WHAT can you buy with US$80 billion?
More than 400 million sets of the iPhone 3G, or enough electricity to power all the consumer electronics in the world.
That is what the world spent last year on charging and powering gadgets and gizmos.
And this year, that number is expected to rise. In fact, the International Energy Agency estimates that by 2030, the global electric bill for powering consumer electronics is expected to rise to US$200 billion.
By then, the mobile phones, music players, HDTVs and computers of the world will need 1700 terawatt hours of electricity to run. That is the energy equivalent that all the homes in the United States and Japan are drawing upon today.
The Paris-based agency's point, is that if left unchecked, total greenhouse gas emissions from these electronics could double to around 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide a year by 2030, leading to more global warming.
If, like me, you tend to plug in your laptop charger for hours, leave the TV turned on just for some ambient noise, or not read energy labels when buying gadgets, this might be something you want to think about.