Yup.
Posted on 08/29/2021 11:16:07 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
When did indoor air become cold and clean?
Air conditioning is one of those inventions that have become so ubiquitous, that many in the developed world don’t even realize that less than a century ago, it didn’t exist. Indeed, it wasn’t so long ago that the air inside our buildings and the air outside of them were one and the same, with occupants powerless against their environment.
Eric Dean Wilson, in his just published book, “After Cooling: On Freon, Global Warming, and the Terrible Cost of Comfort,” dives deep into the history of this field. It took more than just inventing the air conditioner to make people want to buy it. In fact, whole social classes outright rejected the technology for years. It took hustle, marketing skill, and mass societal change to place air conditioning at the center of our built environment.
Wilson covers that history, but he has a more ambitious agenda: to get us to see how our everyday comforts affect other people. Our choice of frigid cooling emits flagrant quantities of greenhouse gas emissions, placing untold stress on our planet and civilization. Our pursuit of comfort ironically begets us more insecurity and ultimately, less comfort.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I grew up without AC. It was some hot miserable summer nights covered with sweat trying to sleep I remember most. This was in the 50s and 60s before GoreBull worming. Nothing has changed…..including the high tide line at my favorite boat ramp.
You can have my AC when you pry it from my dead COLD hands.
Yup.
Wilson: I think that one of the pernicious things about the American definition of comfort is that it has been defined as personal comfort. And the reason why I keep using that is because it's defined as individual comfort. And so what would it mean to think about comfort as being always connected to somebody else, as more ethical that way? Because it's true.Is there ANYTHING in that liberal word salad that makes any sense whatsoever?The truth is that our comfort is related to other people, and vice versa. It’s really asking us to think interdependently, instead of independently, which is how we're often encouraged to think, and that's a huge, huge ask. Actually, that's a huge task and a huge paradigm shift. But I really think if we're really trying to think ecologically, and not just sustainably, we have to think about how we're all connected and how these infrastructures, how they influence other people in other parts of the world.
Wilson would have more people taking him seriously if he lived in a building without AC and drove a car without AC. I don't see ANY liberals taking that very small but meaningful action.
In sweltering Connecticut, right?
Another know-it-all young skull full of mush. No surprise there, huh?
“Iced tea”
Does your iceman deliver you blocks of ice that were stored in sawdust from last winter? Go all the way, Sam!
You want to be ventilated? Try and take my ventilation!
As pedo joe might say: “One word. Jalousie windows in Tampa in the 1950’s was plenty AC.”
Yes, come on over. The AC is turned off, the windows are open and I am out on the deck with some iced tea.
...or to have jobs.
When you open your article by telling me you assume your readers are stupid, I realize this article isn’t for me.
I’ll go read something intended for smart people.
I moved from Seattle to rural KY ten years ago. Whenever people ask, I say, “If God had not invented AC, there is no way I’d have moved here.
Fact is, AC allows the planet to support a much larger population than in could otherwise, and DEFINITELY more in COMFORT.
I’m willing to bet that this guy had his AC running full-on the entire time he was writing this article.
Same for indoor plumbing.
There's something to be said for designing a house to be replaced every 30-40 years.
-Three prong wiring
-GFCI circuits
-true 220v service (instead of doubled 110v from the pole)
-More than one or two electrical outlets per room
-Wired backup generator
-Vinyl or aluminum framed windows
-Tempered glass panes
-multiple bathrooms
-foam insulation
-vapor barriers
-modern HVAC
--including radiant floor heating and cooling
-Garages in front instead of behind the house
-Cat 5 network cables wired throughout
-wired security systems
-etc.
First place they should outlaw AC is Washington, DC. The last time Congress passed a budget on time was the year before central air was installed in the Capitol.
That's not entirely true. I grew up in Arizona and New Mexico and lived most of that time without refrigeration.
Because it is so dry in that part of the country, we used evaporative coolers to cool our houses. Early on it was the old swamp coolers but technology took over and increased the efficiency and cost of cooling your home quite comfortably.
Last home I just sold there had a big 6500 BTU Master Cool unit with 12 inch pads. A 50 amp. motor turned a barrel fan for a few dollars a month. Never needed refrigeration even in triple digit heat. Kept our home quite comfortable for the quarter of the price of A/C.
But I live in hot and humid Florida now and could never survive here without A/C. Too humid for a water or evaporative cooler to work.
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