, Columnist
Air Conditioning Is Making the World a Hotter Place
Cooled indoor air is now the norm in the U.S. and is gaining ground rapidly elsewhere. That’s going to make reducing carbon emissions tougher.
Hope you’re ready.
Photographer: Mario Tama/Getty Images
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With two-thirds of the U.S. experiencing a heat wave, it seems like a good time to talk about air conditioning. According to the annual Characteristics of New Housing data released by the Census Bureau early this month, 94% of the new housing units completed in the U.S. in 2018 came with it built in, up from 65% in 1974.
My first thought was that this might be a result of the southward shift of the U.S. population, and that is part of it. But air conditioning has made its biggest market-share gains outside the South.