Title: Climate risks heat up as world switches on to air conditioning | Climate change | The Guardian
Headings: Climate risks heat up as world switches on to air conditioning
Guardian Environment Network Climate change
Climate risks heat up as world switches on to air conditioning
The US has long used more energy for air conditioning than all other nations combined – but that's about to change

Content: Yet with other nations following our lead, America's century-long reign as the world cooling champion is coming to an end. And if global consumption for cooling grows as projected to 10 trillion kilowatt-hours per year — equal to half of the world's entire electricity supply today — the climate forecast will be grim indeed. Because it is so deeply dependent on high-energy cooling, the United States is not very well positioned to call on other countries to exercise restraint for the sake of our common atmosphere. But we can warn the world of what it stands to lose if it follows our path, and that would mean making clear what we ourselves have lost during the age of air conditioning. For example, with less exposure to heat, our bodies can fail to acclimatize physiologically to summer conditions, while we develop a mental dependence on cooling. Community cohesion also has been ruptured, as neighborhoods that on warm summer evenings were once filled with people mingling are now silent — save for the whirring of air-conditioning units. A half-century of construction on the model of refrigerated cooling has left us with homes and offices in which natural ventilation often is either impossible or ineffective. The result is that the same cooling technology that can save lives during brief, intense heat waves is helping undermine our health at most other times. The time window for debating the benefits and costs of air conditioning on a global scale is narrowing — once a country goes down the air-conditioned path, it is very hard to change course. China is already sprinting forward and is expected to surpass the United States as the world's biggest user of electricity for air conditioning by 2020.