A Bright Idea?

Pretty soon it will be illegal to produce and sell incandescent light bulbs in Canada. Their replacement? The energy saver bulb. A 13 watt energy saver light bulb is equivalent to a 60 watt incandescent. What does this mean? Well, up to 78% savings on the lighting portion of your electricity costs. Which in turn, leads to less demand on our energy grid. Now imagine how much energy would be saved if everyone switched? And less energy demand means less harm to our environment from the coal-fired energy plants.
Sounds fantastic, doesn’t it? It really is. However, there is quite a price point difference to switch over. For your average 2 pack of incandescent bulbs, you are looking at around $1.98. For your average 2 pack of energy saver light bulbs, you are looking at $9.98. So, five times the cost to be environmentally responsible. If you are looking to outfit your home with these new bulbs, it would cost the average homeowner over $100 depending on your lighting situation. Seems like quite the investment (penalty?) to be environmentally responsible (take a look at my entry about hybrid vehicles as well).
I think they should really lower the price of the light bulbs to encourage everyone at every income level to replace their old bulbs. If not, unfortunately, those on a tight budget may be compelled to stockpile the cheaper, energy hungry incandescent, before the lights go out on them and they are yanked from the shelves for good.

Sunny Grey Skies

Here we are, not quite mid-May, and we've already had a couple of smog days and smog warnings. It seems to be happening much earlier and more frequently than it used to, with even some smog days in the winter months.
This really should be a wake up call that our environment IS changing, obviously not for the better. We really do need to start making some lifestyle changes for the sake of our air alone.
I know many have said it before, but we do need to cut down on our energy consumption so that those dreadful coal-fired energy plants don't have to work so hard to power us. It would be fantastic to see coal-fired energy completely replaced with a cleaner alternative, however, I doubt that will happen in our immediate future.
Another thing, now that hybrid vehicle technology is here, how about making hybrid vehicles the same price as 100% fuel driven vehicles, and phase out the 100% fuel driven vehicles altogether. Stop making them! Then, say 10 years down the road, everyone would have a hybrid car once their old car was caput and needed to be replaced.
I could go on and on here, like many have and like many do, but I will end with trees. Everyone should plant more trees wherever possible. Trees help to clean our air, so the more the better! Plus, makes for a beautiful landscape.
If everyone just made even small adjustments, like turning off a light when you leave a room, using energy efficient technologies, or not cooling your house as much with the air conditioner in summer months, it would make an impact, and is easy enough for the average person to do. Isn't it worth it if we could breathe easier?

Does going green cost far too much green?

Recently my husband and I were in the market for a new vehicle - an SUV in particular. Given that we would like to be environmentally responsible, and given the soaring prices at the pumps, our first thought was “let’s go hybrid”. Hybrid vehicles use a fraction of gas that regular vehicles do, so it seemed like a wise choice.
However, upon visiting some dealerships, we were astounded as to the price difference between the hybrid and the non-hybrid. For a sedan, you are looking at roughly a $5,000 to $8,000 difference and for an SUV, roughly $5,000 to $9,000 difference. Throw your sales taxes on top of that, and we aren’t talking chump change here.
Now, I understand that the technology will cost extra money, but considering that a vehicle is never an investment, it is a huge difference in price point. On top of that, if something were to go wrong with the vehicle, repair costs are higher, and you are limited in who you can take your vehicle to as not all mechanics are familiar with hybrid technologies.
So for us, as I imagine for many others like us, being economically responsible outweighed being environmentally responsible.