Shamed by Wal Mart

I have been shamed by Wal Mart.

I have been promising to refit my house with energy efficient light bulbs ever since I saw AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH this summer. And I promised again when I saw WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? several months later. Yet somehow, 40 foot high visions of our world undergoing environmental disaster couldn't quite motivate my butt down to the hardware store.

Wal Mart may now accomplish what these two lovely documentaries could not. In an article in today's New York Times, the mega retailer revealed its plans to push compact flourescent bulbs to the American public.

It is the environmental movement’s dream: America’s biggest company, legendary for its salesmanship and influence with suppliers, encouraging 200 million shoppers to save energy.

If it succeeds in selling 100 million compact fluorescent bulbs a year by 2008, total sales of the bulbs in the United States would increase by 50 percent, saving Americans $3 billion in electricity costs and avoiding the need to build additional power plants for the equivalent of 450,000 new homes.

The bulbs have been around the US since 1979, but only 6% of households today use them. They cost more and the light ain't as pretty. And of course, there's that laziness factor for people like me.

I have always been one of those who simultaneously despised and made fun of Wal Mart. Huge cookie cutter stores coming in and displacing the mom-n-pop shops, unfair labor practices, a contributor to the genericizing (is that a word?) of America.

But just this once, I have to respect their mission. They've got the power to reach the masses, and right now, we need the masses to embrace changing their habits. So if Wal Mart can accomplish that, I'm all for it.

Which is part of the reason that they are getting behind the light bulb movement...so that people like me who normally express disdain and contempt for the retailer will sing a new tune. **Interesting note: the article in the NYT was in the Business section, NOT the Science section.

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH made me angry. WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? left me very very sad. WAL MART brings out the shame.

Shame wins.