New year Ball in New York gets 'energy efficient lights'  

I didn't hear about the part where they were using energy efficient lights. What I did hear was that the ball had over 10,000 lights in it. Don't think that it will make much of a difference, since the ball won't be lit up for just today! And your right with all the other lit up things in New York what's the difference!

I'm sorry, but I did laugh when I read this. Energy efficient lights, if that were really a concern why can't solar or wind power be used?

Truth be told solar power and wind power are really the key to maintaining our resources; however, billions of dollars would be lost to the power companies so they sanction and regulate to keep those dollars coming in. Heaven forbit we should use the natural resorces of sunlight and wind power!

I think the issue is that it is setting an example. I also think some of the energy efficient lights are a lot brighter. I do not give two cents for Al Gore, but I do care about the environment. It has to start somewhere, so why not have it happen on an occasion when millions are watching.

ummmmmm...Why do they any energy at all to drop the ball? I mean, it's coming down, not going up. (i'm purposely showing my blondeness here, can ya tell?)

I think it is playing to Gore and his minions. I always get suspicious if the benefits of saving energy are not evenly distributed, and where the proponents of such a plan hold their meetings. If they hold their meetings in tropical or sub tropical countries where the temperatures do reach over the 0ne hundreds, they have no concern with us who live in colder climates and they really do not care if a number of us cannot afford to heat their homes. Now if people were saving energy to save themselves money and by being stewards of the planet, like they used to do years ago, but all this energy efficient lights is not about each household trying to save money so their kids can go to college or they can afford that trip they were planning sooner, or getting a bigger place to live, the money saved is not going to the people.

I think they are just doing/saying that to get people off their backs about wasting energy.

Like it matters. It stays lit up for a what, 1 minute, once a year? I can't remember if it's lit up before it falls or not. If they really wanted to save energy, like you said, make the billboards energy efficient, make the lights on sign marquees energy efficient and make street lamps and other public lighting energy efficient. A few light bulbs on a ball that drops once a year is not going to make that big of a deal.

Judging by the question and the answers...

I think that the world is even in more trouble that I imagined.

Saving energy is not about saving money. It is about reducing pollution. The greatest pollution in the atmosphere comes from producing electricity trough the burning of coal.

An energy efficient light bulb consume four times less electricity while giving the same amount of light. It is more expensive to buy in the short term... but it will last you about 15 times longer than a normal light bulb.

I don't know... if all the street lights and all the lights in NYC were energy efficient it might save a few thousand a year... so what would they do with that money? Throw a party maybe... I don't know. I'm not into the global warming theory... the planet cools and warms naturally over time.

Compared to all the energy used in NYC what they save with these energy efficient lights will be a mere "drop in the bucket"; but, without any drops that bucket would be empty. I think using those lights accomplished more than just the amount of energy saved on that one night. It raised awareness, telling people over and over again ad nauseum that the ball used the energy equivalent of, was it 9 toasters. I believe it's a start, however small, and whether you like Al Gore or believe everything or anything he's had to say we really do all have a duty to save energy in whatever little way we can.
Annie