Michael Rosenthal
(10/2019) LED lighting technology
is a solid-state lighting that uses light-emitting diodes
(LEDs) as the light source, rather than electrical
filaments (incandescent bulbs), mercury-vapor gas
discharge (fluorescent lamps) or halogen (iodine or
bromine) lamps. LED lamps consume significantly less
energy and produce little heat or UV light. They last much
longer than incandescent, fluorescent, or halogen bulbs.
Changing to the use of these bulbs is a real positive move
in terms of environmental practice. They can be utilized
in homes and in commercial use, indoors and outdoors. So
why aren’t we converting our lighting uses to LED more
extensively than we have done?
During the previous national
government administration a commitment was made to move to
LED as the usual lighting source. However, the current
national administration has rolled back a policy of our
previous government administration that would advance the
use of LED lighting via The Appliance Standards Awareness
Project, which advocates stronger national efficiency
programs. This is the cancellation of the move to the more
efficient lighting by 2020, as mandated by Congress. The
Project says that eliminating the new standards will cost
consumers in the United States about $14 billion annually,
increasing climate-change emissions by about 38 million
metric tons annually…equivalent to the amount emitted by 8
million automobiles. Though LED lighting initially costs
more to purchase, the added cost is made up over time by
lower electric bills.
Fifteen states, New York City, and
the District of Columbia oppose the rollback of this
change and question whether the Department of Energy has
the authority to negate aspects of the mandated changes,
passed by Congress in 2007. California, Colorado,
Washington State, and Vermont have enacted appliance
standards of their own, apart from federal legislation.
The bulbs in use now are essentially the same as invented
by Thomas Edison and defined in an 1880 patent! Perhaps
more states will take charge of this situation to move to
a less energy wasting and more modern future.
California continues its
leadership in developing more efficient and
environmentally friendly energy sources. They are building
a solar farm backed up by one of the world’s largest
batteries. This farm would produce 7% of the electricity
used by the city of Los Angeles at a cost lower than that
generated with fossil fuel. It will be a 400 megawatt
solar array, producing 876,000 megawatt hours annually,
which is enough to power 65,000 homes during daylight
hours. It will utilize an 800 Megawatt hour battery to
store energy for use after the sun sets. Progress that has
led to price declines has made renewable energy coupled
with battery storage more practical. There has been great
progress in battery development to provide power for long
periods of cloudy and winter weather that will make solar
power with battery storage more practical. In 2010
California passed a mandate that the state’s utilities
must install electricity storage equivalent to 2% of their
peak electrical demand by 2024.
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New York has declared the end of
the measles outbreak, the largest there in nearly 30
years. New York City spent more than $6 million dollars,
deployed more than 500 staffers, and ordered mandatory
vaccination for people living and working in four Brooklyn
neighborhoods. The problem was a spread of misinformation
about the safety and effectiveness of the measles, mumps,
and rubella vaccine.
A total of 654 people were
infected, 52 of them were hospitalized, and 16 required
intensive care due to serious complications. There have
been 1,234 measles cases nationwide; no new cases have
been reported since mid-July. Vaccination coverage has
increased significantly since the emergency order, and the
anxiety has been somewhat reduced. The area has been a
favorite target of anti-vaccine groups, who held rallies
and distributed misinformation through pamphlets and
recorded conference calls. There were, however, those in
the community who took valuable action to counteract the
anti-vaccine group. A volunteer group, called The Vaccine
Task Force, wrote and distributed booklets to parents to
tell the story correctly, and they organized sessions to
answer questions. New York State has also strengthened
vaccine laws, revoking the privilege of parents to refuse
childhood vaccination. There had been a law allowing
religious exemption for school vaccination, and some
26,000 children were unvaccinated under this law. The law
was revoked in June!
Publicity has made the plastic
waste situation in the oceans better known, and some
action is being taken to reduce waste plastic. Marriott
International, the world’s largest hotel chain, announced
that they will phase out miniature plastic bottles of
shampoo, conditioner, and bath gel in favor of pump-topped
bottles by 2020 at its 7,000 properties worldwide. The
company estimates that the move will keep 1.7 million
pounds of plastic from ending up in landfills each year.
Plastic takes more than 400 years to decompose. Some 8.8
million tons of plastic are dumped annually into the
world’s oceans. Last year Marriott cut out the use of
plastic straws and stirrers.
A topic that is very important and
personal to me is water quality. During my 19 years at
Bard College in the Hudson Valley of New York state, I
organized a stream study project for the Sawkill Creek, a
stream that runs through the Bard campus and which
produced campus drinking water and received treated
aqueous waste.
In 2015 a rule gave the
Environmental Protection Agency broader authority over the
waterways of the United States. It has been reported that
the federal government plans to redefine what water bodies
deserve federal protection. It is expected that the new
rules, a return to 1986 standards on water pollution, will
seriously reduce wetlands protection. This effort is one
of many of the current government reducing federal
authority on wetland protection under The Clean Water Act.
I like to end on a positive note.
In mid-September, The House of Representatives passed a
bill banning oil and gas drilling in most federally
controlled waters, and in particular voted to ban drilling
in an ecologically sensitive oil rich section of northeast
Alaska. Though this legislation is unlikely to be passed
by the Senate or to be signed by President Trump, it
indicates that there still is a portion of the population
and government sensitive to environmental protection.
Perhaps this passage will draw enough attention to move us
toward more sensitivity to environmental protection. I
purposely named this column Real Science in order to focus
upon making decisions that reflect scientific fact. I
believe we must look at our actions in a way to protect
the environment – to slow global warming, to avoid the
spread of disease, and to show wisdom in protecting
limited resources. A recent Pew poll from early 2018
indicated that 51% of Americans oppose more offshore oil
and gas drilling, indicating that the portion of Americans
who support offshore drilling declined 10 % in the four
years 2014-2018. Whatever your political affiliation, I
urge you to consider environmental protection as both a
practical and a moral goal.
Read other articles by Michael Rosenthal
