Chilling facts about air conditioning

Lily Strelich, on the June 14th Quartz Obsession newsletter, on the theme of air conditioning:

Most A/C units rely on refrigerants like hydrofluorocarbons, which are potent greenhouse gasses. Carbon emissions from cooling have tripled since 1990, contributing to the warming climate, which in turns requires more air conditioning. Cool the room, warm the globe, repeat.

This points me to the fact that there has been a lot of — deserved — coverage on the impacts of cars and transportation on climate change, but I’ve found many people pretty clueless when it comes to energy consumption in general. Filling up the whole kettle for a single cup of tea, or turning the heater up before wearing a sweater are somehow less criticised behaviors than leaving the car engine run while waiting for a friend to come down.

If you are not a subscriber of the Quartz Obsession newsletter, you’re missing out on a great source of daily facts; a good game to play with your colleagues is guessing the topics every day before the newsletter arrives.