EnviroLink Forum

A few months ago I read that world-wise 37% of the energy generated is used for air conditioners. In the US the energy used for ACs far exceeds what is generated for industrial purposes.

And if you ever stand near an AC unit, it's easy to see they put out a lot of heat.

So what I see is a feedback loop. We are hot, so we cool our homes, that generates more heat, so our AC units need to work harder and use more energy than before, which generates more heat, which means the AC units have to use more energy, which generates even more heat and so on ad infinitum.

Can we justify this?

For 99.999999% of humankind's existence, we have survived quite well without AC.

Is is moral to complain that industry is wasting too much and contributing to global warming when we are doing the same thing?

I grew up in Florida, where we painted the roofs white, wore seasonal clothing, opened the windows and planted shade trees. Nobody was dying from the heat. We were acclimated to it. I don't use it to this day. I painted the roof white, planted dozens of live oak trees, and use fans to move the air around.

I challenge you to do the same.

Bob

With the increasing global temperatures the use of air conditioning is going to expand north and to higher elevations just like the USDA hardiness zones are moving in those directions.

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Which will only increase the global temperatures causing more people to use air conditioning ... ... ... ... ...

Plus countries that formerly had poor penetration of AC like China and India are adding them by the millions every week.

I challenge each and every person who calls himself or herself and environmentalist to:

1) Turn off the AC and leave it off

2) Paint your roof white - it will help reflect the heat back out of the atmosphere as it cools your home

3) Plant shade trees, while they will be keeping you cool, they will be converting CO2 to O2 and helping to reduce that greenhouse gas

Please join me.

Bob