CFL's and Fox News

Early morning fog is nestled in the valleys and slowly disappearing.

Fox news did another one of their silly rants and picked on CFL's (compact fluorescent light bulbs). The woman reporter introduced those evil funny looking light bulbs as "really expensive" which right off the bat tells you a couple of things - either she never goes shopping (not!), is using last century's information (so much for "news") or they accidentally lie to add fuel to the fire. They sell for only one dollar each at most stores.

Yes CFL's contain mercury and they always have. Those long office ones (FOX probably has them all over their studio) have always contained mercury, for decades, and no one jumped up and down before. It was common practice to smash them in order for them to fit into the garbage. Perish the thought and now illegal.

Fox was right in that there was not enough good information on the package telling the consumer how to clean up a broken bulb or how to dispose of them properly. They also explained how to properly clean it up even though they did it back handedly as they made fun of it. You know how they jump up and down and yell at you? (Some times I think they are satirical and wonder if all this drama isn't planned sarcasm as they snicker in the back room because they can't possibly think of themselves as professionals.)

What they did leave out was the fact that leaving in your old incandescent light bulb spews out more mercury than what is in a CFL. And since I am personally a receiver of bad air and acid rain funneling from the country's coal burning plants over my house, I would appreciate it everyone would change their light bulbs.

So for the environment's sake, each light bulb uses 75% less energy. If every household in the entire USA changed only one light bulb, that would save the amount of energy to power the entire State of New Hampshire. That's how important changing your light bulbs is. The idea is to save energy so the electricity producing plants spew out less CO2.

Now for the pocket part. You guessed it. For each light bulb you change, you save 75% of your hard earned cash. And, the light bulb will last a lot longer than regular ones (there is a 1-10% failure rate so take it back to the store if it burns out too early). Your return on your investment is pretty darn quick.

How many Fox news reporters does it take to change a light bulb? You tell me.