This little light of mine

I’ve decided to begin the public part of my project with the easiest change I can think of, to help me keep my nerve, because I am terrified at the things I might have to sacrifice later in the game. (Coffee? Wine?) So I am starting with light bulbs. Yes, yes, yes, I should have done this long ago. As with so many of the necessary changes, there is simply no excuse for not making more of an effort sooner, so I am clearly in no position to throw stones at anyone else.

According to climatecrisis.net, compact fluorescent light bulbs use 60% less energy than a regular bulb. Changing ONE light bulb will save about 300 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. They claim that carbon dioxide would be reduced by 90 billion pounds if we all made that little change.

Unfortunately, the compact fluorescents are a lot more expensive than the regular light bulbs that I can get for pennies apiece. I counted, and was surprised to find that I have 21 regular (and an assortment of fan, appliance and night light) bulbs in my very small house. 21 fluorescent light bulbs would cost me a small fortune. I can’t possibly afford to change them all at once to the compact fluorescent bulbs, but I will change a couple of them each week until I have replaced them all. This week I replaced 4 of them (the old ones cost me about $2.00) at a cost of $19.58. I am also writing to my legislative representatives and asking that they support legislation to phase-out of incandescant bulbs.