Corporations - “Hey, I have an idea! We’ll tell them global warming is all their fault for wanting air conditioning. I bet we can convince them to live out their final days in absurd heat while they continue to slave away for us for pennies!”
I’m seeing idiots of this opinion replacing the “its the individual drivers!” as electric cars start to take over.
It would be nice to have environmentally friendly architecture become more common. With houses designed to take advantage of natural cooling features of their local environment. Breezeways etc.
I suspect most dwellings built today are designed for air conditioning, so they’re just an insulated box, even if the resident wanted to take advantage of the local environment they couldn’t
In Texas the boxes aren’t even well insulated, just slap an ac on there and have it run all the time!
Regulating air conditioning is a non starter, even more than cars or meat. Absolutely no one wants their thermostat fucked with.
I’m not sure it’s that much of a barrier. Requiring that installed a/c units have a minimum efficiency to sell a house or lease property would be something.
Actually, it looks like there are some newer regulations for just this: https://www.iccsafe.org/building-safety-journal/bsj-technical/2023-efficiency-requirements-for-air-conditioning-systems-what-you-need-to-know/.
I wonder if there are statistics that we can find regarding the impact of this requirement.
electric prices are already doing it. During the heat wave out west folk were dying because they would not turn their air on due to cost.
