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Hater Depot
Joined: 29 Mar 2005
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 Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 5:47 pm Post subject: The Folly of Airconditioning |
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http://slate.com/id/2147167/
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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. |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 7:02 pm Post subject: |
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I see the average car produces about 10,000 pounds of CO2 a year and since I don't have a car and live in a small place, I don't feel bad. 3,600 pounds per year per American home? I wonder how many one-rooms I could get into an American home. I think people should live in smaller places and drive smaller cars, not stop using a/c in their big sweltering home. I remember reading in Calgary that if everybody in the world lived in a house the size of the ones we did, that we'd need an extra two Earths to accomodate them all.
If someone wants to cut down on a/c then it should be during the day. The body can take hot temperatures during the day as long as it's cool enough at night that it can rest and regenerate. Not being able to have a regular night's sleep is bad for one's health, reduces appetite, makes you irritable etc. |
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Novernae
Joined: 02 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2006 5:51 am Post subject: Re: The Folly of Airconditioning |
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| Hater Depot wrote: |
http://slate.com/id/2147167/
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| 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. |
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Actually, the drag on a car driving down the highway with the windows open wastes more fuel than A/C.
I agree with mithridates. If we all reduced our consumption of everything then it wouldn't be so much of an issue. Or even if we just reduced what we waste (ie stored blasting A/C out the open doors). There are plenty of alternative cooling methods being tested, and hopefully they will be a success and become more mainstream in the future.
I walked by a forested area today and you could feel the chill eminating from it. If we all lived in areas like that it we wouldn't need air conditioners. But we live in cities, piled on top of each other with no greenery to cool things down, and plenty of concrete to absorb the heat in the day and keep the place hot at night. |
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huffdaddy
Joined: 25 Nov 2005
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| Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2006 6:28 am Post subject: Re: The Folly of Airconditioning |
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| But we live in cities, piled on top of each other with no greenery to cool things down, and plenty of concrete to absorb the heat in the day and keep the place hot at night. |
Not to mention the watershed that concrete consumes. The hundred year floods are coming all too frequent these days. |
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jajdude
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 4:11 am Post subject: |
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| mithridates wrote: |
| The body can take hot temperatures during the day |
I don't know about that. I have been working a lot in this intensive session and the heat has been a real drag. Even though half of the building is cool enough, some rooms are not. I've been tired and stressed and not so happy partly due to the heat. I can't imagine being a laborer 8 or more hours a day in serious heat. |
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Novernae
Joined: 02 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 5:25 am Post subject: |
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| jajdude wrote: |
| mithridates wrote: |
| The body can take hot temperatures during the day |
I don't know about that. I have been working a lot in this intensive session and the heat has been a real drag. Even though half of the building is cool enough, some rooms are not. I've been tired and stressed and not so happy partly due to the heat. I can't imagine being a laborer 8 or more hours a day in serious heat. |
I guess it depends on how 'hot' we're talking here. Sure we might get irritable and cranky at 30-35 degrees, but we can survive. If it gets too hot though, hello heat stroke. In Northern Argentina (and other places of course), they still take the siesta, but even with that there are labourers who keel over from the 45 degree humid heat at 10 AM.
I have A/C here and use it, but I didn't have it in Argentina and got heat stroke a few times. Give me minus 20 any day! |
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igotthisguitar
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Location: South Korea (Permanent Vacation)
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| Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 9:30 am Post subject: |
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Got 2 fans going for the most when i'm home.
A/C minimal ( only most dire situation ) usage.
VERY BAD for global warming. IF only everyone else would do their part.
*shrugs* |
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