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We got one late last year. They used to be very, very rare in the Netherlands, but after record breaking heat over several summers, people had enough and bought air conditioners. Modern dutch houses are well insulated, but you can only keep the heat out for so long. And once the heat does get in, it’s staying in. So, air conditioners to the rescue. Shit’s unliveable otherwise.

We’ve got solar panels, so we can effectively run the air conditioners for free as long as the sun’s out. Same thing with others on our block who have them.

Now, there’s people who will tell you that you shouldn’t use aircon, that it’s bad for the environment, etc. But since we run them off solar, I’m not going to feel bad about it. I bet in ten years every house here will have them, solar or not.

When I was a kid I read a wonderful book about how a lady bought a vacuum cleaner to save time cleaning her floors. Then other people saw how great it was and bought vacuum cleaners. Eventually they were so popular that a vacuum cleaner factory was built in her town. Of course they needed more electricity to run all the vacuum cleaners and the factory, so a new power plant was also built in the city. The power plant, and the vacuum cleaner factory pumped soot into the air, which dirtied all the walls and floors across the town. Eventually with more work than she used to expend sweeping, she could get her floor almost as clean as before she bought the vacuum cleaner. I have no idea what that book was called, but the message has always stuck with me, and it seems very relevant to the topic of this post.

Here's a question - if increased electricity use is driving up greenhouse gases, wtf are we supposed to do to solve all this?

We really need to focus on replacing our electricity infrastructure with renewable sources ASAFP. Personally, I think nuclear is the best choice, but anything is going to be better than gas or coal, and they need to be implemented NOW. In a world where widespread electrification is the end goal, electricity use is set to exponentially increase. If that's just going to make things worse, too, we are leaving ourselves with zero options in the face of literal apocalypse.

Not if we switch to renewables....co2 emissions drop dramatically.

If we're not all using solar, wind etc by 2050 we're all fucked anyway (the argument could be made were already all fucked)

Solar? Wind? Wave energy? Hydroelectic?

pollution perpetuating more pollution. This needs to be reversed before it becomes irreversible. same for agriculture: growing crops will require a more controlled environment, which would require energy input

By 2050, I'll be 80, solidly in the "wearing a sweater in 100°F weather".

So I'll be doing my part.

I heard that Belgium has mandated that all new house builds must be passive homes going forward. (very cool) Can anyone confirm or deny that? Have any other regions made that forward-thinking policy?

I spoke to a real estate agent in the US who didn’t even know what a passive house was, and after I explained it he was sure that no such house existed in his whole state. I was blown away by the gross oversight.

In another US region, someone who needed a new roof said they did an exhaustive search for a roofer who could install a vegetated roof. Not a single roofer in their city or neighboring city could do that. WTF.. how are people so not on the ball at this stage?

It's a vicious cycle and why even 'just a few degrees higher average' can unleash a rapid collapse of society as we know it. The hotter it gets, the more people will need energy to survive it, more energy means it will get even hotter.

The rise of teleworking certainly doesn’t help. Quite backwards that instead of cooling one big well insulated office building you have companies sending everyone home where each individual worker heats & cools their (often uninsulated) home.