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 ...
“He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next door to his boss. “He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there.”
And yet the most recent half of his life was spent in New England and Chicago. You'd think he would have acclimatized.
We used to beg for it. The old water cooler. Lots of humidity but the temp was so much cooler than summer in old San Antonio. hahhahahaha
Who's "we," sh!thead?
Particularly in light of Michelle O's recent heart-warming accounts of Barry busily shoveling the snow away when they lived in Chicago.
How about heat? Let’s get rid of heat too just to be fair.
How about cars, airplanes, trains? People in the tropics don’t have as many of those as we do either. Just to be fair we need to get rid of all this stuff.
BS... Mini-split air conditioners are all over the tropics. They don’t cool whole buildings though or the lobbies...they cool where they spend most of their time but they do have cool spaces.
About the hottest place I have ever been is Hong Kong... plenty of air conditioning there. The jungles of Venezuela and Colombia and Brazil you just endure but there are still islands with air conditioning.
The masses swelter though but they don’t move very fast if at all in the heat of the day. In Africa the speed change is hard to discern though.
No, I pretty much eat fresh food. I have a refrigerator, but I've rarely used it.
This “reporter” no doubt wrote this article in his air-conditioned office, then hopped in his air-conditioned car and drove to the nearest air-conditioned watering hole to commiserate with his environmentalist buddies about global warming. Then he hopped back in the car and drove home to his air-conditioned loft where he passed out because the chilled chablis was just too much for him.
My hero is Willis Carrier.
Most people I’ve run across have no idea who he is.
Ohhh, a picture of little Barry when he was just a tyke in Kenya. How cute.
Yep, in the humid South, whole-house fans handled the pre-A/C residential cooling chores. Just crack a few windows open an inch or so each and turn the fan on - the air flow was enough to make the house comfortable. It cooled the attic as well, by exhausting air through the soffit vents.
Let government get rid of all their air conditioning everywhere first for a couple years. Walk the walk awhile, and then maybe you’ll have some credibility.
Nope, they’d just be hot and fat. The real reason the left likes this is they want to let the heat kill off older folks to relieve the healthcare burden.
Growing up in the 30s and 40s there wasn’t any such thing as air conditioning except swamp coolers for desert areas.
Everyone survived just fine in temperatures of 100-110!
The mid atlantic used to be considered uninhabitable in summertime.
Maybe you can do that in Massachussetts, but around here (South Carolina)you would die of a heat stroke!
That's going to include heat in the winter for some after the coal plants are shut down.
Can’t wait for the White House, Congress, Supreme Court and all federal buildings shut down their air conditioning.
As for me, it’s been a warm day in Alaska, and I’m air conditioning my house - opened all the windows. :-)
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.
Politicians should be forbidden to exempt themselves from laws they create. Furthermore, they should be forced to live under laws they create, for no less than three years, before the law may take effect for the general population.
“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.”
I agree with you 110%.
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