I think of myself as a relatively environmental friendly person.I recycle everything that will hold still long enough (on occasion driving the Husband nuts in the process), I compost, I don’t own a car. When I lived in Canada, I used to make myself unpopular by turning off people’s idling engines.We had this house insulated above and beyond requirements, we buy our electricity and gas from an renewable-sources provider (we were originally hoping to heat with geothermal energy but that proved unfeasible), we eat mostly organic and completely vegetarian. We take the train rather than flying whenever possible.

But I draw the line at low-energy light bulbs — mainly because I question their supposed environmental friendliness and because I just can’t imagine that having breakable glass items containing mercury in your house is a good idea by anyone’s standards. I mean, didn’t they phase out mercury thermometers precisely because having breakable glass items containing mercury in your house is not a good idea? The German Federal Environmental Office helpfully suggests that one should air out a room immediately and completely for at least fifteen minutes when such a bulb breaks to prevent adverse effects to one’s health. Apart from the fact that the German Federal Environmental Office clearly does not own any cats it needs to catch first to prevent them from stepping onto broken glass (and breathing mercury fumes), how about preventing adverse effects to one’s health by not having these things in your home in the first place?

The Husband shares my dislike although I suspect mainly for aesthetic reasons. Unfortunately, neither of us is quite organized enough to keep track of the EU’s various deadlines for phasing out the sale of ordinary light bulbs. Fortunately, there is ebay:

2 layers of 24 boxes containing 2 bulbs each. We’ll be good for a while.