The Rise of Air Conditioning
The spread of air conditioning across the US brought an industrial boom in the first half of the 20th century – at a cost to the environment.
Politicians and diplomats are heading to Katowice, Poland, in December for the next round of international climate negotiations. This summer’s heatwave – an ‘unambiguous’ sign of global warming, according to a recent report – will be in their minds. A major cause of that warming is two centuries of rising consumption of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas).
Large-scale coal consumption began during the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th century. Oil boomed from the start of the 20th. Use of all fossil fuels then expanded dramatically during the Second World War and the economic boom that followed.
This expansion was one of several impacts of economic activity on the natural world that earth systems scientists define collectively as the ‘great acceleration’. This is seen as part of the Anthropocene, a new geological epoch in which the impacts of human activity work on the same scale as great natural forces.
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