I enjoyed Kehoe's column for what he had to say about the Greens generally even though I'm probably less negative about the CFL bulbs than he is. I suspect that, like me, he'd be happy to be won over to CFL bulbs rather than being forced to adhere to what feels like a new state religion.
Think of a Green’s anguish when forced to fly to a UN climate change conference in Bali, as John Gormley did last December. Happily, the poor man was provided with a bicycle to use and be photographed with when he got there. Nothing makes a Green happier than a bicycle - and nothing makes a Green minister happier than being photographed with one.By the way, I've built a small stock of 20W CFL bulbs recently. Whenever I'm in Tesco and I see that they're selling 2 for the price of 1 I grab a couple. I've also noticed that neither Tesco's or Woodie's is now carrying the very inexpensive multi-packs of 100W and 60W bulbs that I used to like.
… The Green lobby, like any evangelical faith, is one that demands conformity and outward proof of goodness. It also requires daily strictures and practices that make it a kind of secular Opus Dei.
It’s the religion of the ecologically sound versus the unsound, of the composter versus the dumper, of the righteous versus the ungodly, in which the planet is treated almost as a worshipful deity. To be Green, one has to measure up, to bear witness and, with most other countries phasing in the introduction of CFLs over a number of years, it looks as though Ireland’s Green party is just a little too eager to bask among its peers in the glow of an ecological and moral first.
