Blog Buzz: CES, Carbon Offsets, Compact Fluorescents

by Ian Wilker  |  January 10, 2008  |  More By Ian Wilker

The annual gadgetapalooza known as the Consumer Electronics Show has been happening in Las Vegas this week, occasioning as usual reams of mainstream-media stories and blog posts. The enormous conference claims that it has gone green (Green Wombat approves, with some reservations), and the din of companies trumpeting green products and environmentally friendly business practices has never been louder. Earth2Tech and InfoWorld have good round-ups of the major themes on display, and The Guardian's Bobby Johnson has a video that gives a feel for the scene.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reports on an ongoing FTC inquiry into whether enough green value is being generated by the $54 million that U.S. businesses and consumers sunk into carbon offsets last year; the story is second-most emailed on the Times website today and has occasioned a lot of blog conversation, most of it just passing along speculation that the numbers behind some carbon-offset programs may be fudged. But Russell Simon of CarbonFund.org rebuts this:

There is and has been widespread consensus that carbon offsets work [and] are a valuable tool in the fight against global climate change. This consensus includes signatories to the Kyoto treaty, dozens of U.S. states that have inserted provisions for offsets into renewable portfolio standards, the EPA, the UN, the World Bank, dozens of environmental organizations and advocacy groups, and hundreds more stakeholders.... It's time the media ... stop covering what is in fact a broad consensus within the community as if it were a debate between equal parts proponents and critics.

This is good to hear; as marketing blogger David Berkowitz discovered on his trip to CES, it really doesn't cost very much to purchase carbon offsets and "feel like a responsible citizen of the world."

More fun and enlightening is this morning's New York Times story on the quality of light emitted by energy-efficient compact fluorescent lightbulbs. Lots of substance on the many varieties of efficient lighting technologies and the challenge faced (and met) by lighting designers adjusting to using CFLs and other power-saving bulbs, but there's a liberal smattering of wit from a panel of Times staffers who weighed a succession of CFL bulbs against the warm, homey light of a traditional incandescent bulb. Bottom line: yes, many CFLs will bathe your home in the glow of "hospital lighting," give your spouse an "embalmed look," or color your kitchen an "icky, frigid blue" -- but there do exist CFLs that emit light that's "not only acceptable but attractive" and warm. See the piece for make and model, and check out Andrew Revkin's accompanying post in his Dot Earth blog. (And there's great reader feedback in Apartment Therapy's post about this story.)