Turn It Off!

It's easy to think of the electricity we use in our homes as a benign energy source.  Plug it in, turn it on, great things happen, no smoke, no noise, no stinkum.

Wrong, bucko.

Take your desktop computer.  It is probably consuming something like 350 watts or so.  Lots of peeps never, ever turn them off.  Well, those of us running any version of Windows have to periodically reboot, but other than that, why not just leave it on?

Here's why: now pay atention.  Most of the electricity in the US, yea, even unto the world, is produced by burning coal.  Selah!  To produce 100 watts, 24/7 for a year, 714 pounds - that's right - of coal must be burned.  And that's not all.  Burning the coal to keep that 100 watt bulb on continuously for a year pumps 5 pounds of sulfur dioxide (think acid rain), a bit more than 5 pounds of nitrogen oxide, and 1852 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.  All that for a measly 100 watts per year.

Get up, right now, and go turn something off.  Resolve to keep turning stuff off.  Pull out those ugly wall warts from their sockets if you're not actively charging something.  Get mad at those LED's staring at you, unblinking.  LED's don't use much electricity, but every bit counts.  We've probably already passed the tipping point on global warming, but if you and yours all turn off everything you can, maybe we can slow our descent into that particular hell.  You still sitting there?