Posted on 06/22/2012 4:14:16 PM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
can’t wait for the New York Times to shut down the a/c in their offices.
Hmmmm, I thought global warming caused global cooling. These nutballs never make any sense.
conditioningningningningning ping
Maybe if we banned air conditioning in DC we would have a Congress that adjourns by Memorial Day and the members of Congress would have to get real jobs in their districts.
Well, that will get rid of those regressive Southerners, who are too stupid to vote the Correct Way!
Not that I condone banning a/c...but if it was banned the obesity problem would go away...
There would be bloodshed in the streets.... hello triple digits in Texas!
If liberals weren't complete hypocrites, they'd throw themselves into the nearest volcano - to save the planet.
I was in Bangkok in April and Thais sure know how to use AC.
They never lead by example....you know that.
Can you imagine if they did shut it off.....everyone sitting/walking around with their underwear on...or not?
Even after mentioning that.....I wish I hadn’t said it.
they wouls sell a lot more ice cream I bet
I don’t like this. I rarely use the AC, but if AC’s banned, so will central heating next.
Well said! Followed by the federal buildings in Wash DC.
20 oz cokes
I’d be drinking 2 liters every hour. lol.
Problem solved.
They can KMA! I’ll move to another country!
I’ve got a couple of window shakers, but with the ceiling fans running I seldom need them.
at about 100 degrees farenheit fans make things WORSE by dehydrating you faster than without them.
Friend of mine went to England to study for a year. In the winter it was very cold even in the buildings. He says he saw a radiator and just turned it up. Sat down to read and thought nothing more of it. In a few minutes some buildings maintenance guys come by and jumps his case about it claiming global warming etc... So in a way it is already being done by progressive policy.
water coolers were great when I was a kid but they’d be destroying electronics these days with all that moisture in the air
Stan Cox is the author of “Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World (and Finding New Ways to Get Through the Summer).”
This is his schtick. It’s his bread-and-honey issue. I wouldn’t be surprised if he has a house somewhere without airconditioning (and only VISITS friends who have the aircon on... see? those are just VISITS... not his own house).
Whatever. He has to push the blatant double-lie that the “climate is warming and that people are the reason” or else what? Or else he’ll have to get and actual JOB???? Heaven forbid! Rather turn off the aircon (at least in one of his homes) before he does THAT!!!!
“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.
“We must break this feedback loop...”
I’m in favor of breaking the noses, and necks, if necessary, of the traitorous Nazi scum at the NYT.
IMO, George Washington’s last act as the general of the Continental Army should have been burning New York city to the ground and salting the earth. That God-foresaken place spawns traitors, dictators and devils.
A couple of years ago I visited Dubai in early November (95 degrees during the day).They too aren't bashful when it comes to the A/C at the huge mall I visited.
....just had a few thunder storms roll through...temps went from low 90’s with high humidity to around 78 in about an hour
Thanks for the article. Rather closed-minded, isn’t he?
All is well and good with these guys until you ask THEM to do without their air conditioning, or the energy to run the printing presses, or the energy to run their computer.
HOW ABOUT we find better ways to produce abundant and cheap energy so that EVERYBODY can afford AIR CONDITIONING????
If we ran an AC unit in every house on the whole planet for 10 years, we couldn’t cause a ‘change’ in ‘global’ temperatures like that caused by ONE VOLCANO.
Volcanoes are constantly going off. Why aren’t we all dead?
Doubt it !! Just a lot more fat, sweaty people.
Maybe we could just build a giant umbrella to cover Southeast Asia, then the rest of us could keep our AC.
I’m doing my part at my place of work.
If the author wants to live without heating and AC it’s still a free country. He can also go back to the stone age and live off the land as a hunter gatherer as far as I’m concerned. However, if he tries to impose his view on others he’s in for a fight.
Yeah, but this author is talking about areas he has only read about that don't have hotels with AC.
To make such a statement is to provide such a display of pure insanity as to justify 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 sanitarium.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I am by no means an environmentalist, but I just live without it.
Air conditioning has ruined the south.
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?
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.
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!
0bama keeps the WH at 78 degrees in winter.
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