Marc Fisher is one of my favorite columnists (next to fellow Fall River, MA native and fellow bleeding heart EJ Dionne), but his blog post today couldn't be more off-base: Wal-Mart, the company that lefties, urbanites and greens love to hate, is repositioning itself as a friend of the environment: The retail behemoth has announced its intention to sell 100 million of those compact fluorescent light bulbs that cost an arm and a leg to buy, but save lots of energy (and therefore cut your electric bill.)
This will not work, for one simple reason: The bulbs provide only the illusion of light. We shelled out the big bucks--the things cost upwards of ten times the price of cheap but energy-hogging incandescent bulbs--for a bunch of different so-called swirl bulbs and actually lived with the things for a couple of months before, finally, we all realized that we were straining to read, straining to do anything that required what a good old 60-watt Sylvania provides with total reliability.
The propagandists behind the compact fluorescents claim that the new swirl bulbs are every bit as bright, warm and user-friendly as the cheap bulbs that have served Americans for the better part of a century. These folks are--how to put this--wrong.
I don't "love to hate" Wal-Mart. (For the record, I love to hate Paris Hilton.) I support their compact fluorescent effort, and I wish Wal-Mart would take more simple, low-cost steps to minimize its environmental impact. In an age when even the Pentagon is going green, Wal-Mart remains years behind.
I also love to hate critics who make six figures complaining about paying $3 for light bulbs.
And how can a light bulb not be user-friendly? How many Post columnists does it take to screw in a light bulb?
Fisher is already getting ripped in his comments section. Please join in!
And how can a light bulb not be user-friendly? How many Post columnists does it take to screw in a light bulb?
Fisher is already getting ripped in his comments section. Please join in!
UPDATE: Of the 37 comments filed right now, I only count three that support Fisher's position on this. Go, greens, go!
2 comments:
You've got a point with Wal-Mart becoming more green, but still not enough... I was just reporting on the same issue, and I never know what to think about companies that green wash themselves.
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