Friday, April 6, 2007

It’s the Celebration of Lightbulb Invention

Kelantan is celebrating the success of Thomas Edison inventing light bulb.
Haha. Not really.
If you don’t know exactly whats happening here, check out the Chinese Calendar or 'Kalendar Kuda'
Here are some of the current pics of the main road in Kota Bharu during the night.







Its beautiful, thousands of colorful lightbulb, but do we know that conventional lightbulb (using electricity generated from coal) contribute loads to global warming?

Fact 1: source link
Regular incandescent light bulb vs compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL)
CFLs use 60% less energy than a regular bulb, this simple switch will save about 300 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.

Fact 2: source link
How much CO2 is emitted as a result of my using specific electrical appliances?
For this answer, we refer you to an excellent article, "Your Contribution to Global Warming," by George Barnwell, which appeared on p. 53 of the February-March 1990 issue of National Wildlife, the magazine of the National Wildlife Federation. The article, assuming that your electricity comes from coal, calculates CO2 emissions corresponding to the use of various electrical appliances. For example, one hour's use of a color television produces 0.64 pounds (lb) of CO2, and each use of a toaster produces 0.12 lbCO2, whereas a day's use of a waterbed heater produces 24 lb CO2.
In general, the coefficient is about 2.3 lb CO2 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity. You can calculate the kWh of electricity by multiplying the number of watts (W) the appliance uses times the number of hours (h) it is used, then dividing by 1000. For example a 60-W light bulb operated for 24 h uses
(60 W) x (24 h) / (1000) = 1.44 kWh.
This use of electricity would produce an emission of
(1.44 kWh) x (2.3 lb CO2 per kWh) = 3.3 lb CO2
if the electricity is derived from the combustion of coal.

In a lay man language: source link
• 90 per cent of the energy goes into generating heat.
• If every American home switched their five most-used light fittings to energy-saving bulbs, they would save $6bn (£3.2bn) and reduce greenhouse gases by nearly half a million tons.
Thats really a lot!

And the ironic part is…

"I want to remind the state government that uncontrolled logging meant to clear rubber and oil palm estates, among others, could lead to erosion and global warming," Tuanku Ismail Petra said in his 57th birthday address.
Full text from NST
Ths also appear on the front page of Utusan Malaysia (Full text)

Yes very true, but I don’t think this only happens exclusively in Kelantan but also applies throughout Malaysia. Check the Google earth and see the green distribution of Malaysia.

(pls click for larger image)
Observe! Is it greener on the other side?

We all know that trees are the major and the most important natural defense against carbon emission (PDF file that elaborate this). Its true that saving our trees is important, but its also important for us to take part in reducing the green gases for example by using the electricity wisely.

Its not that I wanna insult any entity, but it’s the truth. Its not purely anybody fault either, I guess we as Malaysian don’t really have enough exposure in this issue, bcos we don’t really feel the current impact being felt by majority of ppl globally. I heard lots of my friend in the UK complaining bout the extreme cold even after winter, sudden temperature change etc. The news also broadcast frequent occurrence of natural disaster like hurricane and flood that happens all over the world. Alhamdulillah Malaysia is saved from all this except the flood which happens only once in a while, and we should also be thankful, although the sun sometimes feel too bright and painful.
But this doest mean Malaysian should close their eyes and ears to these, eventually everyone will be exposed to the affect, as the earth we share is just a tiny bit.
Steps should be taken at all level from organization to personal to keep our earth clean. For example Australia had taken a step ahead by banning the traditional light bulbs. (full article on Australia banning the light bulb).

If you're still skeptical, you can watch this 6.5mins VDO campaign below and read this informative post by Nasyrah

please watch till the end, the closure is real funny :)

4 comments:

zafi said...

o hari keputeraan rupenya!!!
sampai tak cukup letrik ye!! :P

H said...

Haha, Yes, This post doesn't make sense if the reader don't know whats the light for

Anonymous said...

Tony Blair and his family were once ( I think a month ago) criticized for having their holiday outside UK - traveling by plane which released much greenhouse gases- and the number of ton of gases per family member was even calculated! To that extent they critisized the leader, while we in Malaysia are happy to accept our leaders as faultless.

H said...

Wow, to that extend? Thats good. Sure will make an idiot think twice bfor getting into politics (well idiot dont think, that wont make any dif then)
I think its changing here, more figures are subjectd to critic recently, again thx to 'blog', making registering a local blogger (.my) a compulsory wont work to stop this, erm mayb they still dont comprehend how blog works actually (back to the idiot analogy)