Wednesday, May 15, 2024

The Link Between Air Conditioning And Climate Change

Alone, the typical person's carbon impact on the planet could be extremely negligible.  It is when people burn fossil fuels or release greenhouse gasses en masse or in certain ways--or when corporations or very wealthy individuals recklessly emit more greenhouse gasses than many other people could across their lifetimes combined--that the effects of contemporary climate change (of the kind human output correlates with) would manifest.  While everything from automobile use to general electricity usage, if powered by fossil fuels, contributes, some emissions or their sources could be worse than others.

The hydrofluorocarbons used in air conditioning, for instance, though they comprise a smaller proportion of reported greenhouse gasses emitted, correlate to worse effects for the environment than carbon dioxide.  In this case, there is an irony in the using of air conditioning in such a world as this: reliance on this artificial cooling method, as widespread and convenient as it is, worsens global warming.  If hydrofluorocarbons are a more potent greenhouse gass than the more common carbon dioxide, the emphasis belongs on how air conditioning would be damaging because of the hydrofluorocarbons themselves and not just because of how it runs on electricity, as would many other things.


The increased heat can make cooling down even more desirable or pragmatically necessary (for health as well as comfort), which can lead to people relying more on cooling methods that use electricity powered by fossil fuels, which in turn amplifies the global heat level and makes cooling even more sought after.  This is the ironic, paradoxical scientific and psychological impact of air conditioning in a world threatened by anthropogenic climate change tied to the release of unnatural levels of carbon into the atmosphere.  A warmer environment increases the need for cooling, yet air conditioning would at certain levels only contribute significantly to the warming that makes it more needed.

Going forward, promoting cooling without adding more fuel to the air conditioning fire is the ideal way to resolve a problem that younger generations would inherit.  Building yet-to-be constructed homes in warmer regions with roofs of a light color, like a soft gray or especially white, allows them to reflect sunlight rather than absorb its heat; dark colors like black correlate with heat absorption, which can make them useful for winter warming and reduce energy consumption in that particular season or in colder parts of the world, but otherwise, even something as simple as having roofs with light colors would avert the need for the same degree of air conditioning reliance, which entails energy cost savings for residents and businesses while also easing the climate change burden.


Some of a conservative bent who oppose the very logical possibility of anthropogenic climate change (which is a strictly logical matter, not a scientific/empirical one, as those with a liberal bent might reject), without even truly knowing what logical possibility is or else they would not misunderstand this point, might at least care about the benefits for their personal finances.  If not for their health as living beings or for the sake of the environment, perhaps this would appeal to them, as irrational as they would be to focus on this at the expense of the other things.  It is not as if conserving energy or using alternative methods of cooling is financially detrimental in itself.

Of course, though political conservatives are associated with anti-environmentalist philosophy, they are also culturally associated with Christianity, which is ultimately quite pro-environment (Genesis 1:1, 6-19, and 31, for instance).  There is nothing irrational, unscientific, or unbiblical about taking environmentalism seriously as long as no assumptions are made, including the confusion of probabilistic scientific evidence for logical necessity/proof or caring more about the environment than the conscious beings that dwell in it.  Even for the pragmatic sake of one's individual flourishing in the long term, preserving the safety of the environment is no minor consideration.

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