Is Glenn Beck Really Going to Fire Employees for Buying Eco-Friendly Light Bulbs and Biodegradable Spoons?

You might have heard through the grape vine that Glenn Beck has a warning for all employees of TheBlaze and Mercury Radio Arts: if you purchase eco-friendly products specifically to combat global warming, you're fired.

Or so he threatened on his radio show last week in a hyperbolic manner to make a point about products found in his own studio that just don't work.

Many have taken to Beck's comments that brought the studio's vice president of operations Sarah Carlson jokingly into the hot seat.

Beck questions his vice president of studio operations about some of the product decisions that have been made. (Image via TheBlaze video screenshot)

His words have been picked up by Right Wing Watch, Grist, Forbes and spread via Yahoo! News. Here's a bit of what Grist, a website that covers the "looming climate apocalypse," wrote of Beck's statements:

In a perplexing (or not that perplexing given that it’s Glenn Beck) announcement, everyone’s favorite right-wing nutjob orders a female staffer to send out a memo throughout his entire kingdom decreeing a zero-tolerance policy for CFLs, of all things.

[...]

“If anyone does anything in this company because of global warming, they’re fired,” he says. (What if they, like, sweat because of global warming? OR DROWN?)

"We will never, ever purchase a fluorescent light bulb for this building...not one," Beck said, referring to the compact fluorescent variety, which are replacing traditional incandescent light bulbs like the 100-watt, which was phased out in 2012, and 75-watt and 40 and 60-watt being phased out in 2013 and 2014, respectively.

But light bulbs aren't the only offending item. Flimsy, cardboard recycling bins have began cropping up around the studio.

Beck said, "I bought a movie studio. Could I buy something better than cardboard boxes?

Image via TheBlaze video screenshot

In addition to the cardboard bins, which could technically be less environmental than sturdier, longer-lasting plastic bins, Beck blasted having biodegradable spoons in the office. Carlson said she already requested they stop purchasing them after she broke one stirring her cereal.

Evidence of broken biodegradable spoons. (Image via TheBlaze video screenshot)

Beck asked Carlson to put out a memo for all employees that says, "I fire the person that ...starts to purchase fluorescent light bulbs, unless that is the only light bulb for a very specific reason, and I want to be CC'ed on what that reason is."

"Recyclable spoons are to never be purchased in this company again," Beck continued. "If we need to recycle light bulbs, fine. If we have to get the recycling out, dear God please don't buy those ...recycled cardboard recycling boxes ever again."

In a figurative memo to come from Stu, Beck requests it say that "global warming is a pile of crap."

"If you want to do it because you love trees, I understand. You don't want to cut all the trees, I get it. You want to make sure that we recycle and work together ...got it," he continues. "But if anyone does anything in this company because of global warming, they're fired."

Watch the full segment:

But Beck isn't as anti-"green"as many make him out to be. It might surprise some to realize the radio host and TV personality actually has made what many would consider "green" decisions, although his motives for doing so involve the idea of gaining independence, rather than environmental protection.

In May of this year, Beck tweeted out a picture of the solar panels on his ranch, which doesn't have any electricity, running on only wind, solar and some natural gas energy.

Let's also not forget Beck's announcements regarding the work being done at his American Dream Labs.

"It is exciting,” Beck said in February. “Over the last four days, I have met with my dreamers in a very plain, unmarked 7,000 sq. ft. warehouse in a suburb of Salt Lake City, Utah…I spent about three hours with some scientists who are on the verge of answering the question of whether or not we can really have green energy in a timely fashion, and enough energy to power our world.”

So if Beck goes to these measures, what's up with his comments against CFLs? Although such an eco bulb has reportedly been shown to save $92 from using 460 kilowatt hours less of energy during its lifespan, Beck has long been against the government mandate against the incandescent variety.

"Now, I’ve hated it because it’s a pain in the neck, it doesn’t solve global warming, they are ugly. You name it, they are being forced on us," Beck said in 2009, in a segment that also noted the harmful chemicals in CFLs being not only dangerous if broken but to workers in the manufacturing process as well.

CNET's Chris Matyszczyk also seemed to confirm Beck's point:

"I would love to have an opinion on that," Matyszczyk says referencing Beck's words that "that few would dare utter," "but I have to spend my morning shoveling my dead leaves into the green garbage can, my dead magazines into the blue garbage can, and my leftover food into this strange green-and-beige-lunchbox that hangs from the green garbage can.

"It's funny, when these garbage cans were delivered to my door (I didn't ask for them), the price of my garbage collection went up $50 per quarter."

--

[related]