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Waking Up from the Air-Conditioned Dream
As this torrid summer wears on, electric utilities in all regions of the country are struggling to satisfy record demand. The bulk of that extra power is going to run air-conditioning systems, feeding an already hearty appetite. Energy use for air-conditioning America's homes and vehicles has doubled just in the past 15 years.
Since writing a book about our love affair with summertime cold, I have learned that to suggest that we start reducing our dependence on air-conditioning is to invite dire forecasts of malaise, poor health, social turmoil, and economic collapse. But that need not be the case. And besides, hazards like those have become a bit too familiar already, even with compressors and fans running full blast.
Air-conditioning's proven benefits as a public-health measure during severe heat waves do not justify its lavish use throughout everyday life, for months at a stretch. Similarly, a heavily armored Humvee is a good vehicle to have if you're driving into a combat zone, but it's not the best choice for everyday transportation.
Several lines of research indicate that reducing our dependence on chilled air could improve our quality of life. Human-physiology studies show that air-conditioning undermines our natural adaptation to heat and disrupts endocrine systems as well. Researchers in the United States, Brazil, and Europe have found that people employed in air-conditioned workplaces have poorer health and visit doctors and hospitals more frequently than do those who work without air-conditioning.
Medical experts have speculated that air-conditioning may even contribute to rising obesity rates. There are at least three mechanisms: the human body burns calories more slowly when it doesn't have to work to shed heat; we eat more when we're in a cool environment; and people, especially children, are less physically active indoors than out.
Taking refuge in the cool indoors for much of the summer may affect the mind as well as the body. For children, spontaneous outdoor activity has been shown to relieve stress, spur creativity, and expand friendship networks. Lack of contact with the outdoors, in contrast, has been associated with behavioral problems. Air-conditioning has also helped pave the way for the widespread elimination of outdoor school recess, despite research showing that recess improves attentiveness and behavior in the classroom.
Moreover, by chilling the indoor environment today, we are heating the outdoors of tomorrow. Cooling of U.S. homes, businesses, and public buildings consumes as much electricity as is used for all purposes by the sixty nations of Africa-home to almost one billion people. That massive energy demand is overwhelming efforts to reduce greenhouse emissions. Take the electricity output from all of America's geothermal, biomass, solar, and wind sources, multiply it by five, and it would still not be sufficient even to air-conditioning America's buildings, let alone serve other uses.
Residential air-conditioning units in service in 2005 were an impressive 28 percent more energy-efficient on average than they were in 1993. But as we took advantage of that cheaper comfort, the number of kilowatt-hours of electricity used for cooling the average air-conditioned U.S. household actually increased by 37 percent. Federal standards have since tightened, requiring that new equipment be another 30 percent more efficient. Should we expect energy consumption to take another leap as a result?
Thorstein Veblen once noted that in a capitalist economy, invention is the mother of necessity. Air-conditioning illustrates his quip nicely, but it's time to relegate it once again to the status of luxury. And if, as many analysts are telling us, we have to slash our nonrenewable energy consumption deeply, then no luxury, including air-conditioning, should be exempt. (That includes a lot; I know that in our own non-air-conditioned household in Kansas, there are plenty of other things we need to cut.)
By reducing our dependence on air-conditioning, we can not only save energy but also become more resilient human beings. And we'll need that resilience. The coming decades will test our ability to adapt and create, and we can't leave it to technology to bail us out this time.
Stan Cox is author of Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World, published this summer by The New Press.
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Show All"For children, spontaneous outdoor activity has been shown to relieve stress, spur creativity, and expand friendship networks. Lack of contact with the outdoors, in contrast, has been associated with behavioral problems."
This cannot be overstated. Stunting incipient biophilia reduces one's empathy for the Earth. That's the worst thing we can do to our children right now.
Okay, FastEddie 75;
This is not to say that people can't do outdoor activities in the summer months, but there are times, if and when the weather is extremely hot and humid, to stay indoors.
Obviously, geography has much to do with it. I happen to live in Seattle, where, this spring and summer, we have experienced lower than normal temperatures (this morning it's rainy and a little under 60 degrees-F). This suits me fine--I've been a northerner all my life, and would rather put on extra clothes when cold than sweat near-naked in the heat!
I read your longer post above, and support your ideas to reduce consumption--nicely done! I agree that excess heat and humidity, when they amount to a safety hazard, justify AC. I also know, from past summer travels to places like Houston and Huntsville, that a lot of buildings are kept downright cold, which is wasteful.
I'm a bit surprised that your exotic pet bird needs AC (assuming it's a tropical bird). Take good care of her, since "exotics" are disappearing from the wild in vast numbers (part of the sixth extinction)!
Thank you, FastEddy75.
My exotic bird is not a wild-caught bird, but she was born and bred here in captivity--domestically raised and hand-fed.
Also, while exotic birds can tolerate a good range of temperatures (60-90 degrees fahrenheit), any temps above or below that range can be detrimental or deadly to exotic birds in captivity. I know for a fact that my 4th-floor apartment can get well over 90 degrees without the A/C (which is in my bedroom and my ceiling fan. I've also got ten-foot ceilings, so the air rises quite rapidly. I keep my captivity-born and raised Congo African Grey Parrot in my living room. Since my bedroom walls don't go all the way up to the 10-foot ceiling, the fan and the A/C work together to keep my 4th-floor condo loft cool and comfortable, plus I also close my venetian blinds with the slats facing outward during a nasty heat wave to keep the hot sun, etc. out of my apartment. Back to the subject of exotic birds, unlike exotic birds in captivity who need their owner's help to protect them from overheating, parrots in the wild can and do find a cool, shady place to ride out a heat wave.
I also agree that geographic location has a great deal to do with it, but not everyone lives in the kind of geographical location where an A/C isn't necessary. I've lived in the northeast my whole life, but not right beside the ocean. Here in the east, we've experienced higher than normal temps and higher than normal humidity for this summer, so an A/C is necessary. People who live in the midwest also need A/C's, as well.
Thanks for your support and encouragement, FastEddy75. There's much awareness of the wild parrots disappearing from the rain forests and the tundras, so raising these birds in captivity through breeding birds and human breeders is a way to take the popularity of exotic birds as pets while attempting to preserve what's left of the wild parrot stock in the tundras and rain forests.
Thanks for the information on your bird. I am a biologist by passion, formal education, and practice, so you can imagine how I feel about extinction. I am fascinated by birds, but not educated in the care and feeding of exotics. I briefly entertained the notion of a caring for parrot. Then, I learned how long they can live, realized that, given my age then, it would probably outlive me, and so discarded the notion. And, to be honest, I'm a serial dog raiser (not a breeder--I just take 'em in). In fact, the weather here broke mid-morning, so I've just returned from a two-hour jaunt in Seattle's Discovery Park. Spotted the resident osprey today; a Barred owl yesterday. Feeling pretty good!
I grew up outside of Detroit, so I remember heat and humidity pretty well (though there's little in my experience that compares with Houston in the summer--a friend who lived their used to "charge" people a block of ice to come use the swimming pool--it was the only way to cool the pool enough to make it worth getting in). I was thinking about your advice to people earlier, and how to alleviate the waste that comes with over-cooling an indoor environment. I think it was your observation that people crank the AC up to "high" during heat waves that led me to think about "necessary" cooling versus "comfort-range" cooling. Necessary cooling is that which brings the environment below the danger threshold (which varies depending upon age, frailty, species, etc.). Comfort-range cooling is that which makes a person absolutely comfortable, compatible with wardrobe choices and nary a bead of sweat. Seems people ought to be willing to sweat a little while justifiably remaining out of the hazard range, and so should follow your advice and set the A/C lower, just as I keep the heat pretty low in winter and wear a sweater in the house.
When I lived in Michigan, we did not have A/C. In the summer, we ran a dehumidifier in that half of our basement my dad built out into a recreation room. The basement was often quite pleasant when the rest of the house was stifling. I don't know how the energy use of such an option would compare with A/C today, but it worked OK for us back then. I'll bet most utilities and the new wave of "green" builders and designers have a wealth of information on efficiently keeping cool.
I was also going to point out that deep woods are often a suburban and rural option for cooling off, as are many shorelines adjacent to cool water bodies. Just like your wild parrots, people can go chill in the woods, especially in lake country such as in much of the upper midwest, which would give their kids the desirable benefit of contact with nature.
Guess I'm feeling chatty today.
Peace.
I have no intention of moving out to the wooded suburbs or rural areas, but I see your points.
No matter where one lives, however, be it in an urban, suburban or rural area, however, if one owns any kind of pet, whether it be a dog, cat, bird, or any kind of reptile or amphibian, it's dangerous to let them get overheated. Therefore, being able to provide them with a cooler place, or even to cool them off with water is necessary, but I really think that, since I live on the fourth floor of a 5-story concrete apartment building, in an urban area, and not near the coast, it's necessary for me to have both the bedroom A/C and my ceiling fan.
Those ungrateful Iraqis should be showering US soldiers with rose pedals for continuing to limit electrical power to no more than 2 hours per day, thereby assuring that few Iraqis are exposed to the debilitating effects of air conditioning.
How many Iraqis' lifespans were cut short when Saddam Hussein was in power and electrical power flowed 24/7 ?
independentminded and FastEddie75:
Nice to hear from fellow bird lovers (as long as we've already strayed off-topic). I've had two enormous Macaws and two Sun Conures for fifteen years now and I couldn't live without them. They have become great friends. Birds are noisy and messy and require a lot of attention and care as indep...ded knows. They are not for everybody, and nobody should acquire an exotic bird purely on impulse. Mine will outlive me by many years, and I have been dealing with the unhappy problem of providing for their future care when I'm outta here. Most captive birds end up in bad circumstances. My Military Macaw is critically endangered in the wild, where there are only a few thousand remaining. Aviary birds who share our lives do preserve these vanishing species, according to the Noah's Ark theory. It would be nice to think we could restore their habitat and take them all home again. Best to you.
I live in Pittsburgh - pretty much the midwest, and I do just fine without AC. It is hardly a necessity at all.
AC is an addicitive substance, and some of the people here sound just like junkies after hearing a suggestion that they cut back on their Heroin a bit.
Cutting down on A/C usage is one thing. Cutting OUT the use of an A/C altogether is quite another, which can be dangerous.
While I see your points Stan, I have to take issue with the idea of NOT using air-conditioning in the summertime. Studies, which many statistics bear out, have shown that overheating is no good for people, particularly the elderly, young children, those who are chronically ill, overweight or underweight, or pets. It's necessary to have cooler-temperatured places to retreat to in the summer, particularly during a heat-wave.
Imho, one need not give up using an A/C altogether. People can turn their A/C's down to medium or low temps, and, since most air conditioners have an economy mode, they can use that if and when they leave the house for any length of time.
As for myself, I live on the 4th floor of a 5-story concrete warehouse that was refurbished into artists' lofts a number of years ago, and, I know that, for a fact, that, without air-conditioning in the summer time, my place would be like a furnace....unbearable. Also, since I have a pet exotic bird, overheating could be detrimental to her, as well.
If you've never read/heard about the number of people, especially elderly or chronically ill people, who die during heat waves, air conditioners can and do, indeed save lives.
So, before you or anybody goes around sneering at those who use air-conditioners in the summer time and refuse to just "tough it out and use a fan", you might want to think about the fact that on a hot, hot sultry mid-summer's day when the temps reach 90-100 some odd degrees, with super-high humidity, you, too, might want to have an air-conditioned place to retreat to for awhile. As a physically active person, I know enough not to go outdoors and do heavy exercise when it gets like that.
Here are some suggestions for people who, like myself, do use A/C's in the summer time:
A) One need not have more than one air conditioner in their home if they live in a relatively small apartment or condominium. A window A/C in the bedroom, plus one or two ceiling fans is suffice.
B) One big problem is that, during a heat wave, pretty much everybody wants to crank their A/C's up to "High", which, unfortunately, does put much more of a strain on the grid. Avoid cranking up the A/C to "High" and use either the "Medium" or "Low" temperature settings when at home and at night.
C) When one leaves their house for any length of time, they should turn their A/C's onto the
"Economy" mode. This acts as a thermostat, turning itself on and off as necessary to maintain the present temperature of the room/home, and it saves a good deal of energy on the long run.
D) There are many more energy-efficient Air conditioners on the market now than before, so, dig a bit deeper into your pocketbook and invest in an A/C like that.
For those who live in parts of the country where the air-conditioner is only needed for 3 or 4 months out of the year, this shouldn't be a problem at all. For those who live where air conditioning is needed all year around, they might want to try the suggestions I mentioned above.
Oh, and also, people with allergies, too, benefit from air-conditioning, because extreme heat can tighten up the chest, nasal and bronchial tubes and cause people with such conditions as asthma, etc, suffer even more.
I don't know how I survived growing up in a household without air conditioning. My parents should have been reported to child services.
As for leaving elderly people unsupervised in homes during summer heat waves, don't do it. A little common sense goes a long way.
Your sarcasm is rather disgusting and uncalled for, Lefty.
Common sense goes a long way in other ways, too. Don't leave elderly, young children, or pets unattended without a/c's in the summertime, especially during a heat wave.
Yep, me too! I grew up in the Deep South in an un-air conditioned log house that was built in the 1920's - you can imagine the insulation - or lack of! Then for three years in the early 1990's I lived in an un-air conditioned building with a metal roof and no insulation. Then in 2005, I lived in an air conditioned home, but without electricity for 6 weeks due to Katrina.....
Anyway, I am still alive and well.
Asking people in hot and humid climates not to use AC is like asking people in frigid climates not to heat their homes. Plus, it is like asking people everywhere to stop driving their cars, using computers, blah blah blah. Build it and they will come!!!
I agree that cooking habits have gotten horrible, but it's not the refrigerator that's causing horrible eating habits..it's the fact that people do go out and buy fast foods, and wastefully store them at home. What I generally do is to cook a pasta sauce, a roast chicken, or lamb, depending on what I'm in the mood for that day, and I have enough left over for sandwiches, salads, and a number of cooked dinners.
Unfortunately, neighborhood fast food restaurants often don't serve such healthy foods, and there is reason to be concerned. If people in neighborhoods where fast food places are located did pressure those fast food places into serving healthier foods, something just might happen, but who knows.
I have lived in countries where street food is sold all over the place, where food is sold from parked vans, where food is even sold from mobile stands that are moved by bicycle, countries with hot humid climates.
Every single person in that country, in those countries, would choose a refrigerator over an AC.
What has killed off street food in the US is not the fridge. It is the obsession with food safety regulations. It is the fear of "icky" bacteria among Americans in general, the general perception that bacteria in food is always dangerous, can be eliminated, and that elimination is desireable. Much of the street food hawkers in countries where street food is commonplace, and where everyone, poor, working class, middle class, rich, enjoys street food without dropping dead from food poisoning, would be prevented from trading in the US due to food safety regulations.
I actually quite agree with you. but the US obsession with "food safety" is really because of a cultural obsession of supposedly "preserving and enhancing" one's PERSONAL life to the "fullest" - as part of the "american dream and promise" ....
that supposedlyk EVERY person's WHIM and CAPRICE - extended towards a "national safety and security" culture - will be safeguarded by the inclusion and development and enlargement of a whole ranger of "related industries" -- ALL part of the capitalist system:
"refrigeration, trucking, farming, preservation, delivery, supermarket, freezing, " ...and "thawing, reheating, microwave, "..
etc etc. etc.
and yes - it is supported by and surrounds the culture of "we must be SAFE"!!!!!!
at ALL TIMES - ABSOLUTELY MUST!!!
reflected also in the NATIONAL SECURITY STATE.
it's all very american.
What's so wrong about food safety regulations and refrigeration? They're NECESSARY!
Uhh, you might want to take a visit to various countries around the world with hot and humid climates.
I am living in southern China at the moment and it is tropical enough to grow bananas. Everything I eat comes form the markets that have no electricity or refrigeration - veggies, meat (pork, chicken, beef, seafood of all kinds) and many dried products like mushrooms and spices.
I have, also, lived in S America and Africa in places with no refrigeration - it can be done. America's industrialized food production is filthy and nasty, therefore, extreme packaging and refrigeration is needed for just about all food there.
BTW - I do have AC and often use it here.
Sorry, Dizi, but I've got no interest in living the way people in Third-World countries do. Thanks.
If this area of China is considered Third World, then I can show you many places in the US that must be Fourth World. It is highly developed here in southern China, but a lot of people choose to walk or ride a bicycle, even when they own a car. One couple I know has a very nice apt with AC and a fridge, though they utilize neither - their choice. I am sure there are areas of China still considered Third World, but nowhere near here (the area from Hong Kong to Macao to Guangzhou).
Two things, Dizi:
A) The people who sell fresh meat, veggies, and seafood without refrigeration probably go out and pick and/or kill fresh stuff every day so that it is fresh, and they've probably got enough sense not to leave any unsold stuff around after the day is done.
B) Since you, too have an air-conditioner and use it, don't condemn and criticize others who use air-conditioning in the summertime. Thanks.
I was not criticizing anyone, except maybe the "industrialized food" machinery of the US. I was just stating the reality of which I have experienced in my life. If you read my earlier post in this thread, you will see that I have lived both with and without AC, then I stated "build it and they will come" which means, if AC is available, the majority of people will utilize it. Including myself!
Yes. Sure.
Now ask your Chinese friends, refrigeration or AC.
Some have both, some have neither. On average AC wins out over fridges here. Where I am living, most people eat freshly prepared food and throw out any leftovers.
Really?? Plenty of people living in those extremely hot and humid countries suffer ill effects from extreme heat and humidity, which can kill anybody anywhere if severe enough. You're another one whose attitudes indicate extreme willful ignorance and intolerance on this matter.
No they don't. A very small minority suffer ill effects.
Have you ever lived out of America before? You're the one who sounds remarkably ignorant.
yes, I have, rfloh. I was in India almost 50 years ago with my family for sixth months, and pretty much everywhere we went, there were people living and dying in the streets, not only from illness or starvation, but from the heat and humidity, also. People who have no (real) protection from extreme weather, be it extreme heat or cold are in the greatest danger of being sick, or dying. Ever heard of heatstroke? Plenty of people die from that, too. People who live in those hot, humid Torrid zones are just as hot as you, me and everybody else.
When the first white European pioneers and settlers here in the United states brought the Africans to the USA as slaves four or five centuries ago, they said "hey, they (the Africans) don't seem to mind the hot sun. Let's get more of them!" I hate to say this, rfloh, but your attitude here is exactly like that.
Many people survive fine in tropical and equatorial countries, countries with hot humid climates, without viewing air-conditioners as a necessity. They are viewed as luxuries. Nice to have definitely, but still luxuries. Refrigerators are viewed as necessities.
Forced to make a choice, every single person living in a hot humid tropical or equatorial country would choose refrigerators over air conditioners every day of the week and twice on Sundays.
"Many people survive fine in tropical and equatorial countries, countries with hot humid climates, without viewing air-conditioners as a necessity."
Yeh? An awful lot of them don't. Frankly, rfloh, your "if others can tough it out with no air conditioning in the summertime, why can't you?" attitude makes me want to puke.
Frankly, your pathetic ignorance makes me want to puke. You are ignorant, and don't even know it.
"You are ignorant, and don't even know it."
Speak for yourself, rfloh!
I guess most discussing here are not from the equator or some had experience traveling.
I can say - being from the Philippines -- you can't get more "equator" than THAT since the archipelago sits just about north of it or further south (where i'm from) on the equator .
that's where i was born, grew up, played, learned, both in province and in the big , very polluted and humid city.
"regular" airconditioning was non-existent, except maybe for the very, very rich , and even then, more likely did so only on certain very hot days or because there are guests ( guest comfort being a very important cultural norm ) .
of course, anywhere in the world where extremes of temperature occur - there are always those that will suffer more and even DIE.
but that is nature's law.
airconditioning is more about creature comfort than "survival of the species".
imagine the irony :
one goes to an expensive "climate controlled" GYM so one can SHED weight and "sweat it out" in COMFORT..........
that's a VERY american phenomenon of wanting something (conditions) in order to achieve something that the conditions are not really required for or contrary to the natural demands to achieve something (shedding weight or "sweating in excercise") .....
funny, and strangely aberrational society, i must say.
Do you ever do any research?
You can run a refrigerator for a whole year for one month's worth of AC.
Gotta agree with rfloh, I spent several years working on the Equator. Either you had AC/refrigeration or you didn't; life didn't end, you didn't starve. Can't tell you how many warm South Pacifics (SPs) I drank. The Papua New Guineans smoke everything. A couple weeks and you're "climatized".
We aren't talking about special needs for the sick or the elderly. In general, air conditioning is overused just as is stated in this article. Whether I vacation in Maui or Atlanta I, as a native San Franciscan, don't need to use air conditioning. But all those people who live there can't go without it. Just northwest of Atlanta I was out walking with my (back then) six year old son. We were the only ones going outside. We walked to a playground where we were the only people there. Turns out all those people spending their entire lives on air conditioning could no longer tolerate the heat at all while us fog bound city folks were loving it.
And, warm climates do not tighten up you chest or bronchial tubes, it opens them up as anyone knows from going to a sauna.
I disagree with you, WideofVision. First of all, I live on the East coast, and not right by the ocean, like you do, and I can't be without air-conditioning in the summertime, especially because I've got a pet bird around the house, for who overheating could be dangerous, whether you care to believe it or not.
If it's hot and humid outside, with 90-100 degrees, and extreme humidity, yes, it can tighten up one's bronchial tubes and chest. Comparing it with a sauna is BS, imho.
So...like it or not, I'll go on using my A/C in the summertime.
>>So...like it or not, I'll go on using my A/C in the summertime.
Knock yourself out. Just don't go around on the internet claiming that AC is some sort of necessity of survival. The human race had no problem flourishing prior to its invention. As for your tropical pet bird, I almost busted a gut.
I disagree with you too, Lefty. I lived without air conditioning for a long time, and, let me tell you, it's no picnic in the summer to be without one, especially since I don't live right smack near the ocean like you do..
Well, Lefty;
"As for your tropical pet bird, I almost busted a gut."
Bust a gut if you will. I bet you're petless, and if that be so, that's YOUR business. Knock YOURSELF out...and keep busting your guts if you wish. I stand by what I've said.
I also might add, Lefty, that your attitude shows total (willful) ignorance, which I'm not very tolerant of.
Of course 90-100 isn't a picnic. But it isn't a matter of life or death either, unless you are careless and stupid (the exception being either young children, or old people who might have trouble with mobility)
Many people live in hot countries. They do physical work. They play sport. They survive fine.
"Many people live in hot countries. They do physical work. They play sport. They survive fine."
Really? How the hell do YOU know?
actually this IS the case with the majority of the world's population.
did YOU not know that?
Because as I stated in several posts in these thread, I have lived in those countries. I have lived in countries where the weather s 90-100 80-90% humidity pretty much year round. Countries located right at the equator.
People do physical work. People play sport. They survive fine.
Hi Independent,
I apologize for upsetting you. As Marx said, from each according to his ability. As a number posters above have pointed out, use your air conditioning as little as possible. I don't live near the ocean and I have a pet Lab. She gets overheated on some walks and the great mysteries gave her her very own air conditioner. It's called her tongue. That said, people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones and my air conditioner was set at 80 all summer. It has been a very hot summer. The hottest that I can remember. The air conditioner hasn't kicked on much at this setting as the house is well insulated. After reading this article, I think I'll notch it up to 85. I don't wish to ban air conditioning and I don't want to kill your pet bird. Do what you can do to conserve, recycle and reuse.
As for ignorance, guilty as charged. Hopefully not willful and certainly I am not under the delusion that I know everything. Take the article for what it is worth. Incorporate conservation in your lifestyle and I think both you and your bird will be happier. Do not under any circumstances put your health at risk because of some article you read on CD.
Hi, Lefty. Your apology is accepted. Thanks.
Houses that're well insulated probably don't need the A/C as much, and animals can and do pant, as do humans. Birds, however are another matter. It's even more dangerous for them to overheat, because they're much smaller, don't have the kind of tongue that hangs out of their mouth when they pant, and could die quite quickly if they're not either taken care of and/or rushed to a veterinarian. In any case, whether one's pet be a dog, cat, bird, reptile or amphibian, it's important to provide lots of fresh, cool water for them in the hot sultry humid summer weather, and, whatever one does, pets of any kind should NOT be left in cars with the windows closed, even for a minute or so, because a closed car, even when it's not running, can heat up to well over ninety or a hundred degrees in the summertime in a matter of moments!
F**k off, Lefty.
"As for your tropical pet bird, I almost busted a gut."
Me too!
Sounds like one big happy bird cage....
F**k you too, annak. Stick it up your ***!
>>Cooling of U.S. homes, businesses, and public buildings consumes as much electricity as is used for all purposes by the sixty nations of Africa-home to almost one billion people.
Excellent article. We need to carefully examine all aspects of our energy usage.
This idea goes completely contrary to the need for constantly increasing consumption of all types in order to sustain growth which is necessary for a healthy economy. Jimmy Carter suggested that people be a little less profligate and he lost his job. Ronald Reagan ripped those solar panels off the roof of the White House and got to stay in office for eight years.