I will freely admit that I don't understand this. There are things in this world I understand. Ask me about community organizing. Ask me about feminist perspectives on mental health diagnoses. Ask me about social change. Ask me about disaster response and refugees. Heck, ask me about knitting. But ask me about physics in general and electricity in particular? I've got nothing.
But this e-mail was in my in-box and it sounds possible. I don't understand it, but it seems possible. The folks at the Year of Living Generously have a simple suggestion. They say to unplug your various chargers when they're not in use and we'll reduce carbon emissions. They even have numbers. They're for the UK and of undetermined origin, but hey, I like numbers. 95% of the energy of phone chargers is wasted when it remains plugged in, but not in use. If the people in the UK unplugged them, they'd avoid 50,000 tons of carbon emissions.
Someone help me out here. If the circuit is not complete... in other words, if the charger is plugged into the wall but not into the phone, isn't there NOTHING happening? How are carbon emissions being produced? Is this a case where the different phone technologies in use in different countries makes a difference? Is this an argument for paying attention in high school chemistry and physics? I don't know, but I unplugged the 4 chargers I could reach just sitting here. I don't understand it, but it might be an easy way to improve the world. That would work for me.
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