1. IT MAKES THE SUNBELT HABITABLE

Few people would choose to live in the Sunbelt without air conditioning. During scorching hot summers, Sunbelt residents awaken in their air-conditioned homes, jump in their air-conditioned vehicles, and drive to their air-conditioned offices. What would it be like without air conditioning? Before there was air conditioning, General Philip Henry Sheridan famously remarked, “If I owned Texas and Hell, I would rent out Texas and live in Hell.”

2. IT SAVES LIVES

In 2003, a European heat wave killed up to 70,000 people. How hot did it get? In Auxerre, France, there were eight days in a row where the temperature reached 104°F. Two decades earlier, in 1980, Texas set a record with 42 straight days over 100°. Thousands didn’t die in Texas because Texas has air conditioning. Air conditioning saves lives.

3. IT MAKES HOSPITALS HEALTHIER

Imagine how unhealthy hospitals would be in sweltering hot summers with doors and windows open and fans pushing unfiltered air throughout the building to make conditions less miserable. Air-conditioned hospitals are healthier.

4. IT MAKES FOOD TRANSPORTABLE

Because of refrigerated food transportation, we are able to enjoy fruits and vegetables year-round, rather than during limited seasons. Refrigerated storage also reduces spoilage.

5. IT INCREASES PRODUCTIVITY

University of Rochester economist Walter Oi found that machine shop labor productivity peaks at 65°F and drops 15 percent when the shop temperature increases to 75°F. Productivity drops 28 percent when temperatures reach 86°F. Workplace accidents increase with temperature as well. What is true for the shop floor is also true for the office. By increasing productivity, air conditioning increases our standard of living.

6. IT IS COOL

Of course, air conditioning is cool, but the way it works is fascinatingly cool. To pull heat from the ambient air through the change of state of a heat transfer medium is nothing short of amazing. This is why air conditioning is consistently listed as one of the greatest inventions of all time.

7. IT ALLOWS HOMES TO BE SECURED WITHOUT BARS

Air conditioning makes it possible to close doors and windows and lock up a house in the summer. Without it, the only way to secure a home is to put bars on the windows. Yuck.

8. IT MAKES THE INFORMATION AGE POSSIBLE

Computer chip manufacturing requires clean room environments. Clean rooms are only possible with air conditioning. The entire information age is only possible because of air conditioning. Take it away, and engineers are left with slide rules to do math.

9. IT MADE HOLLYWOOD POSSIBLE

Historian Burt Folsom described how, following the advent of air conditioning, movie theater owners began installing it to boost their summer audiences, which resulted in more money for movie productions. The financial infusion into Hollywood led to advances in movie technology, such as talking movies and, later, color. Hollywood and the movie industry may have been little more than a cottage industry without air conditioning.

10. IT PROTECTS INTERIORS

Controlled temperatures and humidity control from air conditioning protect internal furnishings and art. This is why museums and galleries operate with carefully controlled indoor environments.

11. IT IMPROVES PHARMACEUTICAL MANUFACTURING

Similar to computer chips, whole swatches of the biomedical and genetic engineering industries would disappear without air conditioning. Many lifesaving and life-enhancing pharmaceuticals are only possible because of air conditioning.

12. IT MAKES GLOBAL WARMING ADAPTABLE

Our climate is changing. It is always changing. Whether it is changing in response to mankind may be debatable, but man’s ability to adapt is not. If the world is getting hotter, air conditioning is the answer. Just as it made the Sunbelt habitable, air conditioning can help people adapt to a slightly hotter outdoor ambient over the next century.

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