Europe Bans 100 Watt Lightbulbs
Don’t laugh, people, they’re saving the planet.
The ban could save the EU anywhere from 15 to 53 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, says Matt Prescott, founder of the Ban the Bulb campaign.
And the UK could save 2 to 5 million tonnes of the stuff, he says. Will it make a difference? You decide: the ban will cut Britain’s yearly emissions of CO2 by – oh, about 0.643737355 per cent.
That’s not much of an impact on CO2 emissions even if you believe those emissions by humans are, in fact, contributing in any meaningful way to global warming. But I wonder how much of that light impact will be offset by people, confronted with a lack of access to brighter light bulbs, start burning two 80 watt bulbs instead of one 100 watt bulb.
My guess is that this move will result in the exact opposite impact on power consumption that its proponents are expecting.
By the way, before we Americans laugh at the Europeans for this stupidity, remember that we have a ban on incandescent light bulbs set to go into effect here in America by 2014.
