For 2026, LEDs are in. Fluorescent bulbs are really out
Also: How climate is affecting ski lift ticket prices
Happy New Year! Welcome back to our weekly newsletter where we highlight environmental trends and solutions that are moving us to a more sustainable world.
Hey there, it’s Bridget. Given the Jan. 1 fluorescent light bulb ban in Canada, I was curious about why the switch was necessary, and decided to look into alternatives.
This week:
- For 2026, LEDs are in. Fluorescent bulbs are really out
- The Big Picture: Disappearing ski weather days
- Fireguards to protect humans also benefit wildlife
For 2026, LEDs are in. Fluorescent bulbs are really out
Jan. 1 marked the start of a Canada-wide ban on the import and manufacture of compact fluorescent light bulbs containing mercury. This includes the spiral fluorescent bulbs often found in household lamps, not the long fluorescent tubes often found in industrial or commercial settings.
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) announced its plan to phase out mercury-containing lamps in 2024, to align with Canada’s commitment to the Minamata Convention on Mercury and to accelerate the Products Containing Mercury Regulations, which came into effect in 2015.
Mercury accumulates up the food chain in dangerous levels for humans and other animals, and exposure can have toxic effects on the nervous, digestive and immune systems.
A spokesperson for ECCC told CBC News that retailers will have until 2030 to sell their remaining stock.
LEDs are 'better in every way'
Olivier Trescases sees no justification for the continuation of compact fluorescent light bulbs anyway.
He is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Toronto, and a Canada Research Chair in Power Electronic Converters.
Trescases said that incandescent lights produced the balanced, natural light that people liked, but they were very inefficient. Over 90 per cent of the electricity was wasted as heat.
And while fluorescent lights were more energy efficient than incandescent — and widely adopted because of that — the quality of the light is worse and the flickering can cause migraines.
"For decades, that was our only available efficient form of lighting, but now there is this very low-cost alternative," he said.
That would be blue light-emitting diodes (or LEDs).
The 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura, the inventors of the blue LEDs.
While the original LED bulbs were met with a lot of skepticism due to their high cost, Trescases says they’ve improved dramatically since then, and dropped in price. Originally, he says they were around $100 per bulb.
"LEDs have come a long way in the last 10 years," said Trescases. "They are better in every way."
He says that LEDs are the most energy efficient and longest lasting of the common household light bulbs out there. The colour quality is also better.
Plus, they don’t contain mercury.
Environmentally friendly options have improved over time
The fact that LEDs became cheaper and more efficient over time is a common trend with environmentally friendly technologies, says Trescases.
Many technologies that were the best available at the time but had adverse health effects have since been replaced, such as leaded gasoline and asbestos insulation.
He said there is still a way to go with commercial and industrial lights, but in the past five years, the technology is becoming more widely available to replace fluorescent tubes with LED-based tubes that fit into the same sockets and work with the same electronics.
"In many cases, it’s hard to get the public to transition to these low-carbon, low-emission technologies because they’re less convenient, don’t perform as well, or are more expensive, but there’s a few bright spots where it’s basically better in every way," he said.
He says he believes the same will happen with EVs, which is what he’s working on next.
Disposing of old fluorescent light bulbs
When replacing fluorescent bulbs with LEDs, they need to be disposed of properly.
Trescases says the risk in fluorescent light bulbs is from the leaching of mercury and its accumulation in the environment, rather than direct exposure.
The mercury in fluorescent bulbs is in a sealed glass tube, but there is an average of 3.5 milligrams of mercury in a 13-watt residential compact fluorescent light bulb.
ECCC says that collection sites for old fluorescent light bulbs include recycling depots, municipal hazardous waste events and voluntary return-to-retail programs to keep mercury out of the environment.
— Bridget Stringer-Holden
Old issues of What on Earth? are here. The CBC News climate page is here.
Check out our podcast and radio show. In our newest episode: Warming temperatures mean more rats. Is rodent birth control part of the solution? Join us on the streets of Manhattan, Chicago and Vancouver as producer Molly Segal meets the people trying to stop rats from overtaking our world.
What On Earth drops new podcast episodes every Wednesday and Saturday. You can find them on your favourite podcast app or on demand at CBC Listen. The radio show airs Sundays at 11 a.m., 11:30 a.m. in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Check the CBC News Climate Dashboard for live updates on record-breaking weather and current conditions across the country. Set your location to find out how today's temperatures compare to historical trends.
Reader feedback
Thanks to everyone who took our end-of-year quiz, including Jean Finley of Canmore, Alta., who also wrote in to share a story idea: "Really enjoyed this [quiz]. Learned a lot about shipping and the controversial proposed new port downstream from Montreal.
"In some future [issue], a topic of interest for many might be rooftop gardens… Way back in 2009 National Geographic did an article on all this which included a little known fact... in parts of Switzerland the law requires: wherever an 'empty' lot was to be built on, the end result must be the replacement of that same square footage of ground covered by same size rooftop garden. That article also spoke of Vancouver's major harbour front hotel (now a Fairmont, I think) proudly providing all its restaurant herbs from the hotel's rooftop garden… Had no idea that rooftop gardening was so well established back then — we hear little mention of it these days, 18 years later. Our town (Canmore, Alta.) some years ago cheered a new building (restaurant) with a turf roof, scenic too. But to our disappointment nobody took up the idea with other buildings going up. Thanks for all your challenging reporting."
Great idea, Jean. We've done some stories on urban farming, including on rooftops, and profiled some individual rooftop projects, like this one in London and another in Saskatoon. CBC Docs also took a closer look at all the rooftop gardens that resulted from Toronto's green roof bylaw, which was recently repealed by the Ontario government. But we'd love to hear about more projects across Canada — please let us know about some in your communities.
What are your climate and environmental resolutions for 2026? Let us know how you’re making life a little greener.
Write us at whatonearth@cbc.ca (and send photos there too!)
The Big Picture: Disappearing ski weather days
It's ski season right now, which means families are reckoning again with eye-watering costs at Canada's major ski resorts — running easily into the thousands of dollars for families, including flight tickets, expensive hotels and, of course, lift tickets.
I wrote about how, despite the rising price, profit margins are narrowing at these resorts, while uncertain winter weather in Canada is threatening the future of this iconic winter sport.
Climate change means most slopes, from the giant resorts to even small local city hills, have to make their own snow. And they have to face the risk that their narrow ski season — just 100 days a year — could get narrower.
On the other side, families who are already spending the big bucks could end up facing poorer than expected skiing conditions as cold winter days decline across the country.
— Inayat Singh
Hot and bothered: Provocative ideas from around the web
- A tiny Canadian startup now makes 20 different configurations of electric trucks, buses and vans. CleanTechnica profiles Vancouver-based Green Power Motor Company, which is building a new factory in Santa Teresa, N.M.
- The scourge of microplastics in our environment is clear, but some scientists are questioning whether some studies on its health impacts are contaminated and contain false positives.
- People in a remote part of the Amazon are using solar-powered canoes to travel around their territory on the rivers, and it has powerfully changed the notion of development there.
- Is there a government conspiracy over climate change? Heated's Emily Atkin argues that yes, it involves "coordinated power, deliberate deception, and a bought-off government that repeatedly acts to promote an industry that is poisoning humans and the environment for profit. It just so happens to be a real conspiracy."
- This may be a surprise, but eating at more expensive restaurants generates more waste, Bloomberg reports. Here's why, and how Silo in London is trying to change that. It has billed itself as the world's first zero-waste dining room. (Paywalled.)
Fireguards to protect residents also a boon to Alberta wildlife
Fireguards are designed to protect people and communities by clearing land to slow the spread of wildfires.
In Alberta, from Lake Louise through Banff and Canmore into Kananaskis Country, hundreds of hectares of forest have been removed in the last five years, with more to come.
But residents and visitors aren’t the only ones benefitting.
Wildlife such as elk, grizzly bears and birds are also taking advantage of the work.
"They use the opening to move, but they’re mainly using the opening to feed," said Shelley Tamelin, a wildfire risk reduction manager for Parks Canada.
Short-term disruption, long-term gain
Wildlife is inevitably impacted as fireguards are built.
Animals steer clear as the presence of humans and machines increases, but when work is finished they often return.
The newly exposed land and the resulting growth of willows, grasses and shrubs create fresh food and more room for wildlife to move, said Bill Hunt, Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative's senior director of conservation programs.
"That offers a whole bunch of habitat opportunities that weren't there before for nesting birds, for foraging ungulates, for black bears and grizzly bears feeding on things like buffaloberries," Hunt said.
Hunt is a former longtime Parks Canada employee who worked on human-wildlife co-existence for decades.
He said fireguards can help guide wildlife to move around communities, meaning fewer conflicts between humans and wildlife.
Tamelin said a secondary goal of fireguards is giving wildlife safe open space to move.
"We don’t really want them roadside. We don’t really want them hanging out on the train tracks," she said.
"Those aren't safe areas for them and there's more chances for negative visitor interactions if they’re in those areas."
Avoiding wildlife impact
Planning for fireguards takes about five to 10 years before trees are removed.
The best landscape for fireguards are areas with natural openings, since fewer trees will be removed. Officials hold consultations with regional groups and governments to find potential issues, and conduct studies to see if there are negative impacts on area wildlife.
The logging takes place from mid-November to March, when the ground is frozen and soil protected, Tamelin said.
That also avoids the period when birds and bats nest, but a biologist will do a survey once a week to see if some species are impacted.
"We don’t decide to just build a fireguard and be building it six months later. It doesn’t go that fast," Tamelin said. "It takes time to pick the really good location and talk to stakeholders and engage all our specialists and keep tweaking the plan until we can get a plan that mitigates most of the risk."
Wildlife uses open spaces to move
Alberta's Bow Valley has seen continuous growth in tourism as people visit the Canadian Rockies.
The provincial government has emphasized tourism as a key economic driver, aiming to expand it to $25 billion a year by 2035. It means more people will come to enjoy the outdoors shared by residents, visitors and wildlife.
Hunt said it’s vital for all groups to “work collectively to manage human use in those areas.”
"If we want wildlife to make use of those and avoid coming into town, we need to provide a space and time where those patches can be secure for wildlife," he said.
In a public November talk hosted by the Biosphere Institute of the Bow Valley, Alberta Parks biologist John Paczkowski showed that 75 per cent of a grizzly bear's movement in Kananaskis Country near Barrier Lake was in forest openings.
Data from grizzly bear 148, who frequently moved through the Canmore area after spending most of its time in Banff National Park, used open areas to travel.
The Bow Valley human-wildlife co-existence report that came out in 2018, after bear 148’s death, recommended enhancing wildlife habitats through logging and prescribed fires.
Paczkowski said there are about 120 wildlife cameras around the valley to track how wildlife adapt.
"It’s really exciting to realize a dream of restoring habitat on a large scale," he said.
The provincial government biologist could not be reached for an interview.
— Greg Colgan
Thanks for reading. If you have questions, criticisms or story tips, please send them to whatonearth@cbc.ca.
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Editors: Emily Chung and Hannah Hoag | Logo design: Sködt McNalty
