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Originally Posted by The Avon Lady
And it also promotes awareness of the issue.
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Which probably is the only intention of it all.
during the oil crisis in the early 70s, they had car-free (obligatory) sundays in Germany. It was not about saving oil consummation. It was not about that there was no oil left. Reserves were full. The public simply was not aware there was a critical developement, and so they had the car-free sunday to create a consequence that actually could be felt. It did nothing constructive beyond that.
but serious: anybody thinkikn g people in europe do not already know? We get flooded with environment-related news day in day out. It is en vogue. So, I think the comparison to the the oil crisis does not work. People seem to think that hybrid cars and energy saving lamps alone will save the world. CO2 is discussed as if it is the only decisisce factor, but when you say "methane", they ask "hu, what you say, what is that?". BS. there are so much more energy-critical variables, mainly in the field of transportation, aircraft, powerplants and heavy industry, were the real gains must be won. Compared to that, energy being used on private light bulbs is almost unimportant. As I said, there were repeatedly model calculations given on TV these days showing that the impact of energy-saves gained from changing the bulbs is close to unimportant. No, I do not have them recorded on VHS...
So the real intention probably is to satisfy the call of the people for "actions", and save the interests of the industry from that action. It is the chnace of politicians to presnet themselves in the role of their lifes: the one who cares, the one who acts, the one who manages the crisis. They just had their climate summit, -20% in 13 years, they said, concerning emissions. The values themselves are unimpressive. But they are only intention anyway. The real problems start now, because now they must negotiate whom has to save how much. They will already rub their heads bloody about nuclear energy, I'm sure. You know what became of these emission certificates? They were overpriced, to propagate them, and were given away for free in too great numbers. They havbe seen a constant fall in value, for these reasons. Today, they are less than 3% of their original value. Result: nobody in the industry cares anymore for trading them, economically they have become simply uninteresting. The exoistence of the system itself - nevertheless still bluffs the public. But it is a complete failure so far.
In Germany, we go freaky about garbage sorting. We have a "yellow sack" for stuff like plastic bags, yoghurt pots, plastic bottles, styropore that can be recycled. We have a "brown ton" for organic garbage. And a "blue ton" for paper. and a "green container" for glass. And a "grey ton" for rest garbage.
That is nice and well, and makes sense concerning paper and glass. Concerning the brown ton with organic waste, arguments pro and con alraedy can get exchanged. But the real laugh is about the yellow sack, which gets filled the fastest in an ordinary household. Because at the sorting-centre, the pieces that are attractive for recylcers (big, huge items) get sorted out and enter recycling. But these make only for less than 5% of the overall weight-volume (? Gewichtsvolumen) - the remaining 95% that citizens so proudly and so much aware of the environment have sorted before - then get transported to the ordinary waste burning facilities envertheless, and joimn the content of the empötied grey tons (rest garbage, ordinary waste). Most people do not know this, and politicians are not eager to point finger at this. The public conscousness is satisfied. That is the intention of it all.
It'S about pleasing the public and giving Peter and Paul the good feeling that the party cares. Maybe you catch their vote by that, who knows. The things that must be adressed and changed are of a far greater scale and level than just energy-saving light bulbs.
Think of that the next time you buy a mega-power-supply or a very hungry gfx-board for your PC, or a plasma-TV that easily eats up all what you have saved in watts by using new bulbs. Think of that the next time you (as a for example Northern european) think you need to buy fruits in winter that needs to get transported from North Africa, or as a good economist you think it is clever if german butter gets sold in Ireland and Irish butter gets sold in Germany, and the Danish think they must have Spanish tomatoes and the Germany want their potatoes from Egypt instead of taking them from their own farms. Korean refrigerators in europe and "made in the EU" transported to Asia not to mention. Or when you board an airliner for your holiday trip around the world. Or picking a plane for even a short hop where train still would be available, and reasonable. And people who take a car to drive 100 m to the baker, with a greenpeace-sticker on the car, are not to be taken serious. They are fools.