Posted on 05/10/2022 6:39:03 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
A record-breaking heat wave is sweeping South Asia, threatening hundreds of millions of people with deadly temperatures well above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. As the world heats up, billions of people need air-conditioning. This 120-year-old technology used to be considered a luxury, but in the age of climate change, it is a necessity for human survival. Understandably, this has created anxiety over the climate threat of a world overrun with ACs. But the coming boom in air-conditioning is an essential shift toward reducing the enormous gap in cooling availability that exists between rich and poor people and nations—and toward producing a more equitable world.
Of the two billion AC units currently in use across the globe, the majority are heavily concentrated in wealthy countries in North America and East Asia (with Europe, which generally has a milder climate, in a distant third). In the hottest regions of the world, AC ownership is just 12 percent compared to more than 90 percent in the U.S. and Japan. But as populations become wealthier and temperatures continue to rise, this trend will change—dramatically.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the world is projected to add another four billion AC units by 2050.
How can the world avert this disaster? First, by accepting that adequate cooling is an urgent human need in a warming climate. The disruption caused by extreme heat will keep growing, and access to equitable cooling technology will be necessary to ensure the survival and economic prosperity of the billions of people living in tropical regions.
Cooling does not have to blow the carbon budget. In fact, if leveraged correctly, it could be a driver of equity, economic growth and the transition to clean energy.
(Excerpt) Read more at scientificamerican.com ...
Greenland is in dire needs of air conditioning for all the residents.
I guess they didn’t get the memo from the GW guys that want to ban air conditioners.
I thought AC was bad for Gaia..(he types from his climate controlled home office.)
A human right? How long have people lived without AC? I didn’t have it myself for about my first 15 years. None in school, none at home. I remember hot nights in GA. I guess my human rights were being violated. Who knew?
How about a U-Haul truck as a basic human right, so peeps can move to a place where the temperature is more to their liking?
Air conditioning is one of the biggest consumer of energy.
If we install it in everybody’s dwelling, It would really make a havoc with climate change.
“Scientific American” should stop trying to compete with Marvel Comics. They’re out of their league.
The usual climate change claptrap even using the new buzz word “equity”. However, this article does at least recognize that AC is necessary in hot climates. That said the elites would have us peons sweltering in darkened homes as a fitting sacrifice at the altar of climate change. Of course the elites will still have their AC
Rights do not apply to things with a monthly fee.
Generally free property ownership and commerce should be rights, of course, but in the “negative rights” vs. “positive rights” sense. Insofar as AC fits within that, great!
We won’t need AC when we have to go back to living in caves.
Air conditioning is bad for Mother Earth.
Air conditioning is a human right.
I can’t keep up with the schizophrenic virtue-signalers.
ROFLMAO
And powered by WHAT?
Solar? Wind?? Batteries???
If they had spent a fraction of the so-called ‘virus stimulus’ and/or ‘infrastructure’ bills on modern nuclear power there would be no energy crisis in 10 years.
Instead, there will be headlines here in the US about the wholly-manufactured crisis killing the elderly in summer heat waves while under rolling blackout conditions due to grid instability.
The hypocrisy must burn. /s
I know, right? What about the drastic increase in use of fossil fuels, to generate all the electricity needed to power all these air conditioning units?
They didn’t think this through did they?
I’m old enough to remember two things about Scientific American:
1. It had great technical articles.
2. It was a respected publication.
Oh well, it was a good memory, at least.
And beer too.
Not just hot climates.
Anyone remember the European heatwave back in the Oughties?
Tens of thousands died.
Mostly seniors.
The Great Chicago Heatwave under Daley the Younger took over 600 lives, mostly elder blacks.
L
That's why I have over 20 years of them in the attic and no longer subscribe.
Government money killed my Science (and totally Fauci'd it up).
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