Portable Power

摘要

Without batteries, more than 500,000 Americans would not have woken up on time this morning. Nearly 150 million would be stuck in traffic with dead engines. And 400 million would be talking to themselves on their dead cell phones. From pacemakers to wristwatches, the human dependency on a battery-powered life has never been greater. Consumer electronics products are predicted to reach a record $99.5 billion in sales this year, an increase of 3.5 percent from 2002, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. While the number of portable electronic devices is on the rise, it is often the more environmentally harmful batteries that provide the power. A major problem with batteries is not so much the batteries themselves, but inefficient use and disposal by confused consumers.