EVERY WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGHOUT THE SUMMER I’M RE-POSTING SOME OLD BLOGS I THOUGHT WERE INTERESTING AND WORTH A SECOND LOOK, OR A FIRST GLANCE FOR MY MANY NEW READERS.

From July 2010:

Why is it liberals aren’t happy unless they’re unhappy, taking all our comforts away? Remember, this comes as a stifling heat wave is gripping many parts of the nation.

Stan Cox has written what I’m sure is a riveting, captivating book:


 


In a book review for the lefty web site, Salon.com, Ryan Brown writes:

“In the last half century, air conditioning has joined fireworks, swimming pools and charred hamburgers as a ubiquitous ingredient of an American summer. It’s no exaggeration to say it has changed the way this country functions, shaping everything from where we’re willing to live (Las Vegas, anyone?) to the amount of sex we have (more: It’s never too hot to get it on when the A.C. is blasting). Nine out of 10 new homes in this country are built with central air conditioning, and Americans now use as much electricity to power our A.C. as the entire continent of Africa uses for, well, everything. It has so thoroughly scrambled our way of life that when the National Academy of Engineering chose its 20 greatest engineering accomplishments of the last century, A.C. not only made the list, it clocked in ahead of spacecraft, highways and even the Internet.

But as science writer Stan Cox argues in his new book, ‘ the dizzying rise of air conditioning comes at a steep personal and societal price. We stay inside longer, exercise less, and get sick more often — and the electricity used to power all that A.C. is helping push the fast-forward button on global warming. The invention has also changed American politics: Love it or hate it, refrigerated cooling has been a major boon to the Republican Party. The advent of A.C. helped launch the massive Southern and Western population growth that’s transformed our electoral map in the last half century. Cox navigates all of these scientific and social angles with relative ease, providing a clear explanation of how A.C. made the leap from luxury to necessity in the United States and examining how we can learn to manage the addiction before we refrigerate ourselves into the apocalypse.”

AC.

We’ve paid “a steep personal and societal price” for not sweating to death.

AC will cause us to “refrigerate ourselves into the apocalypse.”

This week, the kooky flako author speaks out on his own in the Washington Post. Wacko Stan Cox says cranking up the ACs duirng intense heat and humidity “isn’t smart.” You hear that. If you turned on your air the past week, you’re stupid.

AC, you idiots, is evil.

“Air conditioning is one of the worst power-guzzlers. The energy required to air-condition American homes and retail spaces has doubled since the early 1990s. Turning buildings into refrigerators burns fossil fuels, which emits greenhouse gases, which raises global temperatures, which creates a need for — you guessed it — more air-conditioning.”

Cue the kumbaya music…

“Saying goodbye to A.C. means saying hello to the world. With more people spending more time outdoors — particularly in the late afternoon and evening, when temperatures fall more quickly outside than they do inside — neighborhoods see a boom in spontaneous summertime socializing. Rather than cowering alone in chilly home-entertainment rooms, neighbors get to know one another. Because there are more people outside, streets in high-crime areas become safer.”

Most outrageous is Cox’s downplaying of the jeopardy living without AC brings. According to the National Institute of Environmental Health Science (I’m sure Stan Cox has heard of it) heat is the primary weather-related cause of death in the United States.

Slate (Another source I’m sure Stan Cox is aware of) reports, “Heat waves kill more people in the United States than all of the other so-called natural disasters combined. More than 400 Americans die from heat-related illnesses in a typical year. Annual mortality from tornadoes, earthquakes, and floods together is under 200. Heat-wave deaths aren’t the worst natural disasters only in quantitative terms, but also in qualitative ones because they’re slow and preventable. There’s no telling when an earthquake will strike. But dangerous heat always comes announced, and it’s fairly easy to prevent human damage. Victims of heat tend to wilt gradually, alone and at home, out of touch with family, friends, and social-service providers who could save their lives simply by treating them with water or bringing them to an air-conditioned place.”

That’s small potatoes according to Cox:

“A.C.’s obvious public-health benefits during severe heat waves do not justify its lavish use in everyday life for months on end.”

Without supporting data, Cox makes the ridiculous claim that turning off the AC reduces heat deaths.

G-O-O-F-B-A-L-L.

I just love the thought processes of liberals. Hope Cox has stocked up mightily on Right Guard.
—This Just In…July, 2010

Fast forward to today.

Everything else is racist. Why not AC?