Should we use as much light or not? Does it hurt us enviormentally?
Depends on the source of light. Directly from the sun, yes! If we have to burn fossil fuels to make electricity to convert to light, then using more light would burn more fossil fuels, which would the global warming worse.
You should use as much light as you need to see what you are doing. Any more is wasting resources. BTW, Fluorescent bulbs have mercury in them and should be avoided at all cost.
Yes indirectly. Light uses current or electrical power. Electrical power uses oil, gas, coal or any similar thing to generate itself. When we use them to generate electricity we pollute the atmosphere, use the resources and waste energy as heat, since the efficiency is less for each conversion. Third law of thermodynamics says energy can neither be created nor be destroyed. So while generating electrical power we generate heat, dust and chemicals which in turn pollute the atmosphere.
It's not the light that hurts the environment it's the amount of electricity it uses to turn it on and keep it on. That is why they are trying to get everyone to switch to the new bulbs, they use less electricity. Unfortunately they also don't give as much light, and can't be used on dimmers. So to get the same amount of light with the new bulbs you need to turn on about 3 lights to see instead of 1 with the standard bulbs that we have been using for years. The new light bulbs also contain mercury and can not be recycled, they will last longer but when they are burned out they will just fill up our dumps and harm the environment with the mercury. They need to think long term and find another way to save the environment without using mercury, saving electicity and making a bulb that can be recycled.
Since it takes energy to create light, the more light you use the more energy is being used and that means the more fossil fuel being burned to generate the electricity. So generally you'd like to use less light. But a better answer is really to use the most efficient lighting possible. Fluorescent lighting, for example is several times more efficient than incandescent lighting (standard light bulbs that get hot), and now, Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) are being used for some small lamps. These are extremely efficient light producers.
