Earth Day 2008, part 2

From Thomas Sowell:

The latest political crusade is the crusade to replace ordinary light bulbs with the new CFL light bulb that is supposed to save electricity, reducing the need for fossil fuels and helping the fight against global warming.

Since crusaders seldom stop to weigh the cost of what they are advocating, it is especially important that the rest of us do so before we get swept along by rhetoric and emotions.

With the CFL light bulb, the initial cost -- several times that of a regular light bulb -- is only the financial cost. A bigger problem is what to do if a CFL light bulb breaks.

You are supposed to shut off all air conditioners or heaters, to keep them from circulating mercury vapor from the broken CFL. You are supposed to open windows and doors to air out the place.

Pregnant women and small children are supposed to leave the area while the mess is being cleaned up by someone else, wearing a dust mask and gloves.

What if there is only a pregnant woman present, with or without small children? And what if there is no dust mask around?

CFL light bulbs are only the latest in a long line of "solutions" that can turn out to be worse than the problem it is supposed to solve. But the crusaders will keep selling their solutions as long as we keep buying them.

A - frakin' - Men! Losers who have done absolutely nothing of significance with their lives can nevertheless feel a sense of accomplishment by buying into some trendy "cause". For many it is global warming. In generations past it was communism. Before that it was eugenics.

As long as mankind remains a fallen and imperfect creature there will always be some siren song to lead the weak minded away from a life of simple productivity and into some kind of Utopian fantasy.