If you listen to the ecofreaks, or if you are just frugal like me... you most likely have switched, or are at least thinking of changing all your light bulbs to CFL's. Some governments are forcing you to change and not even giving you the option. That includes the Canadian government. By now, everyone knows that they contain mercury, which in itself can be a minor hazard should you break a CFL bulb. You probably also know that the vast majority of CFL bulbs are made in China. Read cheap labour and cheap product. China is not known for their quality assurance now are they. Not to mention that their environmental record is deplorable. Now studies are revealing that they can be more dangerous to some people than we ever thought. For some people at least, this may not be the brightest solution.
They can cause skin cancer, aggravate existing medical problems, trigger migraines, and...who knows what other studies will discover in the future...
Friday, January 04, 2008
And this is one of the cures?
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Climate Change Smorg
Many have seen the Liberal TV Ad portraying Dion slamming down the gavel and declaring... "decided!", that supposedly shows he is a leader. How many actually know what the add is talking about? What was decided? Lorrie Goldstein explains
In the end, the diplomats managed to eke out an agreement for a two-year round of non-binding talks under the UNFCCC that 'will not open any negotiations leading to new commitments' (as the official wording says) but could set the stage for future talks.
So basically Dion managed to get everyone to decide to talk about doing more talking about Kyoto. What an amazing accomplishment! Way to go Stephen, you the man...
If Greg Weston's family of 3 plus his pooch are "filthy-Earth-warming-gas-belching eco-terrorists", then I can't fathom what environment Canada would consider me... I went to the site at Environment Canada Greg speaks about in the article linked to above. According to their calculator, I am pumping out about 13.9 tonnes of greenhouse gases yearly. That does not include the methane that I just can't seem to get under control, as they don't ask about that or I am sure the number would be much much higher. They claim the Canadian average is 5.5 tonnes. Now I don't know how this calculator works, but I live in an older 1000 sq ft home that I have renovated substantially. Extra insulation, new windows, new hot water tank, new furnace, energy star appliances, and the list goes on. I have even switched as much of the lighting as I can to CFL's. I drive a small 4 cyl vehicle that is well maintained. I produce less that one bag of garbage and less than one bag of recyclables per month, which is mostly junk mail and flyer's! I have no idea what more I could do to reduce things further. I guess I am penalized substantially for living alone with my faithful dog.
Baird fires back at Gore's attack on climate plan
"It is difficult to accept criticism from someone who preaches about climate change, but who never submitted the Kyoto Protocol to a vote in the United States Senate, who never did as much as Canada is now doing to fight climate change during eight years in office, and who has campaigned exclusively for hundreds of Democratic candidates who have weaker plans to fight greenhouse gases than Canada's New Government."
"We're going much farther than Al Gore went. He was the second most powerful man in the world and greenhouse gas emissions went up when he was vice-president."
"You know, it's easy when you've had the big job and then you're on the side lines -- it's easy to complain," Baird added. "My responsibility, our government's responsibility, is to act. If we came forward with our environmental plan in the United States, they'd call it revolutionary because it's so tough."
So to some things up here, all those people including Dion and Gore that are criticizing this plan as not doing enough, have in fact done nothing when they had the power to do something. Wonder why that is?
Moving right along... Be very careful switching over to the new CFL bulbs. You certainly don't want to end up like Brandy Bridges of Ellsworth, Maine, who unfortunately broke a CFL bulb in her daughters bedroom...
Aware that CFLs contain potentially hazardous substances, Bridges called her local Home Depot for advice. The store told her that the CFL contained mercury and that she should call the Poison Control hotline, which in turn directed her to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.
It just gets worse from then on...
Lastly we have another story coming from Mars... Climate change hits Mars
Mars is being hit by rapid climate change and it is happening so fast that the red planet could lose its southern ice cap, writes Jonathan Leake.
Scientists from Nasa say that Mars has warmed by about 0.5C since the 1970s. This is similar to the warming experienced on Earth over approximately the same period.
Since there is no known life on Mars it suggests rapid changes in planetary climates could be natural phenomena.
But that can't be right... that goes against everything we are hearing from the eco freaks. It must be the wind! Ya thats it...
In a paper published in the journal Nature, she suggests that such winds can stir up giant dust storms, trapping heat and raising the planet’s temperature.
Just cannot be the big ball of fire in the sky causing the heating on the planets... no frickin way... uh uh... deny deny deny... common sense is still dead...
Saturday, April 07, 2007
The Battle of the Bulb
The war has just begun and the church of climatology has won a few of the battles so far, and will no doubt win several more. They use propaganda to convince the public how dire their cause is. Distorting and exaggerating the truth is the norm as is pushing for change that they claim will save our planet. Yet it seems that many of their cures are worse than the problem once you take a good look at them. The banning of the incandescent electric light bulb in favor of the compact fluorescent bulb, as it turns out, might yet be another one of those not so well thought out plans. Unless of course you have invested in the Chinese market that manufacturers most of the CF bulbs and don't mind the fact that China is doing nothing to help the cause of fighting the evil climate change.
I will admit that I personally had changed over to CFL's a couple years ago to try to lower my electric bill, and it did seem to work. Or did it? The one thing I forgot to account for was the fact that I went from being a two person household to a single person household at about the same time I switched over. My daughter moved out on her own so no more lights left on for no apparent reason, no more stereo's etc. operating 24/7. I have yet to replace a single one of them due to them breaking or burning out. As a result I have not added to the mercury problem that this change might cause. I will also note that Edmonton, being one of the leaders in this country in recycling, does have a program that excepts fluorescent bulbs at either of the two ECO Stations which helps, as long as people are not too lazy, as is often the case, to use them.