The Air Conditioner and The End of the World*
This year's news headlines have been emphasizing the rapid warming of the atmosphere. Last year was the warmest on record, and glaciers at the edge of the polar caps have been rapidly deteriorating, further contributing to the pace of atmosphere's warm up. Less white ice means less reflection of light rays, and inversely more dark water means greater absorption of the sun's energy into the global ecosystem. Sadly, it is far too easy for us in the developed world, who create most of the pollution causing the problem (a car's carbon monoxide, for example), to avoid these direct consequences of our actions. Most of us, while sitting in congested traffic jams or while sleeping at home during a hot summer, merely need to turn on the air conditioner to feel that cool artificial breeze and forget all our troubles. More drastically, the air conditioner also allows many of us to claim that these very real and grave environmental concerns are merely liberal-leftist-environmentalist rhetorical allegations. Until the ordinary consumer feels the direct cost of their pollution, there will be little political pressure to change the existing status quo. One might then conclude that a way to begin solving the problem is to ban the air conditioner from all social domains, except the most essential places as food refrigeration and medical hospitals. Otherwise, the cool air conditioner might inevitably lead us to the hot 'end of the world'.