The whole world. A big concept.

If everyone in the world went to energy efficient lighting - a big if. The hut in a village in Africa. The hallway in a high school if Syracuse. The rest room in a bar in Paris.

It would save $70 billion worth of energy. Which equals 1.5 billion barrels of oil. Which translates into 555 million tons of carbon dioxide.

The source of that data is not Greenpeace, the Russian Communist Party [may it rest in peace], or your wacko of choice. No, it is Philips, the giant of bulb makers, as relayed in a NY Times magazine article

And probably most important to those in the power industry - the readers of EnergyBiz - it will eliminate - puff - like magic- the need for power generated by 500 mid-sized electric generating facilities. Hundreds would be here in the old US of A.

By Monday, we will post the current issue of EnergyBiz magazine online at www.energybizmag.com. It contains lots of electrifying [that is an adjective but also a verb!] new examples of OUT OF THE BOX thinking that will transform our energy challenges into opportunities.

The lowly light bulb is but one example. Multiply the kind of transformation the folks at Philips envision across our economy and you will see why we are in truly exciting times. I do not care if you buy whether global warming is man-caused or not [even though today's Wall Street Journal on p. 10 reports new information about the damages caused by human warming of the globe based on 30,000 data sets]. Certaintly even skeptics whistling in Dixie can buy the intelligence of walking down a path that means the world will need 500 fewer power plants. Let's call the associated slashing of greenhouse gas emissions a gift to those who worry about such things, without waiting to prove whether the pending disasters they worry about are certain, likely or unlikely to occur.

Now if they can only get the light of these efficient light bulbs a warmer hue... so my living room does not feel like a hardware store. With time....