Hazmat and the Lightbulb

Why are fluorescent light bulbs touted as more energy and eco conscious?

It seems that someone said that they were and therefore they are. This is my conclusion because everything about them seems less green than the Average-Joe-Light bulb. After all, they contain mercury and are therefore hazardous to dispose of and they save (maybe) a few cents on electrical bills where they are utilized. And, as for my house, they seem to burn out at the same rate, if not sooner than their opponent, Average-Joe-Light bulb.

Do you need Hazmat to dispose of a broken eco-bulb? No, just this giant list (longer than my kids' lists to Santa Claus) of clean-up procedures from the EPA...

Before Clean-up: Air Out the Room

Have people and pets leave the room, and don't let anyone walk through the breakage area on their way out.
Open a window and leave the room for 15 minutes or more.
Shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system, if you have one.
Clean-Up Steps for Hard Surfaces

Carefully scoop up glass pieces and powder using stiff paper or cardboard and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.
Wipe the area clean with damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes. Place towels in the glass jar or plastic bag.
Do not use a vacuum or broom to clean up the broken bulb on hard surfaces.
Clean-up Steps for Carpeting or Rug

Carefully pick up glass fragments and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.
If vacuuming is needed after all visible materials are removed, vacuum the area where the bulb was broken.
Remove the vacuum bag (or empty and wipe the canister), and put the bag or vacuum debris in a sealed plastic bag.
Clean-up Steps for Clothing, Bedding and Other Soft Materials

If clothing or bedding materials come in direct contact with broken glass or mercury-containing powder from inside the bulb that may stick to the fabric, the clothing or bedding should be thrown away. Do not wash such clothing or bedding because mercury fragments in the clothing may contaminate the machine and/or pollute sewage.
You can, however, wash clothing or other materials that have been exposed to the mercury vapor from a broken CFL, such as the clothing you are wearing when you cleaned up the broken CFL, as long as that clothing has not come into direct contact with the materials from the broken bulb.
If shoes come into direct contact with broken glass or mercury-containing powder from the bulb, wipe them off with damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes. Place the towels or wipes in a glass jar or plastic bag for disposal.
Disposal of Clean-up Materials

Immediately place all clean-up materials outdoors in a trash container or protected area for the next normal trash pickup.
Wash your hands after disposing of the jars or plastic bags containing clean-up materials.
Check with your local or state government about disposal requirements in your specific area. Some states do not allow such trash disposal. Instead, they require that broken and unbroken mercury-containing bulbs be taken to a local recycling center.
Future Cleaning of Carpeting or Rug: Air Out the Room During and After Vacuuming

The next several times you vacuum, shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system and open a window before vacuuming.
Keep the central heating/air conditioning system shut off and the window open for at least 15 minutes after vacuuming is completed.

Geez! You could actually work during the clean-up time, make a couple hundred dollars, and spend a fraction of it on new bulbs without mercury. What do you think?

The problem with global warming is "global warming"

Seeking to Save the Planet, With a Thesaurus

By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: May 1, 2009
WASHINGTON — The problem with global warming, some environmentalists believe, is “global warming.”

The term turns people off, fostering images of shaggy-haired liberals, economic sacrifice and complex scientific disputes, according to extensive polling and focus group sessions conducted by ecoAmerica, a nonprofit environmental marketing and messaging firm in Washington.

Instead of grim warnings about global warming, the firm advises, talk about “our deteriorating atmosphere.” Drop discussions of carbon dioxide and bring up “moving away from the dirty fuels of the past.” Don’t confuse people with cap and trade; use terms like “cap and cash back” or “pollution reduction refund.”

EcoAmerica has been conducting research for the last several years to find new ways to frame environmental issues and so build public support for climate change legislation and other initiatives. A summary of the group’s latest findings and recommendations was accidentally sent by e-mail to a number of news organizations by someone who sat in this week on a briefing intended for government officials and environmental leaders.

Asked about the summary, ecoAmerica’s president and founder, Robert M. Perkowitz, requested that it not be reported until the formal release of the firm’s full paper later this month, but acknowledged that its wide distribution now made compliance with his request unlikely.

The research directly parallels marketing studies conducted by oil companies, utilities and coal mining concerns that are trying to “green” their images with consumers and sway public policy.

Environmental issues consistently rate near the bottom of public worry, according to many public opinion polls. A Pew Research Center poll released in January found global warming last among 20 voter concerns; it trailed issues like addressing moral decline and decreasing the influence of lobbyists. “We know why it’s lowest,” said Mr. Perkowitz, a marketer of outdoor clothing and home furnishings before he started ecoAmerica, whose activities are financed by corporations, foundations and individuals. “When someone thinks of global warming, they think of a politicized, polarized argument. When you say ‘global warming,’ a certain group of Americans think that’s a code word for progressive liberals, gay marriage and other such issues.”

The answer, Mr. Perkowitz said in his presentation at the briefing, is to reframe the issue using different language. “Energy efficiency” makes people think of shivering in the dark. Instead, it is more effective to speak of “saving money for a more prosperous future.” In fact, the group’s surveys and focus groups found, it is time to drop the term “the environment” and talk about “the air we breathe, the water our children drink.”

“Another key finding: remember to speak in TALKING POINTS aspirational language about shared American ideals, like freedom, prosperity, independence and self-sufficiency while avoiding jargon and details about policy, science, economics or technology,” said the e-mail account of the group’s study.

To read the rest of the story click HERE (New York Times).

Scientists Disagree With Gore?

"Glenn Beck: Scientists disagree with Gore?

March 3, 2009 - 13:05 ET

VOICE: The Glenn Beck Program presents Spotlight on Science, a series dedicated to President Obama's passion for everything science.


GLENN: Japanese scientists have a dramatic break with UN and Western climate hypothesis in a new report from the Japanese energy commission. One of the five contributors compared computer climate modeling to ancient astrology. Now they are disagreeing with astrology, too. Astrology is settled. Hello. Three out of the five leading scientists contend that recent climate change is driven by natural cycles, not human industrial activity as political activists argue. Scientists. I don't think so. I mean, what are their qualifications? Were they vice president? I doubt it, no, never a vice president of the United States. Who are these people? Kanya Kusano, he is the program director and group leader for the Earth simulator at the Japan Agency For Marine-Earth Science and Technology, or JAMSTEC, which is one of my favorite -- I love. This is so great. Anyway, he has a doctorate of science from the University of Hiroshima which I assume is, well, at least probably has some relatively new research facilities along with all the other facilities and parking lots and everything else. But his expertise is in simulation science, plasma physics, space physics, astrosciences, fusion science, magneto-hydrodynamics which isn't like the Fantastic Four, isn't that -- oh, it's Japan, that's right. And multiscale modeling. I personally, I don't want to get all snooty here and scientific here but my personal favorite from him is probably the three-dimensional simulation study of flux rope dynamics in the solar corona. It was published in the astrophysical journal, but you could convince me. I mean, you could make a good argument that the measurement of magnetic helicity injection and free energy loading into the solar corona still holds up as an entertaining read. I mean, sometimes I still read that and go, that is so great. Anyway, the other guy is the head of the International Arctic Research Center in Alaska. He uses historical data to challenge the claim that the very recent temperatures represent an anomaly. Before anyone noticed this hypothesis has been substituted for truth, the opinion that great disaster will really happen must be broken. Akasofu, the other scientist, as you probably know being a scientific-minded person because it's the Obama administration. We're all putting science right where she belongs, he was named as the world's most cited scientist on space physics, but I mean, what do the physics of a place where that giant magic ball of fire lives, I mean, what does that have to do with warming here on Earth? I mean, it's crazy. Sure, don't get me wrong, I loved his paper on polar and magnetospheric sub storms. I still bring his paper on dynamics and the magnetosphere on vacation just to read at the beach. Come on, these guys aren't real scientists. Real science is practiced by those of us lucky enough to narrowly lose a presidential election, you know, when you blow your own home state. That's where real science is. Let's put science back in her rightful place, you know, right back within Al Gore's giant cranium.


VOICE: You've been listening to Spotlight on Science, exclusively heard on the Glenn Beck Program, America's number one source for science and science-related items." -- Glenn Beck

Do You Pledge Your Allegiance to Obama?

This is something forwarded to me by a friend that is interesting, yet not surprising.

"Posted: January 20, 2009
9:25 pm Eastern

By Drew Zahn
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

In a new YouTube video produced by Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions, dozens of celebrities – television and movie actors, sports heroes, musicians and more – describe how they will pledge to "be the change" and "be a servant to our president."

The video opens with a quote from President Truman, "They say that the job of the president is the loneliest job in the world," something the celebrities plan to alleviate for Obama by pledging to pitch in through several causes.

Throughout the video, the celebrities pledge to support local food banks, to smile more, to be better parents, to work with the charity UNICEF, to "never give anyone the finger when I'm driving again," to help find a cure for Alzheimer's, to meet neighbors, to use less plastic, to plant 500 trees, to "be more green," to turn the lights off and to "free 1 million people from slavery in the next five years," among dozens of other pledges.

The purpose of all this pledging is summed up in the video's grand finale.
Actors Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher begin the closing scene by saying, "I pledge to be a servant to our president and all mankind."

Then, as the scene pans out, the other celebrities joint the chant: "Because together we can, together we are, and together we will be the change that we seek."
By the end of the mass pledge, the camera has panned back to a mosaic of faces that morphs into a picture of Barack Obama's face with the words, "Be the change."

While many of the celebrity promises – such as drinking less bottled water or being a better mom – may seem innocuous, other pledges touch on controversial subjects. Actress Alyssa Milano, for example, pledges "to be the voice for those that have no voice," a concept claimed by many pro-life advocates.

Other celebrities touch on politicized issues like pledging to "advance stem cell research" or to "sell my obnoxious car and buy a hybrid."

Black athlete Michael Strahan, for example, pledges "to consider myself an American, not an African American."

And while several of the celebrities attempt to portray heartfelt emotion and others attempt to be funny in their pledges, tattooed celebrity Anthony Kiedis of the band Red Hot Chili Peppers may have been going for the shock effect.

"I pledge allegiance to the funk, to the United Funk of Funkadelica," says Kiedis. Later, while kissing his own biceps, he further declares, "I pledge to be of service [kiss] to Barack Obama [kiss]."

Near the end of the video, the celebrities took turns looking into the camera and challenging, "What's your pledge?"

Not surprisingly, viewer reaction and comments on the video have been widely mixed.
One cynical poster responds, "Why did it take Obama to get elected for these Hollywood libs to pledge? Be a better father? Why did you wait so long?"
Several others responded that the celebrity pledges were "inspiring."

One poster writes, "I pledge to not stop here, but to continue to engage the community in making my community, this state, this nation and this world a better, more beautiful place."

Another contributor, however, while not criticizing the effort to volunteer or improve America, nonetheless took exception to the celebrities promising to serve President Obama.

"I pledge to keep treating the President of the United States of America as the public servant that he is supposed to be," writes the contributor. "I pledge to attempt to correct anyone who thinks that we owe some allegiance to Barack Obama the man, rather than the country he is supposed to represent."

The poster concluded, "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic, for which it stands: one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

One of the comments is "And so now we see the rise of the Obama-nation of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not . . . . . . amazing, simply amazing"