Actually, you just made the point of why we should all use electricity responsibly.
The two dire problems facing the world:
1) Depleting drinking water:
A 2022 study found that fossil fuel–driven power plants in the U.S. currently withdraw about 2.6 billion cubic meters (92 billion cubic feet) of fresh water per year — roughly 687 billion gallons,
And that’s just fossil fuel plants, add 50% more to that for all U.S. power plants. That’s an awfully large amount of potential drinking water. And that’s just this country. Imagine factoring in the rest of the world. Granted, a lot of that is returned to the environment, which creates its own problems. It’s now heated and in a lot of cases contaminated, which is detrimental to aquatic ecosystems and now requires even more resources to make it drinkable. Vicious cycle, yes?
Fossil fuel–fired power plants in the U.S. currently use hundreds of billions of gallons of fresh water each year, with coal, nuclear, and some natural gas plants using the most. Transitioning away from these sources can significantly reduce both water withdrawals and associated environmental impacts.
2) 8 billion people on the planet:
That is a lot of billions.
If each of these billions of people (those with electricity) took it upon themselves to use electricity more ’responsibly’, imagine the positive environmental impact it would make. Less pollution, less carbon, less resources, less need for even more power plants, more readily available drinking water, cleaner air, cleaner water, cleaner world. Billions of people acting just a bit more responsibly. Huge positive impact. Not so laughable when you think globally. Just a small individual effort is all it takes. So yes. Using electricity ’responsibly’ can have a great impact in the grand scheme of things. And yes, it can start with the simple step of turning off some of your gear, as well as other individual minor steps. One minor step multiplied by billions. What an impact! And of course moving toward renewable sources of power generation. I’m afraid we’re going to have to wait two and a half more years for that sensible step to get back on track.