Buying a plasma means supporting nuclear energy
By Matt Burns 
posted Aug 15th 2006 1:44PM
posted Aug 15th 2006 1:44PM
And you call yourself an eco-friendly human being. You sport the Prius with pride, munch on twigs and berries, and even plant a tree each Arbor day, but you still have that plasma hanging above your minimalistic Ikea table; shame on you. Didn't you know that a plasma TV requires nearly four times the amount of energy a normal tube TV does? It is getting so bad in England, they might have to build two extra nuclear power plants just to power all these new flat panels that are being installed in homes and pubs across the country. Plus, when you add in all the extra equipment to complete the digital experience, (e.g. DVD players, DVRs, media centers, ect.) it just means that our little, green globe is going to burn up even quicker. So you know what this means right, it is a great excuse to pick up a nice Harmony remote that turns things off when they are not in use. How else where you planning on spending all that cash you are saving by driving a Prius?
This is such a farce of a story. Electronics have not just recently become more popular. Welcome to the 80's electronics have been increasing in popularity this entire time. This is nothing new. By the way, your picture showing a "nuclear plant" is a cooling tower that is only used for cooling water-they are empty and completely "unradioactive". If you are wanting to show something that is nuclear--try showing something that half of the coal plants do not utilize... The nuclear plants are not the plants that blow up all over the country or are contaminating the environment...check out your local dumps, chemical plants, local industry and yes, even your friendly government agencies...
I wish manufacturers would consistently publish power usage figures for their monitors. Most don't, some do, some only do it for certain models. It would help me decide what to get, power consumption is one of my criteria. I suppose I could just take my Kill-A-Watt meter to Best Buy and plug the TVs into it..
Actually, nuclear power is arguably the cleanest & safest power available today. In fact the co-founder of Greenpeace, Patrick Moore, is endorsing its expansion. Link: http://washingtontimes.com/national/20060424-104215-7645r.htm
The tone of your post suggests that plasma buyers should feel bad for the expansion of nuclear plants but it is not clear to me that there is necessarily anything wrong with it.
Some expansion of nuclear power plants...The USA hasnt built a nuclear power plant since 1973!!! Thank God the country is finally waking up. More nukes and more drilling in my lifetime, hooray!
Seems like a good reason to get an LCD rather than a plasma; my sharp 37" uses about 95 watts; my old 32" Crt used 215 watts ...
At least if you build a nuclear plant you don't have to worry about emissions. You are doing no harm to the environment and it would be better to build nuclear plants because of the amount of jobs created and economic benefits surrounding the plant.
FYI - in the U.S. a Color TV makes up 3% of a household's electricity consumption. If you quadruple it like you say (though no sources were provided) then it only makes up 12% of a household's consumption. Big whoop.
Here's the link.
If I knew my electricity was coming from nuclear I would have no problem consuming the extra electricity for a TV. Electricity improves our lives and you can see how it does by looking at the link. Air conditioning, refrigeration, heating, laundry etc. all improve our lives which is powered by electricity.
I guess the link didn't come through. Here it is again:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/reps/enduse/er01_us_tab1.html