https://xcancel.com/nytopinion/status/1829879853165765055
https://archive.ph/lxKBc
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/31/opinion/heat-wave-air-conditioning-climate-change.html
https://xcancel.com/nytopinion/status/1829879853165765055
https://archive.ph/lxKBc
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/31/opinion/heat-wave-air-conditioning-climate-change.html
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
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It's going to be abandoned either way, I believe. The problem is that a country of 300 million people don't have the generational knowledge to do construction on extreme climates without relying on central air and heating.
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I'm seriously wondering what's going to happen to places like that. Higher sea levels and extreme weather (like hurricanes and tsunamis) will drown the coast. But we never see anything about places that are already hot. Is Vegas just going to be a ghost town out in the middle of nowhere when temperatures hit 180°F? Or will people figure out a way to still live there? Indoors will have some sort of cooling and you wear a pressurized suit with cooling and oxygen to go outside?
Just seems crazy we're just barreling towards a future where we just abandon thousands of miles of land as it all turns into Death Valley.
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.