New York Times Liberal - Ban Air Conditioning
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No, there's little we can say until we end our own society's dependence on lavish cooling. Doing that would be a good start, but addressing energy-hungry technologies one at a time won't achieve the greenhouse-gas cuts of as much as 80 percent that science says are necessary to prevent catastrophic warming. Only a per-person ceiling on overall emissions can accomplish that.
A global greenhouse ration would push us into distinguishing between absolute necessities like food or water and manufactured necessities like a houseful of refrigerated air. And making such decisions could help us recover some of the resilience our own culture has lost in the age of air-conditioning.
I disagree Stephen. It would take greehouse chemicals to make the ice in the summer, so I doubt the liberal would find it acceptable.
Apollo, you don't get it. That ice doesn't need to be made with chemicals. It simply needs to be hand-cut up north in the wintertime and taken by horsedrawn cart, steam locomotive or sailing barge down to a well-insulated warehouse in the city.
That's how it was done once. Apparently, that's how the greenies want to see it done again.
I thank God regularly (in the summer) for air conditioning. I happen to believe that like cold cuts in the refrigerator, I'll keep better if kept cool.
Horse drawn cart???? Don't you realize how much greenhouse warming methane horses pass out every day? Might as well run that AC on full......
I don't look forward to living amongst them in Green Utopia. If they ban air conditioning and they already want to ban chemicals, a major element in deoderant, it will be awfully gamey when three or more gather in the same place!
Frack THIS:
"Scientist James Lovelock is the man behind Gaia theory, and once predicted doom for our climate. He discusses nuclear (good), wind power (bad) and why fracking is the future"
Fukushima threw a wrench into a lot of nook plans and wind will never be efficient so frack ON!
Given the timing of the two stories, I find it hard to believe that the Times guy hadn't acquainted himself with this one.
Outlawing AC is a terrible idea.
If you are from Maine, for example, the rich would resume their old custom of summering here, and the $$millions that brought to the state. Who needs the Rockefellers when you've already got DHHS?
We wouldn't need additional generating plants for electricity for decades, if ever, and the price of electricity would drop - a lot. The South would revert to being uninhabitable, which it already is, it's just that AC makes it possible to overlook this.
And we would import $$trillions less in hydrocarbons per decade. Bummer, if you are an international banker.
And Washington DC would clear out by June every year, just like it had to until the 60's. This would impede our federal overlords in their plans to engulf our entire society in duct tape and gauze. Congress, now unable to complete it's work in 12 months, might become completely paralyzed. The Horror?
Amazing how the epitaph on America's tombstone might read "Too Stupid to Plant Shade Trees on the South Side of Their Dwellings", although I admit the sentiment needs a more poetic touch.
Yup, we should definitely keep AC.
If you read this, a link to the book, can't help but notice that virtually every one of the places that prints his articles or hosts an interview are mammoth users of electricity, and no doubt A/C as well. I was at the very least expecting to see most of his scribblings surface in published media that caters mostly to environmental issues as their stock in trade, but thats not the case. I find that a bit hypocritical.
On the other hand, I did read through some of the reviews and articles and he does raise some interesting points that are worthy of a debate with an opposing view.
The attack on AC may well be the last drink-straw for NYC residents. They've already put up with the ban on trans-fats, and the recent proposals to ban giant sodas, plastic shopping bags, and styrofoam.
At a certain point, a gritty, street-seasoned NYC person will say "ENUFF" to the continued reform efforts from the green Looney-Tune forces. Anyone who has suffered through August in NYC, sans air conditioning, will understand the blood and mayhem that will surely follow any effort to confiscate the city's cooling units.
"Speaking for my fellow co-op members - and we are unanimous in this -- you will take our air conditioners only when we're colder than they are. Got it?"
Already been discussed at length here http://www.asmainegoes.com/content/smart-meters-yet-another-intrusion?pa...
Just a reminded that our greenie liberal overlords who control the EPA can shut your AC off during any declared environmental "emergency".......
A page from the left play book would read: The efforts to eliminate AC is a plot to increase mortality rates of old people in nursing homes and solve the Social Security shortfalls. It will effect young babies and the poor. This is greed for ice investors.
So on and so forth.
Another strategy of the left is to begin to regulate something by labeling it dangerous to consumers. An AC unit might catch on fire and burn down houses and apartment buildings. If they can ban the burring of an open flame candle in public housing units and campus settings, then an AC unit could be considered a potential fire threat. The horror of a burring AC unit in the middle of the night, pray those smoke detectors go off.
... it will be awfully gamey when three or more gather in the same place!
"Will"? You obviously haven't attended the Common Ground Country Fair recently. Put it on your calendar for an eye (and nose) opener. Be warned: no coffee, no beer, but plenty of political and social activism - left-wing only, of course - right-wingers need not apply.
More left wing shoveling against the tide...... We could turn off every bit of energy in this country for x hours per day and it isn't going to stop nature from warming up the planet...... the volcanoes, the tilt of the planet , the wiggle in the orbit whatever has been warming and cooling the planet for countless milleniums will continue..... these little flyspeck efforts will be just that.... flyspecks.
They had coffee the year before, just no refined sugar. Maple sap was used as a sweetner.
Peak Organic Beer should have been allowed, but the folks in the parking lot would rather smoke plants.
The comments to this article are worth reading.
Banning AC would make Texas uninhabitable for much of the year.
Maybe that's part of the plan.
More left wing shoveling against the tide...... We could turn off every bit of energy in this country for x hours per day and it isn't going to stop nature from warming up the planet...... the volcanoes, the tilt of the planet , the wiggle in the orbit whatever has been warming and cooling the planet for countless milleniums will continue..... these little flyspeck efforts will be just that.... flyspecks. ~johnw
You are using logic again, which is not allowed. Only emotion is allowed in leftist thinking.
As to the Common Ground Fair, you can tell the 'greenies' from the rest because they still think using berry juice to wash your hair works. No one bothers to tell them it doesn't, so they still keep using it. I can only handle so much of the indoctrination, but love to see where they're going with their theme because it tells me what they'll target next.
Some of the stuff they have is pretty cool from a self sustaining standpoint, but most of them just want a soapbox to spew their diatribes. Some of the 'organic' food there is terrible, watch where you eat.
Banning AC would make Texas uninhabitable for much of the year.
An economist I admire, Reuven Brenner, has written extensively about innovation and finance. He often finds interesting links among apparently unrelated phenomena. One of his theories is that air conditioning made the economic rise of the American South possible.
Wikipedia brings these two subjects together. Excuse me for a while. I'm heading down to 7/11 for some coldies.
In Texas, former ice houses are a cultural tradition. Ice merchants diversified to sell groceries and cold beer, serving as early convenience stores and local gathering places. The widespread US 7-Eleven convenience store chain developed from ice houses operated by the Southland ice manufacturing company in Dallas and San Antonio in the 1930s, which were first known as Tote'm stores.[4] Today many Texas ice houses have converted into open-air bars. In the region of Central Texas and the Texas Hill Country in particular, the word "icehouse" has become a colloquialism for an establishment that derives the majority of its income from the sale of cold beer, especially such locally produced labels as Shiner Bock, Pearl, or Lone Star.[5]
Christine Lavin weighed in years ago in song;
What's that you say you live by the Hudson River, and a breeze blows through your door
Well honey if you don't have a Freidrich's in your window, I don't wanna hear any more
What's that you say you live in a penthouse, got a terrace with a view of the night
Well that's swell but I really must tell you, an air conditioner's a much prettier sight
It don't matter what kinda lovin' you're into, or how big your wallet might be
All you need's an air conditioner, and you're the man for me............
MacGregor! You must have as warped a mind as I do. Adore Christine Lavin. Some years ago, there was a big bash at the State Theater in Portland which featured the original Schooner Fare, Devensquare, Tom Paxton and some other fine acts. But all of a sudden unannounced, Christine Lavin came across the stage singing a silly satire song while twilling glow-stick batons and she brought the house down.
I have to wonder just how many people who presently live in the swath of country that has no power and 100 degree temperatures would agree with this fellow's opinion piece right now.
This story is from March. I'm not sure how we missed it, but I think it's the final proof that Bloomberg is the quintessential looney tune.
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Bloomberg Strikes Again: NYC Bans Food Donations To The Homeless
Has The Mayor Totally Eaten Away At The Public's Desire To Do Good?
March 19, 2012 8:33 PM
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s food police have struck again!
Outlawed are food donations to homeless shelters because the city can’t assess their salt, fat and fiber content...
Glenn Richter arrived at a West Side synagogue... to collect surplus bagels... to donate to the poor. However, under a new edict from Bloomberg’s food police he can no longer donate the food to city homeless shelters.
...snip
“I can’t give you something that’s a supplement to the food you already have? Sorry that’s wrong,” Richter said.
Portland is becoming a Bloomberg clone, with the nannying suggestions to ban styrofoam and plastic bags in the city limits. Portland recently outlawed smoking on city land, as well.
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Frederick A. Writt wrote:
"The original beef with using Styrofoam containers was that they were made using CFC's (freon) that was damaging to the ozone layer. The manufacturing process has changed, so that is no longer the case. Today, they are considered desirable by the trash-to-energy industry as a high BTU fuel source, and are 1/7th the cost to businesses as the paper replacement. A complete non-issue, if there ever was one, but that won't stop the zealots from attempting to slay the dragon that has evolved into a more earth-friendly creature."
PPH - Portland should ban styrofoam
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Paper cups are the usual touted substitute, but not only are they covered with a layer of polyethylene, they aren't recyclable, due to concerns about contamination. They are also much more expensive than stryofoam.
Environmental impact
Recycling. Most paper cups are designed for a single use and then disposal. Very little recycled paper is used to make paper cups because of contamination concerns and regulations. Because most paper cups are coated with plastic, both composting and recycling of paper cups is uncommon.[11] Although paper cups are made from renewable resources (wood chips 95% by weight), paper products in a landfill may not decompose, or may release methane if decomposed anaerobically. The manufacture of paper usually requires inorganic chemicals and creates water effluents. Paper cups may consume more non-renewable resources than cups made of polystyrene foam (whose only significant effluent is pentane).[12][13]
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Does Portland plan to ban the city's PAYT trash bags, too? Perhaps they'll issue re-usable burlap versions, with hemp linings and moss seams for waterproofing.
One also wonders if the PPH and Maine Today Media will ban the use of those plastic bags their carriers use for home-delivered papers when it's raining.
I personally think it'll make great TV when the people of NYC rise up and slaughter their oppressors, flinging the corpses from the top of the Chrysler building a la' Aztecs at Tenochtitlan. Carrier air conditioning can buy air time for commercials. The "new porn" will be attractive young people relaxing in a cool room with a 24 oz. sweetened iced tea.
Maybe they'll find Bloomberg next to Hoffa, after things settle down, but I doubt it. He'll flee to Venezuela to advise the next dictator du jour. His enforcers with the health dept, won't however, fare so well. After all, cops and security guards live on Manhattan, too. Tell them they have to live in a sweathole, and then just watch the hilarious after effects, ESPECIALLY after a Sargeant on the Tac team loses his granny to heat stroke.
My nomination for the first two "ban air conditioning" test markets are Washington, DC and NYC. Then pray for a long hot muggy summer, arriving early in May and departing late in October. These should run concurrently with a nuclear and fossil fuel powered electricity ban, with the test period to run for three years. Then TJC's scenario would likely be in full effect, resulting in an improvement to America, overall.
The Left is soooo good at banning things. Bans that they will exempt themselves from. What a scourge on the world are such as these.
Nothing should ever be banned that is not an assault on life, property or civil rights such as voting.
BUT, should I have to pay for others lunacy? 95% of American households have AC. How much do you need AC in either Portland, Seattle, Vermont, Alaska? How much does the idiocy of people forcing the utility companies to raise MY rates because they have to build expensive new generator capacity because someone in Minnesota is too stupid to plant shade trees on the south side of their house? Or open a window in the evening?
The solution is to charge the users full price, and charge the non-users what their rates would be without the users. People should be free to be stupid, but I shouldn't have to pay for it:-)
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Green refrigerated air.