For diatribes against air-conditioning, it just doesn't get much better than this Will Saletan piece from a while back. That said, Edward McClelland's take on how air-conditioning helps the GOP is a joy also. I'm sort of primed for this sort of thing, however. My Dad hated air conditioning.
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That Saletan piece was excellent.
My mother controlled the thermostat with an iron fist, and being Jamaican meant she pretty much scoffed in the face of what we Americans call "heat." She didn't allow us to turn on the air unless it was hotter than 105-110 degrees (dry CA heat).
It's so ingrained in me that I haven't turned on the A/C once this summer, even though I'm in swamp-like Central NJ.
I start sweating like a pig when it's at all humid and the temperature's much higher than 80 degrees. In an un-air conditioned apartment in the summer I start sweating as soon as I step out of the shower. I know I'm only one man and that it would be selfish of me to doom humanity to destruction just so I don't feel disgusting and look like a sweat-soaked lunatic every time I get dressed between June and September. But I wanted to share my plight with the world.
By the way, I'm skeptical of Saletin's assertion that eliminating air conditioning would, by itself, have any noticeable affect on the climate. His track record when it comes to accurate science reporting isn't stellar.
Just saw shani-o's comment when I posted mine... I admire your ability to resist A/C in the mid-Atlantic. I envy people in drier climates; in places like southern California and Colorado I can get by with just a ceiling fan. It's the humidity that kills me, not necessarily the heat.
Hating air conditioning has alot to do with genetics. Did anyone notice that black people in New York City yesterday were all wearing coats because the temperature dipped below 70 for a couple of hours? I was sweating through my shirt.
Many an office argument has also come about due to varying complaints about temperature. Every non-white (and some white) in the office runs a space-heater year-round while I walk around with swamp-@$$ all day.
I generally see this as a humorous ethnic difference. I have been laughed at for wearing a white T in January. However it does get annoying when someone's Northface takes up 3 seats on the subway in August. That's just wrong.
I moved from a northern state to Houston (for a job) last winter and have been floored by how many Texans crank up the air conditioning at the first sign things might get “hot,” and actually go beyond air conditioning to air freezing. I thought it would have been the opposite, that people here would be more attuned to higher temps. Nope. Offices, theaters and homes are kept so chill that my wife keeps a sweater with her in July. We keep our air conditining at 83 degrees and only actually turn it on when the humidity gets out of control.
See, I'd be right on board with an argument for more reasonable indoor temps, summer and winter. And for smart architecture, like high ceilings and ceiling fans in hot climates, catching the prevailing wind, shielding windows from summer sun while letting in the lower winter light, and all that stuff.
But old people die in heat waves every summer. And yes, they did the studies and it's not gently carrying off everyone who would have died in the next 4 months--following a big heat wave die off there is no subsequent depression in deaths. And it's a bad way to die. There's nothing noble about turning off the air in the libraries and stuff that those old people are told to go to in a heat wave.
Grew up in the west, live in the northeast, and agree with the humidity being worse than the heat. I'm asthmatic, and on the high heat/humidity days I need the AC to breathe. I don't run it steadily--less than a week this summer, I believe--but I do appreciate it. Sorry, Salatar comes across as one of those "I'm going to sit in air conditioning but feel guilty about it" types.
"Today is hot! It's global warming!!!"
"Today is cold! That global warming is a myth!"
Both of the above are annoying.
Global warming doesn't cause terrible summers, particularly. (It does shift rainfall, which is going to be a bigger issue for much of the US.) It's more locally noticeable in milder winters (we used to do an ice rink out back, but it doesn't freeze enough these days), earlier springs (we can set the tomatoes out in May now!), later falls (no frost until after Thanksgiving the last few years, so the leafy greens lasts longer). In the milder winters and earlier springs, communities are finding that their water supplies are less dependable--less mountain snowfall in the winter, it's all melted earlier in the spring, there's not much left coming down from the mountains by midsummer. And in all the shifting plant and animal species and their associated pests. (Stinkbugs moved into my fall neighborhood a few years after we did--do NOT squish them inside.)
I keep my A/C on auto at 78 degrees from May through October... but I live in New Orleans. I spent one summer here in a tent with no A/C and that was the hottest summer of my entire life.
You can't even get cold water out of your tap here between May and October. It's piss warm.
My office, on the other hand, is freezing cold all summer and pretty warm in the winter. So we all keep sweaters in our cubicles. My coworker even has a portable heater because it gets so cold in here when the A/C runs. So much for dressing seasonally.
I used to think like Saletan, until I moved somewhere that has multiple above-body-temperature heat waves every year (it's especially fun when it's 110 at midnight). At that point, your choices are AC or heat stroke, and I'm not quite willing to die or condemn anyone else to death to delay global warming.
Three words: Fuck. All. That.
I love air conditioning and think it's positively uncivilized to live without it. I'm a big, sweaty guy and even though my wife says I don't stink when I get sweaty, you really don't want to be around me when the sweat starts dripping.
Earlier this Summer when we were looking for a place to live out here in Minnesota we looked at an old 6BR farmhouse. It was pretty hot outside, but amazingly cool and comfortable in the house despite the lack of air conditioning. When I talked to the landlord he was explaining this house was built pre-AC and incorporated a host of architectural features (I can't recall the specifics) that kept it cool without AC. If more contemporary homes were built with those features then AC wouldn't be as ubiquitous as it is.
I'm all for people (and specifically companies) being more reasonable with their A/C usage. But abolish it? Ok, everyone has to give up their heating too. Man, I live in Texas and I totally only turn on the heater once a year, everyone should be like me.
I think we should just abolish Texas.
Texans really really love their air conditioning.
I was sent to Houston last year in November for work. A guy there who had never lived anywhere else told me he has no idea how people could live in North with the cold.
I told him I had no idea how people could live in a place where you need air conditioning 8 months a year. I told him you can always add a layering of clothing and do a bit of light exercise to keep warm. What do you do when its over 90 and over 90% humidity?
Without air conditioning, Houston wouldn't exist, and I'd be sitting in a 95 degree, mosquito-infested swamp.
Without Houston, American evil wouldn't exist.
Re: From the Saletan piece: "Instead of fixing the outdoors, we're trying to escape it."
Does Saletan also think we should get rid of indoor heating during the winter? Or do away with housing altogether and just live outdoors, probably in our birthday suits? Come on, human beings have been trying to escape outdoor weather since our hominid ancestors climbed down from the trees!
Re: I moved from a northern state to Houston (for a job) last winter and have been floored by how many Texans crank up the air conditioning at the first sign things might get “hot
I've noticed there's a tendency in southern climates to go over board on the AC. While I was living in St Pete FL a friend from Ohio came to visit in May. We went out for dinner, wearing clothing appropriate to the Florida cliamte in May, and while I was used to the habits of the locals my friend was appalled at how cold the restaurant was kept. A reverse tendency to overheat can also be found in northern climes: we spent a weekend in Montreal in October and it cold enough for snow flurries. Of course we dressed for the cold snap, but the bars were so overheated they could have been saunas. This is the only time I have ever stripped to shirtlessness in a nightclub* since my sweater was way too hot for the heat.
* OK, it was a gay club so shirtlessness is encouraged, but I don't really have the body for Adonis-like poses.
The overheating/overcooling thing makes sense to me, because I actually spend time out in the weather when it is bad. If you come in from working outdoors in the snow, you want the room to be warmer than you would want it if you had to spend the whole day there. You have to warm yourself back up, and you may only have the lunch hour to do it.
Similarly, if you are out in 98-degree heat, the cold blast of excessive air conditioning can be delightful. You might not want to live in it 24/7, but you probably don't spend that much time in a restaurant anyway. And the people who do are doing physical work around a heat source, so they probably like the temperature as well.