global warming & energy - actions & Solutions
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- Actions & Solutions: reduce your footprint, encourage federal action
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what you can do --- reduce your carbon footprint with CFls
CFLs -- compact fluorescent lightbulbs. They will save you money and reduce your energy bills. The main downside to this lighting is that CFLs are made with the potent toxin mercury - not much but enough that it is worth recycling. And now in Montana we have a way to do that.
As of May 1 2008, ACE Hardware stores in Montana will accept CFLs for FREE. This is a new program sponsored by Women's Voices for the Earth (WVE), MT DEQ, ACE and others. For a great explanation of this program read the radio commentary from WVE HERE >>. For a list of participating stores, link HERE>>.
According to the EPA: If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars! WOW!!
And this from WVE: Mercury used in fluorescent lights produces light far more efficiently than traditional incandescent bulbs. According to the Earth Policy Institute, if everyone in the United States switched to energy efficient compact fluorescents, that act alone would shut down 80 coal-fired power plants. And consider this-the average coal-fired power plant releases 13.6 mg of mercury to power one traditional incandescent bulb but only 3.3 mg to power a compact fluorescent lightbulb. So even though compact fluorescents contain small amounts of mercury, their use significantly reduces the amount of mercury emitted by coal-fired power plants. Bottom line—the use of compact fluorescents results in less carbon dioxide emissions (otherwise known as greenhouse gases) and less mercury emissions.
