DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

Charles Fishman stacks the astonishing facts into a mountain of evidence and the most compelling argument for Compact Fluorescents I’ve ever seen, in the latest issue of Fast Company:

• Since 1985, CFLs have changed as much as cell phones and portable music players.
• Compact fluorescents emit the same light as classic incandescents but use 75% or 80% less electricity.
• The typical U.S. house has between 50 and 100 [light bulb] sockets
• The single greatest source of greenhouse gases in the United States is power plants
• if every one of 110 million American households bought just one [CFL] … and screwed it in the place of an ordinary 60-watt bulb, the energy saved would be enough to power a city of 1.5 million people … to turn off two entire power plants … one bulb [replaced per household] is equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the roads.
• a $3 [CFL] pays for itself in lower electric bills in about five months

I’ve thought CFLs were a no-brainer for five years: they cost less, they’re better for the planet; what’s not to love? But according to Fishman, I’m in the minority:

Last year, U.S. consumers spent about $1 billion to buy about 2 billion lightbulbs — 5.5 million every day. Just 5%, 100 million, were compact fluorescents.

Anyway, the next revelation in the article is that Wal-Mart aims to overcome this particular inertia within American society:

In the next 12 months, starting with a major push this month, Wal-Mart wants to sell every one of its regular customers — 100 million in all — one swirl bulb.

This is huge news. Most people will pick the less-expensive option if they know one is available, so a concerted marketing effort positioning CFLs as cheap will absolutely have an impact. There’s a convenience factor at play, too; if the local warehouse store sold recycled paper towels, half the people in the county would use them.

Of course, Wal-Mart has at best a mixed reputation as a steward of the planet or its inhabitants; BuyBlue.org ranks it negatively in 4 of 5 categories. I hope Fishman is correct when he reports that Wal-Mart “aims to change its own reputation, to use swirls to make clear how seriously Wal-Mart takes its new positioning as an environmental activist.” Environmentalists would be crazy not to embrace such a change, so I’ll say this: within 30 days I will buy a CFL at Wal-Mart (and try not to dwell on the donation the company will make to the GOP on my behalf). Solidarity!

The article just gets better. Fishman describes WalMart V.P. Chuck Kerby’s CFL zen slap:

“Somebody asked, ‘What difference would it make if we changed the bulbs in the ceiling-fan display to CFLs?’” says Kerby. A typical Wal-Mart has 10 models of ceiling fans on display, each with four bulbs. Forty bulbs per store, 3,230 stores.

“Someone went off and did the math,” says Kerby. “They told me we could save $6 million in electric bills by changing the incandescents to CFLs in more than 3,000 Wal-Marts. I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know I was paying $6 million to light those fixtures. I said, that can’t be right, go back and do the math again.”

Why is all this important? Read no farther than Fishman’s opening paragraph:

Sitting humbly on shelves in stores everywhere is a product, priced at less than $3, that will change the world. Soon. It is a fairly ordinary item that nonetheless cuts to the heart of a half-dozen of the most profound, most urgent problems we face. Energy consumption. Rising gasoline costs and electric bills. Greenhouse-gas emissions. Dependence on coal and foreign oil. Global warming.