Bright Green Poison
Al Gore’s Global Warming Cultists seem to have little room in their minds for any thought beyond reducing man-made C02 in Earth’s atmosphere. Normally this is only a threat to the prosperity and freedom of the nations of the Civilized World – which is bad enough – but sometimes their monomaniacal fanaticism is a threat to the very world they claim they have to save.
WHEN British consumers are compelled to buy energy-efficient lightbulbs from 2012, they will save up to 5m tons of carbon dioxide a year from being pumped into the atmosphere. In China, however, a heavy environmental price is being paid for the production of “green” lightbulbs in cost-cutting factories.
Large numbers of Chinese workers have been poisoned by mercury, which forms part of the compact fluorescent lightbulbs. A surge in foreign demand, set off by a European Union directive making these bulbs compulsory within three years, has also led to the reopening of mercury mines that have ruined the environment.
— Michael Sheridan
The Times Online, May 3, 2009
This is, of course, the logical result of passing legislation that the Warmists scream for. They scream and wail about Anthropogenic Global Warming – now rebranded as Climate Change – and bully politician into passing laws that further the Warmists’ agenda. Sadly for everyone these laws still do not change reality, no matter what fantasies are percolating through the minds of Gore’s cultists.
You can’t demand the rapid transition from incandescent lightbulbs to fluorescent lightbulbs without opening new murcury mines or reopening older, closed mines. You also can’t keep the prices of these items down to level that won’t inflict undue hardship on people, especially the poor, without utilizing 3rd-World nations like China who care little for the environment or the lives, health, and safety of its workers.
Someday, hopefully before irreparable harm is done to both the Civilized World and the planet, people will see the Warmists for what they are – monomaniacal, fanatic cultists. Green or Sustainable is lot more than just reducing CO2 and other greenhouse gasses, and reducing CO2 emissions at the cost of other lasting harm to planet is stupid.
Tags: China | Europe | Global Warming | Politics | The Environment
October 24th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Wow Joe – something I can finally agree iwth you on – partly at least. While I find fault with your portrait of environmentalists, I will agree 100% on the hypocrisy of some (read some, not all) using products to make themselves ‘feel better’ at hte expense of others – in this case the Chinese. Of course the affluent West has found it pretty handy for at least 100 years to use the non-whites of the world in one way or another. The hypocrites, however, are not the problem; the problem is the results. We need to put the real prices on things. If you consider the environmental damage done by manufacturing these lightbulbs, they should cost a few hundred dollars each.
October 24th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Who said anything about environmentalists, Moe? I only mentioned the Warmists. Since they’re mono-focused on only a single issue, CO2, and ignore other environmental effects, I don’t see how that they could be called environmentalists.