For consumers the switch [to power adapters that use integrated

circuits] has meant lower power bills and smaller, lighter power
adaptors. For the world as a whole it has meant a drop in
global power consumption worth around $2 billion a year – sav-
ing 13m tonnes of CO2 annually worldwide, the equivalent of
closing down eight coal-fired power stations.
-“Vampires on a diet”, The Economist, 5th December 2009

How much is 13m tonnes of CO2 annually, really? It’s about the amount of
CO2 that would be used if we asked a quarter of all the people on Earth to
fill up one 11” balloon with CO2 every single day.

First, let’s figure out how much volume 13m tonnes of CO2 would actually
take up:

1 mole of CO2 = 12.0g of C + (2 × 16.0g of O) = 44.0g of CO2 (1)

1 tonne (t) = 1000. kg = 1.000 × 106 g (2)

1t of CO2 = 1.000 × 106 g of CO2 (3)

1 mole of CO2
   
= 1.000 × 106 g of CO2 × (4)
44.0g of CO2
≈ 22700 moles of CO2 (5)
24.47L
 
≈ 22700 moles of CO2 × (6)
1 mole
3
≈ 556000L of CO2 ≈ 556m of CO2 (7)

13 × 106 t of CO2 ≈ 7.2 × 109 m3 of CO2 (8)

Now, let’s convert that into an equivalent number of 11” supermarket bal-
loons:

4
1 balloon (11” across) = π(0.458ft)3 = 0.403ft3 = 0.0114m3 (9)
3

1
 1 balloon
 
13 × 106 t of CO2 ≈ 7.2 × 109 m3 of CO2 × (10)
0.0114m3
≈ 6.3 × 1011 balloons of CO2 (11)

Remembering that we’re talking about 13m tonnes annually, let’s convert
this into a daily number of balloons:

6.3 × 1011 balloons of CO2 6.3 × 1011 balloons of CO2

≈ × (12)
year year
1 year
(13)
365.25 days
1.7 × 109 balloons of CO2
≈ (14)
day
Wow, that’s a large number of balloons. And, given that there is only about
6.7 billion people on the planet, that’s like asking a quarter of them to inflate
a balloon full of CO2 each and every day. That’s how much CO2 we’re not
putting into the atmosphere because we’ve switched to more efficient power
adapters.