Oh it's only mercury

Mercury catches up with feel-good environmentalism. The Gaia crowd just doesn't understand the law of unintended consequences.

With all of the alarms raised about mercury, why are the moonbats advocating massive change to fluorescent lighting. The State of Vermont went through great lengths to rid the state of mercury thermometers and mercury batteries. Now the global warming loons want to swap all incandescent bulbs for mercury-based fluorescents.

The new way to save the planet is by poisoning it, yourself and Junior’s hamster. How you ask? Here’s how!

Fluorescent lamps work by exciting atoms of liquid mercury in an inert gas and having them excite a phosphor coating to produce visible light.

Thanks to Vermont Woodchuck for this one.

Update: Glenn Reynolds points to an article that says there isn't that much mercury in enviro-friendly lightbulbs. Still mercury isn't nice to have around if you keep listening to those public service ads warning about its disposal.