Cool Comfort: America's Romance with Air-Conditioning

Cool Comfort: America's Romance with Air-Conditioning by Marsha E. Ackermann

Air Conditioning caused huge changes in society. Early advertising bragged of a climate control free from nature. Theaters were some of the first to adopt air conditioning. They would often heat the theater to chilly temperatures to bring in customers during the summer. During the world's fairs, air conditioner companies would create cold exhibits and showcase air conditioning as part of the city of the future. There would be no need for windows. Everything could be contained in a fully-controlled sterile environment.

Air conditioning led to changes in development. Natural circulation was not needed. Trees and landscaping were not important. It was better to have a tightly sealed environment that could be climatically controlled. These tract homes could be quickly reproduced across a barren landscape. Instead of building homes to work with nature, they were built via a pattern with no regard to the natural surrounding.

We continue to pay the price for this obsession with air conditioning. Climate change and air conditioning work together in a bad feedback loop. As climate gets hotter, more air conditioning is used. This requires more energy use. It also encourages more development that impacts the landscape.

The book is a quick overview of the rise of air conditioning and the challenges. The early history shows an optimism for a new technology at a time when humans thought they could fully control nature.