The Bulb

Ok, so it's been, like, almost a month since my last post. I've been meaning to post, but, geesh, I just got caught up in... life. My best friend had a baby, so I went and spent a week in babyland; then when I got back there was summer school to work at, the house to take care of, the yard to ponder.... you get the picture. But still, amongst the fullness of life-i-ness, I have been endeavoring to keep up with my green pledge. So far, the fruits of my labor have seemed small in comparison with my dreams and ambitions. My hopes for a solar estimate for the house are still in the works; I've done a self-energy-audit online; continue to shop at the farmers' market and Berkeley Bowl (for those of you from the East Bay, you know what I'm talkin' about; Berkeley Bowl is the next best thing to an open air farmers' market); eating way less meat, and of the meat I eat, only poultry and fish; washing in cold water only; minimal watering of the yard (only for plants and vegetables, but not the grass; trying to figure out what to do with the grass; at this point will likely replace it with wood chips since it's become a yellow dry mass of hay); and other small stuff.

Which brings me to, "The Bulb", http://www.thebulb.com/store/default.aspx.

The Bulb is the name of a compact flourescent bulb that not only saves energy and emits less carbon than regular bulbs, but also gives green on another level: purchase of The Bulb buys carbon offsets, which is a good thing. (See Wikipedia for a primer on carbon offsets http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_offset.) I've managed to replace most of the lights in our home with these bulbs (I say most because I need to purchase a ladder to get to the rest) and am quite pleased with the results. Basically, I don't notice a huge difference in the lighting. Some folks I have spoken to who have not yet replaced their bulbs with compact flourescents have exclaimed that the light from these bulbs is "cold" or that it will "take too long" to turn on (I think they are thinking of those flourescent lights in the 1970's that we had as kids in school; they took a while to get going, would kind of flicker for a couple seconds before coming on), but I have not experienced this. If you haven't replaced your bulbs with more energy efficient ones yet, I highly recommend doing so. It is probably one of the easiest and fastest steps you can take to greening your home. I ordered The Bulb online. It was easy and no fuss. Plus, it buys you carbon offsets through http://www.carbonfund.org/ Check 'em out.