Opinion Today: Why I swear off air-conditioning, and you should too

It's a lifesaving technology. But it's also dulling our human experience.

View in browser|nytimes.com August 31, 2024 Just as the senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch crave variety, the thermal sense does, too. A tightly controlled "optimum" temperature is the thermal equivalent of beige, elevator music or soda crackers. Timothy Mulcare for The New York Times By Stan Cox Mr. Cox lives in Salina, Kansas, and is the author of "Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World." I started thinking about the downsides of air-conditioning in the early 1990s, at a time when the world was just waking up to the threat of human-induced climate change. Air-conditioning seemed to me an especially insidious climate villain. As temperatures rise, it's used more, causing increased greenhouse gas emissions and helping to make future summers even hotter. That boosts AC demand further, and the vicious circle keeps spinning. As time passed, I also became troubled by how widespread adoption of air-conditioning was eroding everyday social relations. The neighborhoods where I grew up in the 1960s and raised kids in the 1980s were always at their liveliest on warm summer evenings. Up and down the block, adults sat in the shade swapping stories while children romped from yard to yard. But when I returned to those neighborhoods on summertime visits in the 2000s, they had the feel of ghost towns. Cars and trucks parked in driveways provided the only visible clues that human beings were present in the area. Then in 2008, Richard Louv coined the concept of "nature deficit disorder" among children, and I saw air-conditioning's fingerprints all over that problem, too. Heat waves have become more frequent and intense in the 15 years since I wrote my book about AC's downsides, and that's made life more complicated for critics of the technology. I always try to be crystal clear in stressing that we face two distinct problems requiring contrary responses. On the one hand, air-conditioning should be guaranteed to all, as a human right, during extreme heat waves. On the other, there's a deep need to reduce our AC dependence during routine hot weather. In my guest essay for Times Opinion today, I focus on the latter need and suggest that the key to becoming less dependent is simple: The less you use air-conditioning, the easier it will become to live without it. READ THE FULL ESSAY HERE Guest Essay I Swore Off Air-Conditioning, and You Can, Too The more time we can spend outside or inside without the air-conditioner blasting, the better prepared we'll be — both to slow climate change and to adapt to it. By Stan Cox THE WEEK IN BIG IDEAS Eva Stenram Guest Essay Gossiping Is Fun. It's Natural. And These People Won't Do It. Gossip is a universal feature of human culture. It's also the target of passionate, widespread censure. By Michal Leibowitz Charlotte Ager Guest Essay Surgeon General: Parents Are at Their Wits' End. We Can Do Better. Raising children is crucial work. Why don't we treat it that way? By Vivek H. Murthy The Opinions Kamala Harris Wrote Two Books. They Paint Different Pictures. Carlos Lozada on the vice president's evolving views on criminal justice. 9 MIN LISTEN Eli Durst Guest Essay D.E.I. Is Not Working on College Campuses. We Need a New Approach. Programs are too ideological, exacerbate the problems they intend to solve and are incompatible with cultivating critical thinking. By Paul Brest and Emily J. Levine We hope you've enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. Games Here are today's Mini Crossword, Wordle and Spelling Bee. If you're in the mood to play more, find all our games here. Forward this newsletter to friends to share ideas and perspectives that will help inform their lives. They can sign up here. Do you have feedback? Email us at opiniontoday@nytimes.com. If you have questions about your Times account, delivery problems or other issues, visit our Help Page or contact The Times. Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for the Opinion Today newsletter from The New York Times. To stop receiving Opinion Today, unsubscribe. To opt out of other promotional emails from The Times, including those regarding The Athletic, manage your email settings. To opt out of updates and offers sent from The Athletic, submit a request. Subscribe to The TimesGet The New York Times app Connect with us on: Change Your EmailPrivacy PolicyContact UsCalifornia Notices The New York Times Company. 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018