Some data on how more pervasive AC has become in just a few short
decades.

Interesting about how Americans are building larger, climate-controlled
homes to escape nature.

------------------------

http://www.slate.com/id/2147167/nav/tap1/


A/C D.C.
THE DELUDED WORLD OF AIR CONDITIONING.

By William Saletan
Posted Saturday, Aug. 5, 2006, at 8:15 AM ET

Have you heard the news? Scientists have found a planet that can support
life. Its atmosphere is too hot for year-round habitation, its gases
impede breathing, and surface conditions are sometimes fatal. But by
constructing a network of sealed facilities, tunnels, and vehicles,
humans could survive on this planet for decades and perhaps even
centuries.
The planet is called Earth.

If you've seen this planet lately, you know what's going on: temperature
records shattering, scores of Americans dead. By summer's end, the toll
will be in the hundreds. It's not as bad as 2003, when a heat wave
killed 30,000 people in Europe. But according to global-warming
forecasts, within 40 years, every other summer will be like that one.

Thank goodness for air conditioning. To keep old folks alive, cities
from Washington to Los Angeles are opening artificially cooled buildings
to the public. Meanwhile, people are lining up to buy window units.
According to the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute, shipments
of air conditioners and heat pumps have tripled over the last three
decades. The percentage of single-family homes built with central air
has gone from 36 to 87. The percentage of cars built with air
conditioning has risen from 61 to 98. In 1970, only 42 percent of
occupied mobile homes had it. By 2003, that percentage had more than
doubled.

It's a heartwarming‹or, more precisely, a heart-cooling‹story.
Unfortunately, the story doesn't end there. Air conditioning takes
indoor heat and pushes it outdoors. To do this, it uses energy, which
increases production of greenhouse gases, which warm the atmosphere.
From a cooling standpoint, the first transaction is a wash, and the
second is a loss. We're cooking our planet to refrigerate the
diminishing part that's still habitable.

All over the country, power consumption is breaking records, and air
conditioning is a huge reason why. We use about one-sixth of our
electricity to cool ourselves. That's more than the total electricity
consumption of India, a country whose population exceeds 1 billion. To
get the electricity, we burn oil and coal. We also run air conditioners
in our cars, which reduces urban fuel efficiency by up to four miles per
gallon, at an annual cost of 7 billion gallons of gasoline.

More burning of oil and coal means more greenhouse gases. Based on
government data, Stan Cox, a scientist at the Land Institute, calculates
that air-conditioning the average U.S. home requires 3,400 pounds of
carbon-dioxide production per year. The effects of this are particularly
bad at night. Over the last five summers, very high minimum daily
temperatures‹those that score in the top 10 percent historically‹have
been far more widespread in this country than during any other five-year
period. This is what's killing people. Outdoor air used to cool at
night, allowing us to recover from the day's heat. Now it doesn't. To
fuel our own air conditioning, we're destroying nature's.
The hotter it gets, the more energy we burn. In 1981, only one in three
American households with central air used it all summer long. By 1997,
more than half did. Countries once cooled by outdoor air now cool
themselves. In Britain, 75 percent of new cars have air conditioning. In
Canada, energy consumption for residential cooling has doubled in 10
years, and half the homes now have central or window units. Kuujjuaq, an
Eskimo village 1,000 miles north of Montreal, just bought 10 air
conditioners. According to the mayor, it's been getting hot lately.

Instead of fixing the outdoors, we're trying to escape it. On every
street in my neighborhood, people have torn down ordinary homes and put
up giant air-conditioned boxes that extend as far as possible toward the
property line. They've lost yards and windows, but that's the whole
idea. Outdoor space is too hard to control, so we're replacing it with
indoor space. From 1991 to 2005, the median lot size of single-family
homes sold in the United States shrank by 9 percent, but the median
indoor square footage increased by 18 percent. If you can't stand the
heat, go hide in your kitchen.

Seven years ago, when my wife and I moved into our house, we built a
garden and patio in the back yard. Now, overcome by heat and mosquitoes,
we're thinking of replacing them with something a bit more
climate-controlled. We still want to look at nature. We just don't want
to feel it. And for better or worse, we'll probably succeed. Two months
ago, we saw Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth. Walking out of the
air-conditioned theater, we agonized over what we could do to fight
global warming. The conversation ended when we realized that our most
useful contribution would be to cancel the renovation. Wrapping
ourselves in a climate-controlled bubble can't make global warming less
true. But in the short run, it can make it a lot less inconvenient.

That's the problem in Washington today. Policymakers aren't facing
global warming, because they aren't feeling it. They gave themselves air
conditioning in the 1920s and '30s, long before the public got it. White
House meetings and congressional hearings on climate change are doomed
hours beforehand, when the thermostats are set. One minute, you're
watching video of people sweltering in New Orleans. The next minute,
you're watching senators dispute the significance of greenhouse gases.
Don't ask whether these people are living on the same planet. In effect,
they aren't.

When outdoor heat leaks into the Washington bubble, like crime into a
white neighborhood, officials treat it as a faux pas. Three weeks ago,
House Majority Leader John Boehner told reporters in a Capitol press
gallery, "It'd be nice if they could get you a little more air
conditioning up here." This week, President Bush's spokesman, Tony Snow,
assured White House correspondents that their briefing room would soon
be renovated. "Gathering from the temperature in this room at this
moment, I think everybody agrees that it's probably about time to have a
new and updated air conditioning and heating system," he joked. But
maybe the air conditioning system we need to fix is the one outdoors.
And maybe we won't face that truth till it becomes more inconvenient.

"poldy" <[email protected]> skrev i meddelandet
news:[email protected]...
    > Some data on how more pervasive AC has become in just a few short
    > decades.
    > Interesting about how Americans are building larger, climate-controlled
    > homes to escape nature.
AC is coming more and more but it's necessarily not so energyconsuming at
least not in temperated climates. Here in Stockholm there's a new system
distributing cooling from seawater pumped from nearby Baltic. Also the lake
Mälaren could be used. As long as we still have cold winters and hot
summers we could build large underground water magazines heated by sun in
the summer for distribution in the winter and cold water for cooling in the
summer.
Sofar we have just used and wasted energy clueless as an endless resource
but in the future I would guess it's likely to be much more space for
talented energy savings still providing us a comfortable life.

On Mon, 07 Aug 2006 07:54:50 -0700, poldy wrote:

    > Interesting about how Americans are building larger, climate-controlled
    > homes to escape nature.

Yes, when compared to countries like Canada and the UK which are north of
our northern border, it does seem like we use a lot more AC. Of course, it
also seems kind of dumb to compare us with countries north of our northern
border (disregarding his mention that they were also seeing a considerable
increase in AC use). How many deserts are in England, after all? The US
southern border is mostly at a latitude south of Cairo! Would you find it
"interesting" to discuss the AC usage among the middle-class in central
Egypt?

And if the writer is finding nature at his back porch, its only because
he's in one of those scattered out communities that results in more
*driving*. Where I live, we don't sit out on the back porch because the
only view from there is more back porches...but I am walking distance from
a bus stop & a short bike ride from a grocery store.

--
-BB-
To e-mail me, unmunge my address

OT

"poldy" <[email protected]> a écrit dans le message de news:
[email protected]...
    > Some data on how more pervasive AC has become in just a few short
    > decades.
    > Interesting about how Americans are building larger, climate-controlled
    > homes to escape nature.
    > ------------------------
    > http://www.slate.com/id/2147167/nav/tap1/
    > A/C D.C.
    > THE DELUDED WORLD OF AIR CONDITIONING.
    > By William Saletan
    > Posted Saturday, Aug. 5, 2006, at 8:15 AM ET
    > Have you heard the news? Scientists have found a planet that can support
    > life. Its atmosphere is too hot for year-round habitation, its gases
    > impede breathing, and surface conditions are sometimes fatal. But by
    > constructing a network of sealed facilities, tunnels, and vehicles,
    > humans could survive on this planet for decades and perhaps even
    > centuries.
    > The planet is called Earth.
    > If you've seen this planet lately, you know what's going on: temperature
    > records shattering, scores of Americans dead. By summer's end, the toll
    > will be in the hundreds. It's not as bad as 2003, when a heat wave
    > killed 30,000 people in Europe. But according to global-warming
    > forecasts, within 40 years, every other summer will be like that one.
    > Thank goodness for air conditioning. To keep old folks alive, cities
    > from Washington to Los Angeles are opening artificially cooled buildings
    > to the public. Meanwhile, people are lining up to buy window units.
    > According to the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute, shipments
    > of air conditioners and heat pumps have tripled over the last three
    > decades. The percentage of single-family homes built with central air
    > has gone from 36 to 87. The percentage of cars built with air
    > conditioning has risen from 61 to 98. In 1970, only 42 percent of
    > occupied mobile homes had it. By 2003, that percentage had more than
    > doubled.
    > It's a heartwarming > Unfortunately, the story doesn't end there. Air
    > conditioning takes
    > indoor heat and pushes it outdoors. To do this, it uses energy, which
    > increases production of greenhouse gases, which warm the atmosphere.
    > From a cooling standpoint, the first transaction is a wash, and the
    > second is a loss. We're cooking our planet to refrigerate the
    > diminishing part that's still habitable.
    > All over the country, power consumption is breaking records, and air
    > conditioning is a huge reason why. We use about one-sixth of our
    > electricity to cool ourselves. That's more than the total electricity
    > consumption of India, a country whose population exceeds 1 billion. To
    > get the electricity, we burn oil and coal. We also run air conditioners
    > in our cars, which reduces urban fuel efficiency by up to four miles per
    > gallon, at an annual cost of 7 billion gallons of gasoline.
    > More burning of oil and coal means more greenhouse gases. Based on
    > government data, Stan Cox, a scientist at the Land Institute, calculates
    > that air-conditioning the average U.S. home requires 3,400 pounds of
    > carbon-dioxide production per year. The effects of this are particularly
    > bad at night. Over the last five summers, very high minimum daily
    > temperatures > been far more widespread in this country than during any
    > other five-year
    > period. This is what's killing people. Outdoor air used to cool at
    > night, allowing us to recover from the day's heat. Now it doesn't. To
    > fuel our own air conditioning, we're destroying nature's.
    > The hotter it gets, the more energy we burn. In 1981, only one in three
    > American households with central air used it all summer long. By 1997,
    > more than half did. Countries once cooled by outdoor air now cool
    > themselves. In Britain, 75 percent of new cars have air conditioning. In
    > Canada, energy consumption for residential cooling has doubled in 10
    > years, and half the homes now have central or window units. Kuujjuaq, an
    > Eskimo village 1,000 miles north of Montreal, just bought 10 air
    > conditioners. According to the mayor, it's been getting hot lately.
    > Instead of fixing the outdoors, we're trying to escape it. On every
    > street in my neighborhood, people have torn down ordinary homes and put
    > up giant air-conditioned boxes that extend as far as possible toward the
    > property line. They've lost yards and windows, but that's the whole
    > idea. Outdoor space is too hard to control, so we're replacing it with
    > indoor space. From 1991 to 2005, the median lot size of single-family
    > homes sold in the United States shrank by 9 percent, but the median
    > indoor square footage increased by 18 percent. If you can't stand the
    > heat, go hide in your kitchen.
    > Seven years ago, when my wife and I moved into our house, we built a
    > garden and patio in the back yard. Now, overcome by heat and mosquitoes,
    > we're thinking of replacing them with something a bit more
    > climate-controlled. We still want to look at nature. We just don't want
    > to feel it. And for better or worse, we'll probably succeed. Two months
    > ago, we saw Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth. Walking out of the
    > air-conditioned theater, we agonized over what we could do to fight
    > global warming. The conversation ended when we realized that our most
    > useful contribution would be to cancel the renovation. Wrapping
    > ourselves in a climate-controlled bubble can't make global warming less
    > true. But in the short run, it can make it a lot less inconvenient.
    > That's the problem in Washington today. Policymakers aren't facing
    > global warming, because they aren't feeling it. They gave themselves air
    > conditioning in the 1920s and '30s, long before the public got it. White
    > House meetings and congressional hearings on climate change are doomed
    > hours beforehand, when the thermostats are set. One minute, you're
    > watching video of people sweltering in New Orleans. The next minute,
    > you're watching senators dispute the significance of greenhouse gases.
    > Don't ask whether these people are living on the same planet. In effect,
    > they aren't.
    > When outdoor heat leaks into the Washington bubble, like crime into a
    > white neighborhood, officials treat it as a faux pas. Three weeks ago,
    > House Majority Leader John Boehner told reporters in a Capitol press
    > gallery, "It'd be nice if they could get you a little more air
    > conditioning up here." This week, President Bush's spokesman, Tony Snow,
    > assured White House correspondents that their briefing room would soon
    > be renovated. "Gathering from the temperature in this room at this
    > moment, I think everybody agrees that it's probably about time to have a
    > new and updated air conditioning and heating system," he joked. But
    > maybe the air conditioning system we need to fix is the one outdoors.
    > And maybe we won't face that truth till it becomes more inconvenient.

Runge whinged:

    > OT


It so far has garnered more discussion and interest than any of your peurile
dribble...

--
Best
Geg



    > "poldy" <[email protected]> a écrit dans le message de news:
    > [email protected]...
    > > Some data on how more pervasive AC has become in just a few short
    > > decades.

BB wrote:

    > On Mon, 07 Aug 2006 07:54:50 -0700, poldy wrote:
    > > Interesting about how Americans are building larger, climate-controlled
    > > homes to escape nature.
    > Yes, when compared to countries like Canada and the UK which are north of
    > our northern border, it does seem like we use a lot more AC. Of course, it
    > also seems kind of dumb to compare us with countries north of our northern
    > border (disregarding his mention that they were also seeing a considerable
    > increase in AC use). How many deserts are in England, after all? The US
    > southern border is mostly at a latitude south of Cairo! Would you find it
    > "interesting" to discuss the AC usage among the middle-class in central
    > Egypt?


Yep, Chicawgo is at the same latitude as Madrid...and a lot more humid to
boot.


    > And if the writer is finding nature at his back porch, its only because
    > he's in one of those scattered out communities that results in more
    > *driving*. Where I live, we don't sit out on the back porch because the
    > only view from there is more back porches...but I am walking distance from
    > a bus stop & a short bike ride from a grocery store.


The whole premise of the article is silly (not say politically - slanted).
The increasing use of AC in a country means that the population is more
affluent than in past times, which is something to be lauded...

In the US it's pretty much seen as a necessity, like electricity or running
potable water or kitchen fridges. Take AC away from large areas and they
will turn into ghost towns overnight, e.g. the southern Sunbelt.

--
Best
Greg

The US are not a reference, just like you.

"Gregory Morrow" <[email protected]> a écrit dans
le message de news: [email protected] ...
    > BB wrote:
    >> On Mon, 07 Aug 2006 07:54:50 -0700, poldy wrote:
    >> > Interesting about how Americans are building larger, climate-controlled
    >> > homes to escape nature.
    >> Yes, when compared to countries like Canada and the UK which are north of
    >> our northern border, it does seem like we use a lot more AC. Of course,
    >> it
    >> also seems kind of dumb to compare us with countries north of our
    >> northern
    >> border (disregarding his mention that they were also seeing a
    >> considerable
    >> increase in AC use). How many deserts are in England, after all? The US
    >> southern border is mostly at a latitude south of Cairo! Would you find it
    >> "interesting" to discuss the AC usage among the middle-class in central
    >> Egypt?
    > Yep, Chicawgo is at the same latitude as Madrid...and a lot more humid to
    > boot.
    >> And if the writer is finding nature at his back porch, its only because
    >> he's in one of those scattered out communities that results in more
    >> *driving*. Where I live, we don't sit out on the back porch because the
    >> only view from there is more back porches...but I am walking distance
    >> from
    >> a bus stop & a short bike ride from a grocery store.
    > The whole premise of the article is silly (not say politically - slanted).
    > The increasing use of AC in a country means that the population is more
    > affluent than in past times, which is something to be lauded...
    > In the US it's pretty much seen as a necessity, like electricity or
    > running
    > potable water or kitchen fridges. Take AC away from large areas and they
    > will turn into ghost towns overnight, e.g. the southern Sunbelt.
    > --
    > Best
    > Greg
    >

OT anyway polluter
Go back to your favorite sexual interests somewhere else.

"Gregory Morrow" <[email protected]> a écrit dans
le message de news: [email protected] et...
    > Runge whinged:
    >> OT
    > It so far has garnered more discussion and interest than any of your
    > peurile
    > dribble...
    > --
    > Best
    > Geg
    >> "poldy" <[email protected]> a écrit dans le message de news:
    >> [email protected]...
    >> > Some data on how more pervasive AC has become in just a few short
    >> > decades.
    >

gRunge wrote:

    > OT anyway polluter
    > Go back to your favorite sexual interests somewhere else.


With AC you wouldn't sweat so much when you and Jacqueline make love,
gGrunge...

--
Best
Greg


    > "Gregory Morrow" <[email protected]> a écrit dans
    > le message de news:
[email protected] et...
    > >
    > > Runge whinged:
    > >
    > >> OT
    > >
    > >
    > > It so far has garnered more discussion and interest than any of your
    > > peurile
    > > dribble...
    > >
    > > --
    > > Best
    > > Geg
    > >
    > >
    > >
    > >> "poldy" <[email protected]> a écrit dans le message de news:
    > >> [email protected]...
    > >> > Some data on how more pervasive AC has become in just a few short
    > >> > decades.
    > >
    > >

On Tue, 08 Aug 2006 05:55:10 GMT, "Gregory Morrow"
<[email protected]> wrote:

    >gRunge wrote:
    >> OT anyway polluter
    >> Go back to your favorite sexual interests somewhere else.
    >With AC you wouldn't sweat so much when you and Jacqueline make love,
    >gGrunge...

It' all over. Jacqueline is in love with old goats.
--

Martin