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It is fortunate that I have a landlord – or previous
tenant – who was conscious about such things. All of the permanent bulbs in my
apartment are CFL bulbs…including the ones in the bathroom. I did, however, have a floor lamp in which
there resided incandescent bulbs, so I was able to replace one.
Yay me!
Why replace one bulb, though? One bulb will not make
a significant dent in a monthly electric bill – approximately $6 per year. One
bulb will not change the lighting in a room significantly. One bulb doesn’t
seem to make much of a difference. Why one bulb?
Well, Lent is also about making a start and for some,
one bulb might be the beginning of becoming both energy and environmentally
conscious. Or, it may simply be a step to rearranging finances and saving
money. It is a small step, to be sure, but a step nonetheless.
At the same time, it might not be such a small step
after all. Think about it multiplied by large numbers of people. CFL’s save around 75% of the energy from a regular bulb. There are 114,800,000 households in the
US. If every household replaced just 1
bulb, think about how much energy would be saved. That means fewer natural
resources and less pollution as a result of our energy consumption. The environmental
impact and the impact to our collective wallets is not so small.
In Bible Study last night we looked at Genesis 2.
The first job the human being is given is to till and keep the earth (connected
to Genesis 1 the command to have dominion – not domination – over all of
creation). We are connected to the world in so many ways and it is our
responsibility to till and keep it, to care for it.
God, help us to find ways large and small of being
good caretakers of the world you have given us. Amen.
Shalom Y’all,
Owen
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