alt text for four panel image
First panel: a poorly drawn figure with half-closed lids asks a smart™ thermostat “hey little man hows it goin?” Second Panel: the smart thermostat points with a large arrow at a screenshot of a graphic that reads “August Trends: Heating & cooling compared with last year”, and shows zero hours more heating, 129 hours more cooling, with a small caption underneath that reads “On average, temperatures were 5 degrees warmer than August 2022” Third Panel: the poorly drawn figure with half-closed lids is shown with an unreadable smile in front of a semi-transparent image of a NASA article that reads “NASA Clocks July 2023 as Hottest Month on Record Ever Since 1880” Fourth Panel: the poorly drawn figure says “yea”
Yeah that was never a consideration 20 years ago here in Sweden. It was a cool luxury but hardly a necessity.
Our homes are generally built to withstand harsh winters, so they’re great at absorbing and retaining heat. These summers are woeful, and this year wasn’t even that bad up here. We got off quite lightly.
I’m so glad we sacrificed the world for all that infinite growth we don’t get. It’s fantastic to not be able to afford a house and have no real hope for the future.