Wednesday, February 21, 2007
FIRST GUNS, NOW BULBS
Citizens, commence hoarding your bulbs:
Australia will be the world’s first country to ban incandescent lightbulbs in a bid to curb greenhouse gas emissions, with the government saying on Tuesday they would be phased out within three years and replaced by compact fluorescent lighting.
This’ll be a boon for bulb bootleggers.
Legislation to gradually restrict the sale of the old-style bulbs could reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by 4 million tons by 2012 and cut household power bills by up to 66 percent, said Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Australia produced almost 565 million tons of greenhouse gases in 2004, official figures show.
Australia’s output of greenhouse gases amounts to 1.6% of the global total. A reduction of 4 million tonnes in one year will cut that output to ... 1.58%. Not a bad trade in exchange for becoming a half-illuminated nation of squinty mole-people.
Prime Minister John Howard said the plan would help all Australians play a part in cutting harmful gas emissions: “Here’s something practical that everybody will participate in.”
Because they’ll have no choice. Have any other leaders tried this sort of thing? As it happens, yes:
Cuba’s Fidel Castro launched a similar program two years ago, sending youth brigades into homes and switching out regular bulbs for energy-saving ones to help battle electrical blackouts around the island.
The idea was later embraced by Castro’s friend and ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ...
Nice crowd you’re running with, John. Meanwhile, planned light reduction will doubtless be welcomed by the Mercenary Elite Age of Darkness. A non-profit organisation, surprisingly.
(Via Ken Summers and Raffi)
UPDATE. J.F. Beck: “Governments are spending billions of dollars a year on climate change research with pretty much the whole of Europe, academia, the left and MSM firmly on the bandwagon and the worry is that corporate-funded special interest groups are somehow going to derail the global warming juggernaut. Right.”
UPDATE II. Fairfax CEO (and darkness enthusiast) David Kirk sure has a way with words:
“Turning off the lights for 60 minutes across Sydney will enlighten people everywhere ... “