Sunday, June 24, 2012

Redistribute Air Conditioning?

Is this another possible application of "the right thing to do," Obama's justification for his recent order that ceases the deportation of certain illegal immigrants?

From this page in the New York Times, dated June 21, 2012:
Should Air-Conditioning Go Global, or Be Rationed Away?

Temperatures in New York City have pushed toward 100 degrees this week, and air-conditioners strained the power grid (thanks in part to stores with their doors open). Meanwhile the demand for coolant gases, especially in rapidly developing countries like India, threatens to accelerate global warming.

Is it a good goal for everyone in the world to have access to air-conditioning — like clean water or the Internet? Or is it an unsustainable luxury, which air-conditioned societies should be giving up or rationing?
More HERE, including the following:
...[T]here's little we can say until we end our own society's dependence on lavish cooling. Doing that would be a good start, but addressing energy-hungry technologies one at a time won't achieve the greenhouse-gas cuts of as much as 80 percent that science says are necessary to prevent catastrophic warming. Only a per-person ceiling on overall emissions can accomplish that.

2 comments:

Pastorius said...

I'll give away my air-conditioning when all Hollywood stars live like me.

Epaminondas said...

Our children are obese.

Air conditioning must be done away with so they can sweat away a few pounds.

Fat american children use 78% of the air conditioning on earth but represent only 2% of the world's children

Fat american children will go outside more and lose weight if it's so hot inside that grandma dies, which will also make up the Obamacare budget gap