Message from the government: "Everybody please change to fluorescent light bulbs and stop using incandescent light bulbs now. We say NOW. You heard it NOW. Otherwise we'll throw a fit."

I have been using fluorescent bulbs for a long time and I am saving energy whereever I can by using recycled materials, recycling my garbage, using a time thermostat, not iding the car engine, commuting by train, using canvas shopping bags, yada yada yada. So my problem is obviously not with being energy efficient. My problem is with the vast amounts of energy wasted by the government and large corporations (and certain households) in front of our very eyes.

Oh, before I continue, why can't we call them curly light bulbs and old school bulbls instead of fluorescent and incandescent - they are not only near impossible to spell it hurts my ears to say them too.

Where do I think energy could be saved?

Highway lights

Doesn't it feel like it's daytime on some highways? Some sections (and I'm talking about 100 kilometer long stretches) are lit as if somebody needed to prove that daytime can exist at 3am.

Offices / Banks

Every time I walk into a bank at night to use the ATM all the lights are on. All of them. The whole place is blinging bright. They do not turn off any lights at night. Not sure if it's a policy of banks but sure it's not the most enviromentally friendly way of protecting the piles of redundant papers created by overpaid and dull employees who take 2 hour lunches then take 20 minutes to cash a cheque.

What about the office towers? We all know about them. It's disgusting. A small village can be supplied with hydro for free every day of the year from the electricity an office tower wastes overnight.

Malls

Ditto. Why have hundreds of 500W mega-bulbs all over the place in and outside of malls? Just because. It is shinier that way so all the pretty mallgoers can happily get lost in their brainwashed fucked-upness.

Households

How about turning off the oven 5 minutes before the cookies are ready?
How about turning off lights when you leave the room?
How about not using 5 bulbs in the washroom when you can see your butt even if there are 2 bulbs only.
How about not watering your lawn twice a day every day for 30 minutes?
How about a shower instead of a bath. Not always but whenever you really really don't NEED a bath.
How about an electric lawnmover with zero emissions. It's not that hard to move the cord around ya.
How about a snow shovel instead of a snow blower for 3 inches of snow?
How about not idling your car for 15 minutes every morning?
Etc, etc, etc, etc....

Nobody - well, not many people - can do all this, but some of us are actually trying. You will save a few bucks here and there but it feels so good knowing that I am only taking what I need and not what I feel like.

"The Earth has more than enough resources to satisfy everybody's needs - not their greed."

Paper usage

This paragraph is going to be personal: I absolutely hate people who print everything they can get their hands on. Multiple copies. Every day. "Hey, look at this 35 page manual I found! Isn't it cool? Let's file it and never look at it again".

People! Please respect nature. Please understand that it gives us life. Not parfume smelling iPod sounding plastic mall life. Real life. But you don't know anymore what "real" is.

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Life Sentence,
No Parole

Murderers and rapists get out of jail over time. A chained dog serves a life sentence with no parole only because he is a dog while all he wants is to be with you and give you his unconditional love.

You agree this is wrong, don't you? Then you say "that's too bad", sigh, and move on. Do something about it. Please. Donate to Dogs Deserve Better to help unchain dogs and provide a kind, more loving life for them.

They are unseen. Forgotten. Alone. Forever. On a chain. Dying in the back yard of humans.

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Lights: Do as I say not as I do