Grave Issue Of Tomorrow: Power Crisis And Mitigation

I would really suggest you to read this article: Google pushing for energy efficient PCs. Now whether they are doing this to challenge some of the existing giants in the PC manufacturing industry (like IBM, HP etc) or just to cut down some of their huge expenses on the micro-controllers in their research labs is a different story altogether. Nevertheless, on a more commonpace note, one of the prime concerns to environmentalists and power scientists round the globe has been the energy crisis which is predicted to shackle the world in its claws soon. Despite this, coming to US, I was pretty astounded at the way and the extent to which people waste power/energy, especially electricity and water. As an example, none of the computers in any of the labs stays powered off ever! We never remember to power off the lights in our apartments (more since the electricity bill is inclusive in the rent!). Believe it or not, I recall, sometime in a casual discussion with my Dad after my Las Vegas trip, he was telling me that the total amount of power expended in those big-huge video screens in the casinos can actually cater to the power requirement in a few hundred villages in India!
Jokes and analogies apart, the issue is grave and serious. US is a rich country at the present day. And probably that is why nobody cares about saving/being thrifty about expending electricity/water/gas. But this matter needs more farsighted and thoughtful attention by all. It is really a pleasure to find that industry giants like Google are surging forward to throw some light on this issue, even if it delivers some of their selfish motives in the long run!