Lightbulbs
Australia annouced this week a plan to ban incandescent lightbulbs within 3 years
Fluorescent bulbs are typically 5 times more energy-efficient than incandescents.
But Australia is not the only place looking to replace incandescent lightbulbs with fluorescent lighting. Last month legislators in California proposed a bill that would also phase out the old-style bulbs by 2012 and Cuba already launched a program to switch to fluorescent lighting 2 years ago.
The environmentalists movements in Australia welcomed the light bulb plan, but noted that the vast bulk of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions come from industry, such as coal-fired power stations.
Indeed, the current Australian governement steadfastly refused to bring Australia into line with most of the world and ratify the Kyoto protocol on greenhouse gas reductions, arguing that doing so could damage Australia's coal-dependent economy...