Dissident Veteran For Peace: The One-Million Bulb Swap-Out

Dissident Veteran For Peace

"I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America." —Alexis de Tocquevile. Democracy in America, Book I, Chapter XV.

With a nod to the Most Rev. Dom Helder Camara: When I support Palestinians some call me an 'anti-Semite', when I try to explain why I stand in solidarity with Palestinians they call me a Nazi.

"WAR is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives." —Major General Smedley Butler, USMC (ret.)

"... no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end." —character of O'Brien in 1984, part 3, ch. 3 by George Orwell.

"Every prophet has realized that nobody loves you for being the enemy of their illusions. Every prophet has realized that most of us want peace at any price as long as the peace is ours and somebody else pays the price. That is why the prophet Jeremiah said, ' "Peace, peace," they say, when there is no peace,' ..." —The Rev. William Sloane Coffin. "Not to Bring Peace, But a Sword."

Thursday, July 27, 2006

The One-Million Bulb Swap-Out

Here's an interesting campaign by Environmental Defense to get people to fight global warming by switching from regular light bulbs to compact fluorescent light bulbs. They say:

Why Switch?

What costs less than two grande lattes, saves you a bunch of money and helps save the planet?

Compact fluorescent bulbs.
They screw into ordinary light sockets.
They give the same light as traditional bulbs.
Replace one 100-watt bulb with a just-as-bright 30-watt compact fluorescent, and cut more than 1,300 pounds of the global warming pollutant carbon dioxide over the life of the bulb. Swap out two bulbs to lower your household emissions by more than a ton!

It's that easy!

Don't forget, though, compact fluorescent bulbs like other fluorescent lights contain mercury, which is a toxic substance and an environmental hazard. Don't just throw them in the garbage when they burn out. Read what Treehugger has to say about mercury in CFLs versus incandescent bulbs here.

Labels: energy, environment, technology