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Seeing Energy in a New Light

Did you know: If every household in the United States replaced just one of its incandescent light bulbs with a compact fluorescent lamp, it would reduce an amount of carbon dioxide pollution equivalent to removing 1 million cars from the road?  That’s because they use less electricity to make the same amount of light.  Less electricity means less coal needs to be burned. And less coal burned to make electricity means less carbon into the atmosphere.  That fights global warming, because carbon dioxide is one of the main greenhouse gases causing climate change.

These compact fluorescent lamps aren’t what they used to be. They’re better, and more and more people are switching. Tired of brownouts and blackouts, and worried about reports of accelerating global warming, consumers are getting wise to the fact they can not only save energy but also save money by doing something as simple as changing a light bulb.

The average U.S. household spends about 11 percent of its energy budget on lighting. While these lamps do cost more than incandescent bulbs, they last about 10 times longer and use 2/3 less energy. In the end, they can save you a lot of money. For example, replacing a single 100-watt incandescent bulb with a 32-watt CFL bulb will save you $30 in energy costs over the life of the bulb. Just look around your house and count the number of bulbs you use to see how much you could cut down your own bill.

And money’s not all you can save. Switching light bulbs might seem like a small thing to do, but this one simple act can make a huge difference in reducing greenhouse gas emissions if enough people do it. In Manchester, VT, for example, citizens responding to a recent challenge purchased 40,000 CFL bulbs over six months. They’ll save $1.7 million collectively over the life of those bulbs (about 80,000 hours) and reduce carbon dioxide output in their city by 7,700 tons! That’s just one city.  Think of what an entire country could do!

Carbon dioxide emissions are one of the biggest contributors to global warming. Scientists believe we have a decade or less to dramatically cut back on carbon dioxide emissions before some of the consequences of global warming – such as the melting of the polar ice caps – become irreversible. Global warming has also been linked to public health problems, such as increase in mosquito-borne diseases since warmer climates breed larger mosquito populations.

To learn more about CFL light bulbs, go to http://www.eere.energy.gov/consumer/tips/lighting.html or http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=cfls.pr_cfls or

http://www.benningtonbanner.com/headlines/ci_3701332.

To learn more about how you can help reduce global warming, go to www.fightglobalwarming.com,

www.cleartheair.org or www.earthday.net

To read more about this and other environmental health issues, go to www.environmentalhealthnews.org, www.ourstolenfuture.org or www.healthandenvironment.org.