A good idea (lit with fluorescent light!)

The effects of global warming have been this year more notorious than ever. They have been so notorious, that in California (apart from enjoying nice spring days and winter nights) some people are right now seriously thinking of what to do to reduce these effects.

It's good to know that one of those concerned individuals works as a lawmaker in the California State Assembly, and as such, he might have more influence to promote regulations that really help to better cope with this phenomenon than some civilians that aren't able to do much more than street rallies, albeit they are really willing to promote a change.

His name is Lloyd Levine, the Chairman of the Assembly Committee on Utilities and Commerce. His idea? To promote a law that considers illegal to operate incandescent lightbulbs by 2012, all of which must be replaced by then by energy-saving fluorescent lightbulbs.

Levine argues (very accurately, I think) that "Incandescent lightbulbs were first developed almost 125 years ago, and since that time they have undergone no major modifications". The result of this lack of evolution is the consumption of much more energy to produce domestic light. Moreover, the energy-saving lightbulbs, as their name indicates, are designed to produce the same amount of light than conventional bulbs while utilizing less electricity, and also, to last for longer than incandescent ones.

To switch to this type of bulbs would not only allow to consume less energy, but also to reduce the operation rates of "dirty" energy plants that produce greenhouse gases, which are mostly responsible of global warming.

This is an excellent idea, considering that the investment required to carry it on is minimum (the only requirement is to buy a bunch of such bulbs for each household) and the impact may be very positive to the environment.

I welcome this proposal (although I don't live in the jurisdiction of California) and I'd like to hear (and see applied) more ideas like this one all around the world, just to avoid living in a permanent summer in future years. It'd be good to see this proposal enacted soon.