Earth Morning

Hi,

Well we celebrated "Earth Hour"
-- for a planet as old as ours that seems
like short shrift, and enjoyed the
semi-dark. Here's a blurry image
of our kitchen lilies by candlelight
The street lamps kept the city lit
unfortunately, but on the
back porch the stars were definitely
brighter. One or two neighbours
kept their lights on -- parents of young
babies I think, or people suffering
illnesses that keep them out of the loop.
For the most part though the lights
were off. Zoey and I took a walk to
the park hoping for more stars, but
even there street lights were on.

Back home we kept the lights off
all night, like most of our neighbours.
When I did turn a light back on I was
shocked at how bright one little
electric light can be after candles, and we
had dozens of candles lit in the kitchen.

Well Earth -- it was an experiment.
I looked up the dreaded mercury, bad lighting
"alternative bulbs" and discovered something good.
An alternative to those bulbs is the new LED bulbs.
The one problem is the expense, but they don't contain mercury
-- which shouldn't be used in any household item,
and they do last for a long time and give a clean
light. If I bought one every three months, I'd change
the four or five tungsten lights I have in just over
a year. Hmmm. You learn something every day.

Maybe you wonder why I'm going on about this.
But do the math of 30 plus million Canadians,
and 275 million Americans switching to the "green"
mercury bulb. Even if they last a long time, think
of the mercury pollution. That doesn't even touch
on the aesthetic disaster provided by the nasty light
coming from those bulbs.

Some facts about lightbulbs:
http://www.maxmon.com/1878ad.htm

http://www.enn.com/business/article/28932

Have a brilliant day.