Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Green Light (bulbs) for Wal-Mart

Whooee! Well friends an' foes, I'm up t' my lazyass tricks again. I'm recyclin' a comment I made this mornin' over t' the Big City Liberal's fine boog. BCL sez WalMarket's doin' the non-evil thing by pushin' compact flourescent light bulbs. The Noo York Times is blatherin' 'bout it.

BCL wondered if the bulbs fit in a standard socket. They do. Ma an' me got a few o' them there bulbs here in our little shack an' I can't tell the difference when the lampshade's on.

WalMarket's jest provin' they do their market research. North Merkan consumers is wakin' up an' gettin' enviro-conscious. WalMarket sees an opportunity t' profit.

All-in-all, in the long run, over the course of time, when all is sed an' done, green industry an' marketin' will create more jobs than it costs. Those jobs'll be high-tech, better paid jobs. An' they'll be clean jobs where workers don't get poisoned on the job.

WalMarket gets it. They ain't bein' socially motivated an' it ain't because they're concerned 'bout ol' Mother Earth. They see the writin' on the wall an' it sez -- "There's gold in that thar green movement."

I ain't a fan o' WalMarket. That's puttin' it mildly. I'll be buyin' more o' them bulbs but I'll be buyin' from my local hardware store or grocery store. Buyin' local is anuther green practice. I can walk t' them stores an' the profits stay here in my little town.

Canajuns is demandin' better green action from gummint. We needta demand better green action from our own selves, too. Walk more. Ride a bike. Take the streetcar if there's one in yer town. Buy local apples instead o' Florida oranges. Reduce, re-use, recycle. Park the ATV, snowmobile, gas mower, snow blower, dirt bike, SUV, power boat. Put on a sweater an' turn down the heat. Carpool. Wash yer clothes in cold water. Quit sprayin' yer lawn an' dig up the dandelions, if you don't like 'em. If you gotta string up the Christmas lights, use LED lights.

Show the gummint we really mean it an' demand real action.

The ranks o' climate-change-deniers is gettin' smaller. GWB is worryin' 'bout polar bears. Rona's gettin' the axe. Dion came in on a green wave. Lizzie May got 27% an' come in second in London North Centre. The Dippers is tryin' t' look good by helpin' the HarpoonTossers draft a better Clean Air Act. The world's biggest retailer sees green dollar signs.

Yores trooly,
JimBobby

7 comments:

bigcitylib said...

And probably green-marketing a better light-bulb is a good place to start. As long as I can remember, the lightbulb has been what you pointed to if you wanted an example of "planned obsolescence."

JimBobby said...

I remember an ol'
General Electric ad campaign where they used the light bulb as a symbol for the slogan - "GE has a better idea." I like the image of a compact flourescent sittin' over the head o' sum smartypants with a new, good idee. In the funny papers they always use that light-bulb when sumbuddy like Dagwood gets an idee. Mebbe there can be a whole new round o' "How many _________ does it take t' screw in a compact flourescent light bulb?"

Bye-the-bye, I reckon a lot o' the new industry in China is bein' fueled by Western demand via WalMarket an' other US-based multinationals. The Chinese is buildin' hunnerts o' new, coal-fired generators t' keep up with it all.

JB

Anonymous said...

Change of this nature is always going to come from the ground up, and governments and business have always had to be pushed and beaten into action in most cases.

You're right about Wal-Mart, it's all about the dollars, but it's the consumer pushing them into making this sort of change, not some sense of corporate good citizenship.

JimBobby said...

Yer right as rain, SL. Us consumers gotta put the pressure on. We can do it by buyin' green when we buy at all. In the reduce-reuse-recycle model, reduce is the strongest card. Its also the card big bizness is least likely t' push. Reduction means reducin' spendin', too. Biznesses gotta figger out how t' make money offa reduction o' consumption.

The light bulb's good on accounta it reduces consumption of energy. There's probbly all sortsa arguments 'bout how retoolin' factories t' make these green products is gonna use energy an' natural resources.

Attitudes gotta change. Includin' my own. Even though we got us a few o' these here bulbs, we still got a lot o' the old kind. They ain't burnt out an' I ain't floatin' in cash an' climbin' up the stepladder's a dang inconvenient truth of a chore. I reckon I better smarten up an' practice what I preach. This afternoon, I'm walkin' down t' Reg's Pro Hardware an' I'm replacin' all the old bulbs.

I already don't have a car an' do most o' them things I talked 'bout up in the OP.

JB

JB

Anonymous said...

Is there mercury in them?

JimBobby said...

They say they do have mercury in 'em. I ain't sure how it gets out 'cept when you bust 'em. They gotta recyclin' program fer these bulbs so mebbe they're recyclin' the merc. I reckon there ain't anything anybuddy can do that don't hafta be weighed in terms o' which is the lesser evil.

I went out an' bought a few more today. What pissed me off was the heavy-duty blister packagin' job they come in.

JB

bigcitylib said...

They contain mercury, which is why some places that sell them (including, maybe one day, Walmart) have or are willing to insitute a recycling program.