I am grateful that I work in the
heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning industry. There, I said it. Pope
Francis is going to be so upset with me. If you hadn’t heard, the pope’s recent
encyclical on the environment claims that air-conditioning is one of the
world’s “harmful habits of consumption.”
Yes, air-conditioning requires energy,
a lot of energy. But just think what the world would be like if we stopped
using air-conditioning. More people would die rather than recover in sweltering
hospitals. The elderly would succumb more frequently during heat waves. Nursing
homes would be uninhabitable, as would major cities in southern climates.
And air-conditioning is the same
technology that brings us refrigeration. Without refrigeration, modern medicine
could not exist. Without refrigeration, food could not be transported safely
across the country. Without refrigeration, countless thousands—if not millions—of
people would die of food poisoning or starvation.
No, I’m sorry to say it, but Pope
Francis has gotten some terrible advice on this topic. When mankind learned to
harness the refrigeration cycle a little more than a century ago, it was a GOOD
thing. Unlike some technological advancements that have been harmful and
destructive, the development of air-conditioning and refrigeration has improved
the lives of countless millions of people. In fact, it has SAVED the lives of
countless millions of people.
Michelle Malkin offers further
observations on this issue, including the ironic fact that the Carrier
Corporation is in the process of designing and donating an expensive,
sophisticated air-conditioning system for the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican, which is needed
to keep Michelangelo’s priceless artwork from being ruined. Read it at:
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