CFLs do more harm than good

Having insisted that in order to "save the planet" from "catastrophic climate change" we all throw away our evil capitalist incandescent bulbs/globes and replace them with CFLs (compact fluorescent lights), the UN is now wringing its hands about all the mercury floating around, much of which comes from the "improper" disposal of ... CFLs.

And by the way, don't ask me what "proper" disposal is, since Governments haven't bothered to think of that, despite passing laws banning incandescents. In Australia, each council has its own rules, very few have specialised CFL disposal arrangements (and those that do will charge you for it), and the general advice is chuck 'em in the garbage... forward thinking by Krudd & Co as always (see here).

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on Sunday urged environment ministers meeting this week in Nairobi to adopt a strategy to curb the use of the highly toxic metal mercury.

"The world's environment ministers meeting in Nairobi, Kenya this week can take a landmark decision to lift a global health threat from the lives of hundreds of millions of people," UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said in a statement.

Not only that, here at ACM we detest the light from CFLs, which take an age to warm up, are hopelessly dull, and often flicker annoyingly. Long live the filament bulb.

And The Age can't help throwing in a "climate change" message, just for good luck:

As climate change melts the Arctic, mercury trapped in the ice and sediments is being re-released back into the oceans and into the food chain, UNEP said.

Read it here.