Saturday, January 05, 2008

In A New Light

Let's dance in the streets for joy. Minister John Gormley has decided that the incandescent bulb is to be banned from Ireland. Everyone will be seen in a new light. The national carbon footprint will shrink by the length of a tiny toe.

Sorry, everyone back into your homes. This celebration is premature.

Ireland cannot arbitrarily ban incandescent bulbs because to do so would be illegal. Labour Senator Joanna Tuffy has castigated the hapless minister for not doing his homework, but the high rate of flicker of the fluorescent bulb could do that to a man. Hard to see when your brain is on the verge of seizing.

Ban the bulb in Ireland and there's nothing to stop a light bulb vendor from going elsewhere in the European Union to obtain them. As long as the old-fashioned energy guzzling bulbs are legal in other parts of Europe, Ireland can't up and do away with them.

Nice try. Close, again. Came up short, again. Yes, it is not very easy at all to be green when the neighbors won't cooperate.

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