It is high time we all pulled back from our frenetic raping of the planet to consider the broader questions of whether we should do something in the first place. My blogs have been emphasizing that we need to redefine lifestyle expectations for our home and work environments, possibly redesigning our communities to eliminate anything but mass transit. We should be walking to work and other venues outside our home.
But, once we define our home sustainably, we should be asking whether and how we heat and cool them for comfort and safety. Europe is locked into that debate now and listening to both sides will be helpful. Should we even use air conditioning?
It is a simple fact that summer heat waves kill people. A large power outage decades ago in France proved that killing over 1,000 senior citizens caught in their homes while their children partied in the Mediterranean. A similar event occurred about two decades ago on the Gulf Coast of this country with the same dire outcomes.
Air conditioning helped develop the South, but nobody was asking the question whether we should be doing that. I grew up in New York where heat waves occurred every summer, but lasted only 5-10 days. I worked in the city, and the heat there was unbearable due to heat island effects … the sun baked all those buildings, streets, and sidewalks, and the heat they absorbed during the day, they reradiated all night, making it oppressive.
Even so, I grew up in New York City without air conditioning. Yes, there were nights I slept under a thin sheet and sweated all night, but that was just how it was. Nobody asked whether we should air condition, but we did when my parents could afford it.
There is no reason to avoid these questions, but we should be aware of the politics that dominate how they are solved these days. Someone is always going to suggest that comfort is an inalienable right and therefore the government should provide it at little to no cost. After all, this is no different than other public safety concerns.
When put to a vote, those who are already paying almost nothing into the system will of course vote to get one more freebie. Why not? Let the rich pay for it!
Therefore, as we ask and answer these existential questions, we should be asking the more underlying key questions about how society can best afford these essential services.
Personally, I believe we must go back to densely built communities with centralized heating and cooling systems. Thermal storage then makes perfect sense. The idea of putting these in each dwelling unit makes no sense. Then, we decide how much each person-dwelling there pays. And, while we are doing all this, we build these communities using DC technology … not AC as we do now. After all, solar panels generate DC, lights are best done with DC, and power reliability for the dwelling units becomes trivial.
Once we return to essential questions, such as how we heat and cool our homes, we should consider more innovative redefinitions of comfort and safety.
On an easier topic, eat more food produced locally vs. transporting it from the other side of the world. Purchase food products made in your community vs. made abroad and brought here on ships and planes. Walk or share a ride to the store vs. driving your own 3,000+-pound vehicle. These are small steps we can all take that, and when combined, make a difference on our planet.
Amen. Well stated, Captain Obvious.