Australia has outlawed the lightbulb. That cheap, inefficient, more heat producing than light producing invention that revolutionized the world more commonly known as “the incandescent light bulb” will be phased out and no longer available in the Land Down Under. Pretty soon, you might not be able to get them in Wal-Mart either.
Before Australia banned the bulb, Wal-Mart announced plans earlier this year do the same. The announcement by the retail giant to push Compact Fluorescent light bulbs into the homes of 100 million Americans confused many “Hate Wal-Mart” clubs but made sense to Wal-Mart’s Chief Executive H. Lee Scott Jr. who said “The environment is begging for the Wal-Mart business model.”
Australia thinks outlawing incandescent light bulbs can reduce Australian output of greenhouse gas emmission by 800,000 tons a year by 2012.
Impressive move, blokes, but Wal-Mart has 5 times as many customers in the United States as the entire population of Australia. According to Wal-Mart’s estimates
One Compact Fluorescent light bulb keeps half a ton of greenhouse gas (CO2) out of our air. Wal-Mart has over 100 million customers. That means if each customer bought just one compact florescent light bulb, it would:
- Keep 22 billion lbs of coal from burning at power plants
- Keep 45 billion lbs of GHG from being emitted
- Equate to removing 700,000 cars worth of greenhouse gases from the air
- Keep 700 million incandescent light bulbs from landfills
The sheer size of the Wal-Mart army of buyers could dwarf the energy conservation ban the bulb efforts of the entire nation of Australia.
Inspired partially by Wal-Mart’s announcement earlier in the year but mostly because the last of the four floodlights in my backyard had burned out, I decided to commit to replacing the lights with fluorescent bulbs. I couched the effort as a New Year’s Resolution and was off to . . . nope, not Wal-Mart, but Target because its closer to my house. I was trying to save energy afterall.
About 10 years ago when I bought my first house I decided to try fluorescent bulbs for the first time. I only bought two of them because they were so expensive. When I returned 10 years later to purchase the fluorescent floodlights, I was shocked to see the fluorescent bulb was only about $1.00 more than lowest priced halogen counterpart. Not only do the fluorescent floodlights consume less wattage, they are much brighter than the old floodlights.
bryan catmull wrote,
as I live in Melbourne AUSTRALIA, I find these comments amusing, why bother
even mentioning a tiny nation like AUSTRALIA at all, even CALIFORNIA has
more people and a bigger economy than AUSTRALIA, you see my country
does not count in world thinking, why even the famous BBC WORLD NEWS
does not confirm our existence, even when they do the world weather reports,
just do us a favour and when you want to do comparisons, leave us out of it,
after all 99% of americans have never heard of Australia, and if any have, they
think of AUSTRIA, you know that little country in EUROPE that hitler came from
Quote | Link | October 16th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
Miguel Juan wrote,
on behalf of sensible australians, ignore the bryan catmull character who has already replied to this article.
props to both wal-mart and the former australian gov’t for showing some leadership.
and for the sake of trivia, we do indeed end most of our prices in .95 or .99 - where did you get that from?
Quote | Link | March 12th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
bryan catmull wrote,
who is Miguel Juan? I have never heard of him, he is asking people to ignore my comments!
then does not explain why? all I have done is explain the obvious, Miguel are you from
Australia, born or emigrated there? well let me elighten you Miguel, in Australia most
of the people like to think we count in world affairs, its propagander fostered by the media
in general, you see we really have no real impact because were are only 21 million strong,
if anyone doubts what I am saying, go travel overseas and ask anyone you meet, who is
Australias Prime Minister, where is Australia? I will assure you 99% have not got a clue,
thats how much we count, so Miguel you live in your little fantasy world, but don’t give advice
based on ignorance
Quote | Link | March 12th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
Miguel Juan wrote,
boring.
born in australia.
learn how to spell propaganda.
learn how to respond to an article on light globes without mentioning hitler, and ridiculous statistics that you can’t substantiate.
not going to take the bait on the rest of what you’re saying, it’s just namecalling and arm-flailing.
Quote | Link | March 13th, 2008 at 6:06 am
gary wrote,
Whilst Australia has only 21million people, or less than 1% of world population, it is the worlds 14th richest country in total income. So its influence is huge, compare it to a nation of Indonesia, one that has 300million people,ie similar size to the US, and yet has only the same total income. If you took away Australia, the most polluting country per capita, you would save the environment a lot of greenhouse gas. Whilst countries like china are polluting, relative per capita, its not in the same league, not only that, most of the crap they make comes to countries like Australia, and doesn’t stay in china.
Quote | Link | June 15th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Robert J. Pellegrine Ed.D. wrote,
Why are you “down unders” so defensive. Just because your country was once a camp similar to Guantanamo, does not mean you are all unworthy of recognition. Stand up amnd show yourselves for the kind of folks you now are. IOnstead of acting like a bunch of Blokes, be chums
Quote | Link | July 22nd, 2009 at 4:31 am
Miguel Juan wrote,
It took you two attempts Robert, but you got there. Your attempt at British/Australian colloquialisms in the last sentence was a bit of a fail though. Could be time for you to get some more academic quals to boost the suffixes that you’re so tragically propping up your credibility with.
Best wishes!
Quote | Link | July 22nd, 2009 at 8:08 am
Lauren wrote,
Yay for banning the bulb! Great post.
Quote | Link | September 10th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Mark wrote,
Lauren.
Sure let’s replace a cheap low impact item (a incandesent bulb) with a toxic mercury item, and what is the impact in production compare (what is needed to produce each).
I have to heat my home for 4 to 5 months a year, a regular bulb 10% light 90% heat so in the winter it’s 100% efficent.
Drop one of your new beloved bulbs and deal with the TOXIC waste.
Leave your brain at home, and huge a tree.
Quote | Link | October 31st, 2009 at 8:47 am
debby wrote,
Bryan you are so wrong!! As an American myself living here in Australia I can assure you that most Americans know where Australia is and they know the difference between Austria and Australia.
If you are thinking of some girl in the USA that is clueless when answering a reporters question about Australia, well most of us are not like that…the 99 percent is way way off. I have no clue where you get your numbers from…most Americans are NOT like the guests that Jerry Springer puts on his shows. Some of that may even be hogwash.
Anyway we do know the difference between Australia and Austria.
In the same sense, how much do you know about Hawaii where I was living??
Quote | Link | November 25th, 2009 at 10:38 pm
debby wrote,
I agree with you Miguel Juan!! You sure sound more educated than the other guy!!
Quote | Link | November 25th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
Eric the red wrote,
CFL’s stink. The light is horrible and the flicker drives me nuts. Long live the incandescent bulb. By the way, I am currently stockpiling incandescents in a warehouse and will sell them as antique items when they are phased out. Look for my website:
http://www.cflssuck.com
Long live Thomas Edison!
Quote | Link | February 19th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Australia Package Deals wrote,
The discussion going on in the comment section seems to have gone off the rails. Let me just say I think it’s a great move that any significant organisation is taking steps to reduce emissions, especially when it’s such a simple move to make.
Quote | Link | April 21st, 2010 at 4:43 pm