Air conditioning is one of the greatest inventions of the 20th Century. It’s also killing the 21st

Yahoo News ^ | August 28, 2021 | By Danny Crichton

[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.

[Impala64ssa]

When lived in daBronx before we moved to Rockland County we’d spend summers in the Catskills. The area went into decline by the 70’s. When they demolished the Concord resort about 15 yrs ago there were rumors Donald Trump was going to negotiate with the Mohawks to build a new resort and casino there and enter into a joint venture with the nearby Monticello Raceway but that never materialized. The seasoned citizens who lived there all their lives would say air conditioning killed the Catskills.

[pghbjugop]

A/C is one of those proofs that God loves us. Felt that way for 40 years before moving to Fl.

[Impala64ssa]

if you see a car on the road with its windows rolled down you give them the right of way because it means their AC isn’t working.
The first car I ever rode in that had AC was my uncle's first Cadillac, a 1970 Coupe deVille. My wife's car is getting worked on because the AC crapped out and she's not a happy camper.

[july4thfreedomfoundation]

But it’s a dry heat, as they say.

[Squantos]

Next it’ll be the chlorine in my pool and my ice maker ......

[beef]

“But I pass more gas myself in twenty years than my air conditioning unit.”

That is another point. Since the 80’s HVAC techs have needed a license and are required to recover refrigerants. Before that it was routinely vented to the atmosphere. There were even model rockets that used it as a fuel. I would assume that until the 80’s all freon eventually wound up in the environment. I cannot believe these days that more that a very small fraction is lost. What is the big deal?

[nascarnation]

Yeah at 26 bucks a pound, I’m surprised there isn’t more freon theft going on.

[BTerclinger]

LOL!

[jmacusa]

Try running a hospital without AC. People who advocate stuff like this ought to be tossed off bridges.