Mordechai Treiger | Tempting a hidden danger

As classes wrapped up before Thanksgiving, alert students still caught one final lesson: Unplug your appliances, even if they're not turned on.

The brothers of Pi Kappa Phi learned that better than anyone.

Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush blamed last week's fire in the fraternity on a circuit overload caused by a large number of refrigerators and microwaves.

No, Pi Kappa Phi wasn't holding a popcorn-popping fundraiser; the microwaves in question were all turned off.

But plugged-in appliances continue to draw power even when they're not in use. And while the watts that idle devices draw represent only a fraction of what they consume when actually switched on, they add up quickly because the appliances draw power around the clock.

One recent study estimated that standby power is responsible for as much as 10 percent of residential energy use. Ten percent might not sound like an enormous amount, but it adds up to as much as $5 billion annually in this country alone.

Come to think of it, even that sum isn't so impressive on the heels of a $700 billion bailout. So try this instead: the electricity used to 'power' idle appliances requires the output of 18 power plants.

Using energy is such an important part of what makes us human, it's sometimes easy to forget how much we plug in.

Former Psychology professor (and part-time rockstar) Andrew Shatte said that the average human consumes 20 times the energy his body needs to keep him alive. In the United States, that number rises to 100.

Some anthropologists argue that the advent of cooking and the consequent increase in food availability enabled the development of the human brain. The brain is the most energetically-demanding organ, burning through up to a quarter of the body's metabolism, a rate three times above that of even other primates.

But while an increased energy supply may have stimulated intellectual development, brain power has in turn helped humans become very good at harnessing ever more of it.

And at a certain point, 'ever more' turned into 'too much.'

Since he left Penn at the end of 2006, Shatte has put a lot of time into his upcoming book, The Thin Green Line. In the book, he argues that many of the traits -- such as profligate energy use - that promote global warming are hardwired.

But that hardwiring doesn't mean Shatte thinks humanity can't unplug.

"Fortunately we have brains large enough that we can transcend our evolution - we're the only species that can," he said, "but there are a number of things that are getting in the way of doing that."

For instance, most people have a difficult time linking a changing climate to personal decisions like leaving appliances plugged-in.

The issue is not telling people what they should do -- pull out wires or flip off surge protectors - but convincing them that their actions have a direct link to a sea level rise that might not occur for another 10, 20 or even 50 years.

But Shatte argues that this inability is also hardwired.

When he taught PSYC-001 at Penn, Shatte taught that human phobias are shaped by our evolution. We naturally fear traditional nemeses like snakes and scorpions, but like Plaxico Burress, we do not have a natural aversion to modern angels of death, such as guns.

Events like last week's fire serve as concrete reminders that sometimes it's a good idea to unplug.

So next time you need a little more motivation to reach down and unplug your charger, Xbox, microwave and toaster oven, just remember that wasting energy could potentially burn much more than the planet we call home: It could burn down the house you call home.

It's never a good idea to play with fire.

Mordechai Treiger is a College junior from Seattle, and can be reached at treiger@dailypennsylvanian.com. Fridays with Mordi appears on alternating Fridays.

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