Being thankful for air conditioning

Through this heatwave of the past several days, one comes to really appreciate modern air conditioning - the fairly efficient process of using electric power to move heat from one place to another.

When it's something like 108 F degrees outside, and you can live inside in relative comfort some 30 degrees cooler - perhaps even 40 degrees if your A/C units are larger, one is awed by the realization that this level of comfort was not available to even kings not all that long ago. But today, nearly everyone in this country can access it.

There have been many heatwaves in the past, and there will be future ones still. But many more people suffered, and even died, in those past heatwaves - which often continued for more than a week. Back then, people just didn’t have the option of air conditioning and many died from various illnesses brought on by heat, or even suicided to stop their misery.

This article provides a number of historical newspaper accounts of heatwaves around the early 1900s, which helps humanize the experiences of our ancestors, who didn't have all the conveniences and comforts that we do.

Even though air conditioning as we know it was invented in 1902, it largely stayed a perk of the rich for decades, until the post-World War 2 boom brought lower cost residential a/c into many American homes.

Unfortunately, there are many people - with political power - who would like to significantly increase the costs of buying and using a/c units, among other things, and thereby greatly reduce their use by the working and middle classes. It's not unlikely that these ideologues could even be successful at turning air conditioning back to being a rare comfort available only to the rich and powerful.

As normal summer heat returns, give a thought to and be thankful for your air conditioning and the society which has enabled you to have such comforts, and do not let them go easily.