what if god was the summer heat (natural* weather) and satan was the AC (manipulation the world for comfort)?
Correct, because it's a heat mover. Literally it's heating the outside with the inside heat it pulls. All A/C units have a delta change they can manage (difference between inside and outside), the next (or first) step to take is better insulation to require less heat to move at a given time.
Fucks sake, so many people are afraid of a little heat.
I haven't lived anywhere with central air in more than 30 years; the best I've had is a single window unit that I would run at night only, and otherwise it's all fans. I live in the south; you just have to get used to it.
Moreover, if you expose yourself to heat, you actually adapt to it to a degree. Same goes with cold.
Been there, done that, in San Diego (technically Lakeside, but it's metro San Diego) when the Santa Anas came up from Baja, Mexico. I didn't have room fans at the time either. IIRC, most people in San Diego at the time--mid 90s--didn't have a/c.
I agree with you to a point. People can get used to high heats. However we are going to be reaching problem temperatures soon. Look up wet bulb temperatures. I will drop this quote from the wiki page on wet bulb temperatures:
Even heat-adapted people cannot carry out normal outdoor activities past a wet-bulb temperature of 32 °C (90 °F), equivalent to a heat index of 55 °C (131 °F). A reading of 35 °C (95 °F) – equivalent to a heat index of 71 °C (160 °F) – is considered the theoretical human survivability limit for up to six hours of exposure.
Oh, definitely. I'm not arguing with that at all. But for the most part people in the US rely on a/c when they'd be better off getting sued to the heat.
I think it can depend on where you live and dry heat vs humid and stuff, but in general I agree.
I would sleep with a fan instead of turning on AC.
Heat in excess of 80 degrees increases everyone's risk for heat injuries, especially for workers. The heat in the last 5 years is undeniably caused by climate change, and creates a lethal threat to outdoor workers. It's not "just a little heat".
Individuals don't have control over the weather. You cannot reasonably expect everyone to adjust to the same acclimation as you.
People do, in general, if they're healthy, acclimate to the area that they live in. Fairly quickly at that. It doesn't take more than a summer or two before people that grow up in Minnesota ore used to Florida, and vice versa
if they're healthy
Exactly. Innumerable health issues can be worsened by excessive heat and heat injuries, like heat exhaustion or heat stroke. The reason heat is such a big deal is the capacity to get hurt just by being outdoors. Climate change absolutely plays a factor in this equation, because the subtropical states are reaching highs of well over 100 degrees. There's no acclimating out of a heat stroke.
But, again, this isn't directed at people that have health issues for whom heat is seriously harmful or fatal. My partner gets heat exhaustion and heatstroke very easily, despite having grown up in the south, and both of us currently living in the south. (We still manage pretty well without central a/c, but we live at a high enough altitude that it's only rarely above the 80s.)
What I see a lot of is otherwise healthy people that refuse to adapt to the environment that they live in.
To a point. Temperature alone isn't the issue, humidity is the factor. We are exothermic creatures and produce internal heat we have to get rid of. If sweating begins to lose effectiveness due to high moisture already in the air, we slowly start to cook ourselves inside and organs begin to fail.
I've lived in the south too, you can absolutely get used to the higher variations after a few years. Except when it starts getting higher than you can biologically cope. Just ask people in countries hotter than the U.S. south who have lived fine with the heat for centuries who are now faced with possible death as things get both hotter and wetter there.
Or just read the first chapter of The Ministry for the Future, it's online.
This is mostly directed at people in the US that are using a/c for convenience, rather than people in India that are literally dying of heat right now.
Also, a/c creates net heat.
