Interesting news article from The Local, Germany:
German language stories with the above and more, also via their links:
Germany: Der Tagesspiegel, Die Welt
Austria: ORF, Futurezone
Comment
As mentioned before, resistance to the ban is particularly strong in Germany and Austria,
both having sales figures demonstrating active hoarding, and both with various actions against the ban, (search function may be used for these posts): The Austrian film Bulb Fiction, the German Light Bulb Conspiracy documentary, several German TV documentaries (ZDF, 3Sat), the Heatball satirical campaign, as well as the Canned Bulb and Bulb Memorial campaigns to be covered in blog posts soon - apart from active involvement by mainstream politicians and by "heavyweight" printed media like Der Spiegel, of which more can also be seen on Ceolas.net,
for example in the story behind the EU ban.
Several petitions have also been launched, for example as via
Avaaz.org Gopetition.com Openpetition.de
The UK, by comparison, has no real involvement by mainstream politicians (a few calling for recognition for light-sensitive citizens while still "welcoming regulations") or by non-tabloid media. A few petitions have been launched though, and sales figures in previous years showed some hoarding going on.
One might note a North-South Europe divide in what protest there is.
Reasons for this may be covered in a subsequent blog post (also see http://ceolas.net/#li11x "Bans in Canada, and similar countries and states").
There is an irony about the EU Commission's supervisory fervor towards others:
As Halogenica has thoroughly documented, the EU promoted CFL/LED replacement products have to meet certain criteria laid down by the Commission itself... which they don't!
Turning to the above article,
it's obviously another angle of the pedantic nature of the ban that to have the "desired effect"
consumers must be stopped by any means possible from buying what they want.
The "rough service" bulb issue also arises in the USA and elsewhere.
The irony is that apparently they cant ban those bulbs entirely because you cant hang up a LED or CFL in dark big work areas, those bulbs just arent bright enough.
Also the “rough service” situation means that if the bulbs (unavoidably) get broken a couple of times, its no big deal with incandescents, unlike with expensive CFLs and LEDs, the former of course also with mercury vapor issues on breakage. Halogen bulbs meanwhile contain toxic Bromine or Iodine, not considered relevant ordinarily, but possibly so in confined spaces like small mine chambers.
Consider what would happen if the German authorities (and others) were successful
in keeping ordinary folk from buying any incandescents that remain legal for industrial use...
"Coalminer Joe" would just buy them for his friends and so on, passing or selling them on.
“Psssst mate wanna buy a light bulb?!”
Bulb pushers will have to go to jail and sit beside drug pushers!
The American Free Our Light campaign highlights this in an amusing video on their homepage.
Not forgetting the imagery evoked by seeking to control what people can use,
as seen earlier on this blog (exaggeration..what exaggeration? ;-) )
The sequel? Why, the Temple of Gloom, of course....
The last one coming from the mentioned Birnen Denkmal (Light Bulb Memorial) happening,
to be returned to shortly.
3 comments:
Do the authorities have nothing better to do?
Actually, in the case of the German authorities, they (also) don't seem too mindful about what the EU is saying, from the article:
"The commission has called on German authorities to carry out in-shop inspections to police the ban...
Berlin and Brandenburg's authorities said they would need extra employees, while the North Rhine-Westphalia office said they had not planned any measures to police the light bulb ban so far."
You can buy those special bulbs via internet still at least in US.
Cost more though.
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