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A Lightbulb That Could Change the World

Charles Fishman's article on efficient compact fluorescent lightbulbs and Wal-Mart ("How Many Lightbulbs Does It Take to Change the World?" September) was outstanding. He took a potentially deadly boring subject and made it interesting to a popular audience. NASA scientist James Hansen says we have a decade to take action on climate change or our children will be living on a planet unrecognizable to us. If we're going to take such action, we'll need more journalists like Fishman to make stories about CFLs as appealing to mass audiences as Brad and Angelina.

Auden Schendler
Basalt, Colorado

Editors' note: We received a phenomenal response to our story on compact fluorescent lightbulbs. Many readers took it as inspiration for action. Here's a sampling.

I read with great interest your story on compact fluorescent lightbulbs and their potential impact on energy usage and power savings. I had bought some CFLs in the past, but I had not realized how much they had improved. The statistics that Mr. Fishman cites are pretty amazing, so I checked with various Web sites and verified them.

I was so impressed that I sent the information from the article to our Texas Campaign for the Environment and queried it to see if there was an interest in starting a CFL campaign here in Texas. This organization is very concerned about new power plants being built in Texas that use coal, so this would be a perfect way to reduce the need for the plants. It's truly inspiring what one small thing multiplied by 100 million can accomplish.

Mike Ziegler
Austin, Texas

I was so inspired by Charles Fishman's article on CFLs that my company is now sending one compact fluorescent lightbulb with every order. We are counting on our customers to try their free CFL and then replace their incandescent bulbs in their homes and businesses. I am president of a company that sells wholesale inspirational giftware, and not lightbulbs, but this is an action that seems like it could really have an impact on our environment and our customers' budgets. Thank you for presenting an opportunity to make a difference in our world.

Kristina Runciman
Kingsport, Tennessee

As I picked up your September issue, I was drawn to the CFL article first, partly because I was surprised that a Fast Company article could be focused on something as simple as a lightbulb and partly because we just saw An Inconvenient Truth. It's a great article and provides a strong message, a call to action, and an easy next step.

On a whim, I suggested that my wife read it. Not only did she read it but she presented the article to her class at our church. They found the idea very compelling and several purchased CFLs that day. Since then, the group proposed to replace all the lights in the church with CFLs--a small investment for a big savings (fiscal and environmental).

Tom Klein
Springfield, Missouri

Your article is outstanding, but there's one way to make this whole process better: Let's do it immediately. Let's have some leadership from the Department of Energy to coordinate with GE, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and so forth, and in the interest of the national good, give the bulbs away.

Global warming is accelerating, more so than thought just two years ago. In one fell swoop, the United States could make a real impact very quickly, and it would stay made, because of the longevity of these newer bulbs. The nation would save money from all the coal and natural gas not mined, burned, and transported; it happens almost immediately; and it sends one hell of a message to the entire world.

Dave Huntsman
Cleveland, Ohio

My wife and I have been fans of CFL bulbs for years. We are not the people that most would believe would be fans of them: We are hard-core conservative Republicans! However, as I have said at a few alternative-energy fairs to hard-core liberal environmentalists, they are selling the right message in the wrong way. Everyone says they care about the environment, but most aren't willing to give up something. The message of saving the earth and saving energy needs to be made the way you did in your article, with the cost (in dollars) as its main point.

Jeff Womack
San Antonio, Texas