevent global warming

Staff Editorial • Chicago Tribune

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Friday, March 16, 2007
(MCT)—Fluorescent light bulbs use 75 percent less energy than the familiar incandescent bulbs. Fluorescents also last up to 10 times longer. And because they draw less juice from power plants, they indirectly contribute lower greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere. But they are also ugly, cast a harsh and unforgiving light, and cost eight times as much.
People who care about global warming or energy costs are working to overcome those product shortfalls. The Department of Energy notes that if each American household replaced just one incandescent bulb with a fluorescent, we’d save enough energy to light 2.5 million homes for a year and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of 800,000 cars.
A number of local and state governments have already made the change in their buildings. But how do you get individuals and companies to switch? 

You can send a youth brigade into homes to swap bulbs, as Fidel Castro did in Cuba. You can offer instant rebates to encourage shoppers to buy fluorescents, as Maine’s Public Utilities Commission has done. Or you can try to pass a law against incandescent bulbs, California-style. The proposed How Many Legislators Does It Take to Change a Light Bulb Act would ban incandescents in California by 2012. 

This seems heavy-handed and unnecessary, especially since the fluorescent bandwagon is starting to roll on its own. In Connecticut, the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life celebrated Hanukkah by helping congregations convert to fluorescent. Countless green groups across the country are encouraging people to change their bulbs as well. 

So how many legislators does it take to change a light bulb? Zero—unless you think only government mandates can motivate changes in our buying behavior.
Education, encouragement and incentives will lead us to the light.
© 2007 Chicago Tribune