In the old days, not so long ago, people illuminated their homes and businesses with the luminosity of fire.  The obvious hazards are evident:  your house or business burning down,  breathing toxic gases, soot, constant maintenance keeping the flame alive and getting burned.  Either by candle, torch, oils or any number of luminescence sources to see in the dark; fire was the only source of light in the darkness.  With the invention of the electric light bulb, a whole new medium of bringing light to the world where there was only darkness.


Fire is still used in incandescence, but in a different way.  It emits a warm glow which produces heat and can come in many different colors.  Actually, that's an exaggeration, but I'll gamble a good one.  For years, this technology has been around helping us see in the night.  Guilty of using more power, but not harming the environment.  Not like some people would have you believe.


Fluorescent lights are nothing new.  They have been around for many years.  They are more energy efficient than incandescence light bulbs by consuming less electricity.  They last longer than incandescence lights.  Both give off about the same amount of light, but the type of light is different.   Incandescence lights tend to be more yellowish and warmer in color.  While fluorescent lights tend to be more whitish and sterile in color.

We use fluorescent lights in our home because they last longer than incandescence bulbs.  They are more expensive, but the cost of replacing incandescence lights and the lower electricity usage makes the fluorescent lights more cost effective.  We didn't use fluorescent lights to be environmentally conscience, but economically frugal.

Fluorescent lights are called environmental friendly, the carbon footprint lowering answer to Global Warming.  The fluorescent bulbs are called the solution to saving the world.  But now, those same environmentalist are warning of a potential problem of disposing used fluorescent light bulbs.



Like all fluorescent lamps, CFLs contain mercury; this complicates the disposal of fluorescent lamps and causes a health risk when they are broken.

Environmentalist and Global Warming (Climate) alarmist created an hysteria that had the public rushing to replace every light bulb in their house to try and reduce their so called, carbon footprint.  In the rush to find a solution to a perceived and unproven problem, people spent hundreds of dollars replacing their incandescence light bulbs with fluorescent light bulbs.  Congress has put forth legislation to eliminate incandescence light bulbs and outlaw the use of incandescence light bulbs.

Here in Hawai'i they've come up with a special container to place your used fluorescent bulbs and mail them to a recycling center for proper disposal.  However, the first container is free, after that you have to pay for the additional containers and the cost of postage.  Now all of a sudden the cost of incandescence light bulbs are more cost effective than fluorescent bulbs.




I'm all for protecting the environment, but not at the expense of my hard earned money.  The scare of Global Warming has people making bad decisions to worse decisions and Global Warming, Climate Change, whatever you want to call it, is still unproven.  The debate is NOT over.




Over the past year, evidence for a stable planet has been documented by the colder than expected temperatures all over the world.  North America has had some of the coldest winters on record.  South America, Africa and Australia have experienced some of the coldest winters on record.  The list goes on and on.  What does it all mean?  Serious Questions.  Simple as that.


Can the temperature of the world be measured in all places at the same time?

The answer is no.  The earth is in three dimensions.  Besides ground temperature, there is water temperature, air temperature and at different elevations and depths temperatures will be different and changing all the time.  Because the earth spins on its axis and orbits around the sun, finding a constant temperature at any one time is impossible.  Scientist have tried to model the earths temperatures using computers, but that has inherent flaws and will give inaccurate results.  You can have the most powerful and fastest simulators in the world, but if your models are wrong, your results will be wrong.  We call that Garbage In, Garbage Out. GIGO



Some environmentalist have tried to blame bovine flatulence for global warming.  In the rush to combat an imaginary problem, oil companies have been using ethanol as a fuel substitute.  Ethanol from corn.  The consequences of using food for fuel is apparent.  Higher food prices.  Plus there is no benefit using ethanol.  Just some feel good feeling that you're doing something for the environment when in reality you're creating more problems and using more energy.




Remember when we were told that we're cutting down too many trees?  We were told to stop using paper bags and use plastic bags to help prevent deforestation. Now that's all changed.  Plastic bags are made using petroleum products.  So now we can't use plastic or paper bags.  So now the stores are selling reusable bags.  It's a market, and like all other markets, someone is getting rich off the stupidity of others.

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