We get brownouts and blackouts during summer when the strain on the grid is too much, when fire cuts off power, and our power stations conk out. AC cannot be relied upon, and increasingly so as demand increases and infrastructure worsens. So learning to live without it is an unfortunate reality. Anyone presenting adaptation as a solution and not a necessity is completely off base, however.
Edit: fwiw I don’t have ac, I just sweat for six months of the year
The biggest problem is that pretty much all construction methods and codes in the US have been made with extensive AC in mind. Plenty of places in the world where it gets really hot have developed architecture that mitigates the effects of higher temperatures, like higher ceilings or channeling airflow around central pools, but the US insists on building houses like everywhere is 1950s new jersey. Many houses would be unlivable 6 months of the year without AC. They need to be torn down and replaced with something less energy intensive
We get brownouts and blackouts during summer when the strain on the grid is too much, when fire cuts off power, and our power stations conk out. AC cannot be relied upon, and increasingly so as demand increases and infrastructure worsens. So learning to live without it is an unfortunate reality. Anyone presenting adaptation as a solution and not a necessity is completely off base, however.
Edit: fwiw I don’t have ac, I just sweat for six months of the year
The biggest problem is that pretty much all construction methods and codes in the US have been made with extensive AC in mind. Plenty of places in the world where it gets really hot have developed architecture that mitigates the effects of higher temperatures, like higher ceilings or channeling airflow around central pools, but the US insists on building houses like everywhere is 1950s new jersey. Many houses would be unlivable 6 months of the year without AC. They need to be torn down and replaced with something less energy intensive
Tearing down and building new houses would probably cause significantly more carbon emissions within any reasonable time frame.
Yeah, that’s the catch-22. But those buildings are unlivable without ac or heating.