winnie said:
Per watt consumed and per lumen produced, T-8s have less mercury than CFLs.
Per bulb, T-8s have more.
The T-8s need the same care for disposal.
-Jon
T-8s are also more widely used than CFLs, and I'm willing to bet average Joe six pack maintainance tech doesn't know or care that all Fluorescents have mercury and need to be disposed of properly, so they end up in the dumpster.
As far as scare tactics, it's good to take things with a grain of salt. But we do have things that will be issues in future that we can start solving now, like how to produce enough energy to feed our energy hungry lives, and how to produce enough food to fuel our energy hungry lives in 10, 20, 30 years.
If we start working on solutions now, in 10,20,30 years, we can have the problem licked! Look at how far solar panel technology and microprocessor technology have come in 10, 20, 30 years! We need to keep working on what's going to be next...like how to make usable screw in LEDs...etc, etc.