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Last night, I saw Disney Pixar's new animated movie, WALL-E. To my surprise, the little robot was being powered by solar energy.
Every morning, he'd stand under the sun, pull out his solar panels, and begin charging up. If you look at the photo above, you'll see a yellow meter on his chest. This gauge lets him know when he's fully charged.
Pretty cool, right?
The bottom line is...
Be more like WALL-E.
Total U.S. residential energy consumption is projected to increase 17 percent from 1995 - 2015. (U.S. Energy Information Administration)
World energy consumption is expected to increase 40% to 50% by the year 2010, and the global mix of fuels--renewables (18%), nuclear (4%), and fossil (78%)--is projected to remain substantially the same as today; thus global carbon dioxide emissions would also increase 50% to 60%.
The bottom line is...
It's getting worse.
Americans tend to use far too much electricity.
"In 1997, U.S. residents consumed an average of 12,133 kilowatt-hours of electricity each, almost nine times greater than the average for the rest of the world." (Grist Magazine)
But here's something we should keep in mind:
"Worldwide, some 2 billion people are currently without electricity." (U.S. Department of Energy)
The bottom line is...
Don't waste it, and don't take it for granted.
A random energy consumption fact:
Though accounting for only 5 percent of the world's population, Americans consume 26 percent of the world's energy. (American Almanac)
The bottom line is...
Americans waste an awful lot of energy.
