Green Options

At night, South Korea is literally aglow. When the sun goes down you’ll find a vibrant night life of kareoke (”norebang”), street markets, and sujo bars. Still, per person, Koreans use only a little over half the energy used in the United States. How do they manage to light up the night–every night–and still save energy?

Part of the answer might be South Korea’s high usage of compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs).

It took me almost two months of living in Korea before I saw my first incandescent (”old fashioned”) light bulb. All of the others were energy efficient CFLs, like the one pictured here at this outdoor market.

Australia’s getting on the energy-efficient light bulb bandwagon, and in a big way. It recently announced it will phase out the use of inefficient, traditional light bulbs (incandescents) and replace them with the highly efficient, often swirly looking bulbs called compact fluorescents light bulbs (CFLs).

By making the switch, Australia could cut global warming pollution by 4 million tons in the next 5 years and cut household electric bills by up to

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