A Luxury the World Can’t Afford (Air Conditionining!)

The New York Times ^ | June 21, 2012 | Stan Cox

[Timber Rattler]

The economist Thorstein Veblen once quipped that "invention is the mother of necessity." That was before the age of air-conditioning, but no technology better illustrates Veblen's point. Having developed efficient cooling, we've designed homes, businesses and transportation systems that are completely dependent on it, while the resulting greenhouse emissions create the need for even more air-conditioning.

(snip)

We must break this feedback loop, but what does one say to someone living in one of the tropical nations where much of the increase in cooling demand is expected? Surely not that Americans are addicted to air-conditioning and can’t give it up, but we expect Southeast Asians to get by without air-conditioners because they're used to the heat.

[SamAdams76]

Not that I buy into any of this nonsense but I actually like the warm weather and very rarely turn on the air conditioning either in my car or at home. When I come home from the office, I get out of the suit and put on some shorts with a Hawaiian shirt - no sock, no shoes. I sit out in the yard with a cold brew and I sleep with the windows wide open and a ceiling fan moving the air and you get to hear the crickets and tree frogs outside (people with AC never get to hear those sounds because they have to keep their windows closed). It’s actually quite comfortable except maybe on the very hottest nights.

[Caipirabob]

To make such a statement is to provide such a display of pure insanity as to justify the thought that the individual may pose an existential threat to all of those around him. I’d recommend subduing the maniac immediately and turning him over to authorities for observation as a candidate for a sanitarium.

[Ciexyz]

AC helps those with asthma and breathing problems breathe easier. If you ban AC, you’re cutting the life spans of people whose hearts and lungs must work harder to breathe as a result.

[tbw2]

This is the hidden evil of the smart grid - controllers who are not YOU can reach into your home and alter settings or cut your power if you use too much.

[elkfersupper]

I'm one of those people who don't like the noise, the breeze or the fake air.

I am by no means an environmentalist, but I just live without it.

[Iron Munro]

Air conditioning has ruined the south.

[Gay State Conservative]

“We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK,” Obama said.

Didn't I read once that Osama Obama,having grown up in tropical lands,keeps the Oval Office at something like 80 degrees during the winter?

[sheana]

We have 2 swamp coolers on our 2000 sq ft house, Mastercools We only run the air conditioner when it gets kind of humid. They haven’t ruined anything in the 6 yrs we have had them and cut our electric bill in half.

[GraceG]

And we cannot afford NOT to develop Thorium Reactors so we can run our DAMNED air conditioning for the next 10million years if we so damned want to!

[combat_boots]

0bama keeps the WH at 78 degrees in winter.

[jeffc]

...but we expect Southeast Asians to get by without air-conditioners because they're used to the heat.

We do? I don't remember saying or thinking that. Who's "we"? I say if it's hot, crank up the A/C!

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Have they forgotten about the heat waves between 1879 and 1911 with the worst being 1896?

http://theboweryboys.blogspot.com/2011/07/hot-as-hell-surviving-deadly-heat-wave.html

http://www.climatestations.com/new-york-city/

And for Tulsa, OK! Look at those before AC temps!

http://www.weather.com/outlook/health/fitness/wxclimatology/daily/USOK0537?climoMonth=7

[ROCKLOBSTER]

while the resulting greenhouse emissions create the need for even more air-conditioning.

You got some hard facts to back up that assertion, or did you just pull it out of your pointy little liberal head?

That's what I thought.

[EEGator]

Why is that, cause Yanks came down?

[Bronzy]

Damn right. We keep the house closed up...makes it cool. The air is freezing the bedroom as I speak. (Yes we have central air but keep it off to save $$$ but the sleeping quarters are comfy).

[Larry Lucido]

I love my AC but I wouldn't mind at least having the option of some flow through air from outside. There have been evenings at the office that the outside is cool and breezy and it's sweltering inside. Be nice to be able to just open a window rather that turn down the thermostat. I wish they would bring back transoms.

[UCANSEE2]

SO.... if you can afford AC, you have it. If you can't, you don't.

Isn't that pretty much how everything works in our 'world'????

Are illegal immigrants going to stop crossing the border, just because their friends can't afford to do it too?

Are thugs going to give up their pistols because not all their homies can afford one?

Are Muslims going to give up suicide bombing because they can't afford a vest for everyone?

Is Kenye West going to give up singing, because not everyone can afford to buy his CD's?

[GraceG]

No,no. We need MORE A/C. Just open up all of the windows. If we all did this and ran them 24/7 it surely should lower the temperature outside.

The laws of thermodynamics disagree with you unless you can somehow dump all that excess kinetic energy into space somehow.....

Then I would be all for it.

[trisham]

Amen.

[EEGator]

We can be like Europe. Go on vacation and let our elderly die.