Structured around the thesis that environmentalism has become little more than the ineffective expression of a special interest group grown fat on easy grant funding, the essay “Dead of Environmentalism” created some controversy among environmental leaders. The essay’s authors, Michael Schellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, claim that the once robust political support for environmental issues has weakened considerably since its peak in the 1970s. They claim that early success spoiled the movement’s leadership to such an extent that only in death can there be new life: “We have become convinced that modern environmentalism, with all of its unexamined assumptions, outdated concepts and exhausted strategies, must die so that something new can live.” Schellenberger and Nordhaus argue that environmentalism, with its traditional reliance on technical solutions, is poorly equipped to tackle massive global problems, especially climate change. Years of legislative and legal victories don’t measure up, they say, when compared with the failure to provide a comprehensive, inspiring, values-based vision. Perhaps the environmental movement as we have known it is dead. Perhaps, as Mark Twain would say, “the news of my death are greatly exaggerated.”
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The traditional incandescent bulb was invented by Edison more than 150 years ago. It was a direct move from burning candles to “burning” a carbon filament with electricity. The technology is extremely inefficient. Incandescent bulbs produce only 8 to 12 lumens per watt. The majority of energy is dissipated as heat, the reason why bulbs are so hot. In fact, with all the losses during the production at the power plant and the transportation of electrify, only 1% of the energy originally available to produce electricity (Coal, Gas, Water head) arrives as useful photons. If electricity is produces with coal and considering that one megawatt of coal produces 1 tonne of CO2, a 100-watt bulb “produces” _ kg of CO2 per hour – or about one tonne after a couple of years. Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL) are 3 to 4 times more energy efficient that incandescent bulbs – about 80 to 100 lumens per watt. They last 13 times longer than traditional lamps. Finally, LED ( Light Emitting Diodes) produce 30 to 40 Lumens per watt, about half less efficient than CFL. They have however a much longer life span than CFL.
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The Sustainability Now is the newsletter of the Association of Professiona Engineers and Geoscientists in BC. Follow the links under “Series: Newsletter” to access individual newsletter.
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