World electricity consumption expected to decline for first time since World War 2

Via Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed blog, comes this graph (click on image to enlarge):

Another artifact of the global economic contraction we're in, and an indication of its severity -- no other post-World War II recession saw an actual decline in electricity consumption. Obviously, the 2009 figure is an estimate, but unless the world economy stages an unlikely and unusually strong recovery this year, looks like we're on track for the first decrease in 64 years.