Every holiday cycle americans go through the process of hyperconsuming more than we usually do. Every October we treat ourselves to more sugar than one might need on an annual basis. In November we proceed to kill off the turkey population. In December we unnecessarily chop down as many pine trees for decoration so that we can have a place for our "gifts." Don't forget the christmas lights that preciously burns all throughout the night using for mainly fossil fuels to illuminate the night for nobody most of the night. I guess arguments could be made for the first 2 because we need nutrition. We also can compost the tree and gifts are necessary cause without the timely obligatory gift buying, retailers for the most part would go bankrupt. But christmas lights? They're carbon producers that at most bring happiness to a few between the hours of 7-10pm. So how about issuing a voluntary mandate(to make people aware of unnecessary resource consumption) to install timing devices to turn off the lights after 11 pm? Good idea? Or too grinchy?
Not only Americans. It's happening throughout the civilised world. My bete noire at Xmas is the ridiculous number of outdoor lights decorating people's houses. It's worse in some areas than others and especially bad in places with cheaper houses where you would think people can't afford to buy this nonsense and increase their fuel bills.
Like I stated in the LED XMAS lights thread. The 3 strands of incandecent lights on our tree (my roomates) pull 138-139watts continuous as measured on my Kill-A-Watt meter. I also measured my 13w=60w CFL bulb in my room. It pulls 11watts. So those XMas lights on the tree are like running 12.6 CFL light bulbs at once. Kinda crazy when you consider how many lights the average household runs. Yes, it is a huge waste indeed.
Today you can find LED christmas lights in all kinds of shapes and sizes. They can blink just like the regular incandescent varieties and come in a wide range of colors. The end result is a string of lights that use about one-tenth of the electrical current of the more commonly used incandescent lights. They are also encased in thick plastic rather than flimsy glass, so broken bulbs and mistakenly stepping on one won't result in a holiday tragedy. As mentioned, the life of LEDs are extremely long-they are used often in the dashboards of jet planes-so burn out after one season is highly unlikely. One last benefit is the relative thickness of the wires used for these lights, making wires less likely to get tangled in the closet or garage. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-led-christmas-lights.htm
Also houses burning down because of lights catching in the night, talk about carbon footprint. Also, the extremely short life span of christmas lights (planned obselescence?) makes for even MORE plastic in the landfills...
Each Christmas I wonder what Jesus would say or do if he could see how the modern world celebrates his poor and humble birth with so much opulence and waste.
Sure it's a waste but not a significant one in the grand scheme. If you're upset about global warming due to Xmas lights, call your representative and tell them to raise vehicle fuel economy requirements; that would make orders of magnitude more difference than banning Xmas. The House will be voting on this tomorrow so it's the perfect time to give a gift to the nation and the planet. Find your representative's contact info here: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/dbq/officials/
well, i have a kill o watt meter for my Zenn, never thought to check the lights, we have all miniatures inside and out. had the big bulb kind but tossed them about 4 years ago but due to reports of fires... not GW (oh well, same results... still a good thing) but we turn them on when we get home at 5 pm (pitch dark by then here) and turn them off when we go to bed. the tree lights stay on, but there is only 60 miniatures on it and it replaces a small night light that would be on in its place. although Ry is now 8 months old, we still have occasion to get up in middle of night for feedings, just not as often!!
I watched a program the other night on X-mass lights, the home owners spent 10k in lights and put them on their homes.... http://www.uglychristmaslights.com/2003_collection/redneck_sleigh.html Examples:
Carbon waste? Christmas Lights? How 'bout talking about the carbon waste on GM's corporate board ! Now, THAT'S carbon waste
