In defense of air conditioning

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There are objects that have changed history and rendered enormous services to humanity. Objects whose presence we have almost forgotten because we take them for granted. Some at random. The refrigerator that allowed the preservation of food and the consequent improvement of hygienic conditions, the elevator that allowed the birth of vertical buildings by multiplying the number of residences that could be built on a given portion of land, the siphon, yes the siphon, that separated humanity from its excrement and the resulting odors and germs. Few know the names of the inventors of these ingenious instruments for which humanity must be eternally grateful. Try to imagine a city without them and you will understand their importance. Now a new object is hitting the headlines destined to enter this story wrongly considered minor: the air conditioner .

It has already changed the life and economy of entire areas of the world. The southern states of the United States, Latin America, Arab countries and African countries. They took off at different speeds also thanks to air conditioning that has sent interminable lunch breaks, siestas and the stench of humanity in offices to the attic, creating much better working conditions. It is now being talked about in our part of the world where the temperate climate has allowed it to not be considered essential until now, at least for homes. Indeed, in the imagination of a certain environmentalist, penitential, anti-consumerist left, air conditioning has been and perhaps still is the symbol of capitalist waste . Comfort at the expense of the environment and energy consumption. Then Marine Le Pen arrives and addresses climate change and rising temperatures with a disruptive slogan: air conditioners for everyone! Populism? Well, not so much. As the trend of high temperatures consolidates, the idea that adapting is now indispensable is becoming increasingly widespread. In short: we must learn to live with higher temperatures too.

And air conditioning is useful, it is useful indeed. But adapting is for our environmental revolutionaries a bit like making reforms for Marxists and Leninists. The reforms could please the people and alleviate their suffering while we have to make the revolution. That is, fight climate change at all costs. Only it does not depend on us who in Europe account for less than 7 percent of global emissions. We have reduced them, but in the rest of the world from 1990 to today they have grown 13 times more than our reduction. Socialism in a single country could perhaps even be attempted, but reducing emissions in a single continent is not. It does not work for obvious physical reasons. You want to not use the air conditioning, turn off the LEDs in the evening, turn off the water while you brush your teeth, flush the toilet only in serious cases and go to an organic restaurant. Trifles against the hunger for energy in a good part of the world. Air conditioning, says the IEA, will be the main driver in future electricity consumption together with data centers.

What do we do? Do we stay in the scorching heat and give up ChatGpt? The Ursula majority has somewhat confused ideas on these issues. After years of gifts to populism and the right, it has realized that nuclear energy is needed and has had to readmit it into the good living room and we bet that soon it will also have to listen to the cry of pain that comes from the boiling people who want air conditioning at a low price. On the other hand, to have air conditioners you need electricity, lots of it, 24 hours a day and therefore nuclear energy is just right. Mrs. Le Pen is French and is playing on home soil. A nightmare for our friends of the unfortunate degrowth to have to accept air conditioners in addition to nuclear energy. So let's see if the left will succeed in the enterprise of giving the right also the air conditioner, perhaps an object of relative luxury yesterday, but a tool for survival today, especially for the weakest categories . We forgot: as with solar panels, batteries, electric cars, the largest manufacturer of air conditioners is Chinese. We let those slip away too.

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