” he singled out air conditioning as a particularly good example of wasteful habits and excessive consumption that overcome our better natures:”
Screw the pope.
I grew up in the southwest US where sometimes the temps can top 115-120 degrees in the shade. Having air conditioning is a necessity of life in the Sonoran desert of Arizona.
And I currently live in Florida where the humidity is off the charts. It is insufferably unbearable in the summer when the temperatures heat up with high humidity. I would not be able to live here without air conditioning.
Years ago, I read an article in the Wall Street Journal that declared that Houston, Texas would never have developed into a major metropolitan city had it not been for the invention of the air conditioner. It just was too inhospitable to humans.
Let these smug global warming idiots spout off about what they know nothing about and put their money where their mouths are. Move to one of these locations I have mentioned and see how long they sing the same tune.