blog.josephhall.com

I ran across an interesting item in my feed reader the other day. In brief, there is a site that claims to be an energy-efficient version of Google, just because it uses a black background instead of white. The problem is, black screens are actually less energy-efficient on LCD monitors than on CRTs. And since the world is trying to leave CRTs behind, Blackle is actually doing more harm than good with its black backgrounds.

This reminded me of another site that I happened upon recently. The basic gist is, peta, an organization that claims to be saving animals, is actually killing them by the boatload. In my opinion, the problem isn't so much that they're euthanizing animals, as it is that they're trying to cover it up. But the focus of this site seems to be the other part of it: an organization that claims to be saving animals is actually killing animals. More harm than good.

While I was mentioning these things to my brother, he brought up another one. Sorry, no link on this one, but I'm sure there's something out there. Ordinary indandescent bulbs are being replaced by compact flourescent bulbs everywhere. The problem is, flourescent bulbs contain mercury, a known toxin. At our house we've been systematically replacing indandescent bulbs with flourescent bulbs, as the indandescent bulbs burn out. I haven't had a flourescent bulb burn out yet (we moved in less than a year ago, and are supposed to expect many years to come), but when one does burn out we're supposed to take it to a special center or something to dispose of it, because of the mercury.

I don't know about you, but I don't know where this magical, mystical place of compact flourescent bulb recycling is. And I'd be willing to bet that most of America has no clue either. In fact, I'd be surprised if the majority of Americans knew that they were screwing in little mercury capsules into all of those electrical sockets in their house.

I guess there's a few lessons to take away here. I think I may have said some of them before, like don't take medical advice from me because I'm not a doctor and in fact can't even manage to open a computer without cutting myself. Also, logic that seems infallable to you might be absolutely idiotic to somebody who actually knows what they're talking about. And let's not forget that just because some big, faceless organization claims to be helping you help the environment, doesn't mean they're telling the whole story.

Maybe it's time to start questioning things instead of taking them for granted.

UPDATE: Okay, it was weird enough that so many people posted about the CFLs. But I didn't mind because some intelligent things were being said. Then somebody posted without reading the other comments, and it seemed a little less intelligent.

Look, if you're that worried about the CFLs, just get an LED-based light bulb. They have no mercury, they use even less power than the CFLs, and they'll last much, much longer. They're also terribly expensive right now, but if you're that worried about both mercury and incandescent bulbs, they're really your best shot.

And that's it. I'm shutting of comments on this post.