Back when I was talking about the Gore movie and MG&E's little mailing that mentioned changing one bulb to a compact fluorescent and the energy/cost savings it incurs throughout the city, I didn't know the extent to which those numbers expanded to when extrapolated to the rest of America. It would appear that it's quite a large number.

How Many Lightbulbs Does it Take to Change the World? One. And You're Looking At It.

What that means is that if every one of 110 million American households bought just one ice-cream-cone bulb, took it home, and screwed it in the place of an ordinary 60-watt bulb, the energy saved would be enough to power a city of 1.5 million people. One bulb swapped out, enough electricity saved to power all the homes in Delaware and Rhode Island. In terms of oil not burned, or greenhouse gases not exhausted into the atmosphere, one bulb is equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the roads.

That's the law of large numbers–a small action, multiplied by 110 million.

The single greatest source of greenhouse gases in the United States is power plants–half our electricity comes from coal plants. One bulb swapped out: enough electricity saved to turn off two entire power plants–or skip building the next two.

And the rest of the article goes on to reveal how we'll get there and it comes from an unlikely source, who seems hell bent on changing its image lately: Wal-Mart.

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