Posted by
JayPeriod on Wednesday, January 09, 2008 3:18:19 PM
I suppose since it has to do with the government, I should suppose that no one thought before they acted. The FDA has been approving new drugs on its fast track and more and more drugs are being pulled for having dangerous side affects that they couldn't have possibly know because there weren't enough tests. Now, Congress moved to stop global warming (oops, global climate change) that they may have acted too fast and may do more damage to the environment.
As part of the new energy bill, regular light bulbs are being outlawed because they use just too much electricity. In doing so, they are causing the planet to warm and melt the ice caps. We are going to be forced to purchase the expensive compact florescent lightbulbs, CFLs. This will save the planet.
Or, so they thought. A study that was released in Great Britain shows that the amount of mercury in the CFLs may be high enough to require you to leave the room for 15 minutes if it breaks. Some debate this idea, but in any event, that mercury will be released into landfills as they are thrown away and broken as other trash settles on top of it. That mercury will then trickle down into the water tables, killing wildlife and plant life.
The alternative is for us to turn them into recycle centers, which will have to be set up to handle the bulbs. Of course, they'll want to charge us for this recycling, which most won't pay, so the bulbs will end up in the landfill any way. Our government has outsmarted itself once again. All this could have been avoided if they just wouldn't get into this knee-jerk reactionary mindset. With more and more scientists, in all fields, walking away from the idea that man is affecting climate change, due in part to the complete lack of actual evidence, it seems a little research and thinking would have been well advised before we start killing fish and plants with high levels of mercury.