Autumn Noelle Hall

Power Play

I once had a green dream of visiting Ireland, home to great stone circles, wee faerie folk, and my father’s forefathers. Until I learned that the energy required for a single trans-Atlantic flight was enough to power the city of Denver for a month.

ceilidh pub crawl
never really felt
entitled
to put another’s
lights out . . .

In 2016, while folks were swanning about the internet lapping up their social media feeds, data centers around the world consumed more than 412 terawatt hours of electricity –100 terawatts more than the entire UK used that year. Experts expect this figure to double every four years, at a minimum.

statistically
too big to ignore
Facebook –
over 2 billion active users –
well, how do you like that?

Ruby throated hummingbirds migrate over 1300 miles across the ocean annually. Scaled to human size, they require the equivalent of 155,000 calories a day. When one engages in mating at a heart-stopping 200-wingbeats-per-second, even a few hours without food can result in starvation. Which is why they willingly sacrifice social lives to secure and defend the flowers that sustain them.

the cold shoulder
controlled hypothermia
saving energy
the only way to make it
through this dark night