UN Demands Universal Air Conditioning Powered by Renewable Energy

Air Conditioners
Air Conditioners on apartment walls. Jason Kuffer from East Harlem, USA [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Guest essay by Eric Worrall

According to the United Nations, everyone has the right to air conditioned comfort powered by magic.

Keeping cool in the face of climate change

As global temperatures reach record highs, providing cooling systems which are effective, sustainable and which do not harm the environment is increasingly essential for everyday life. That’s according to Rachel Kyte, Chief Executive Officer of Sustainable Energy for All, and Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL).

From the cold chain systems that maintain uninterrupted refrigeration during the  delivery of food and vaccines, to protection from extreme heat waves globally – access to cooling is a fundamental issue of equity, and as temperatures hit record levels, for some, it can mean the difference between life and death. 

UN News asked Rachel Kyte why she is so passionate about cooling.
What is sustainable cooling?

Cooling is essential to human health and prosperity. As the world rapidly urbanizes, warms and populations grow, cooling is an urgent development challenge that has important ramifications for our climate. It requires fast action to protect the most vulnerable, and is vital for economic productivity by allowing workers, farmers and students to work in comfortable environments.

Yet as cooling needs rise, we must meet these challenges in an energy-efficient way, or the risks to life, health and the planet will be significant. At the same time, they provide equally important business opportunities for companies or entrepreneurs who can design and produce hyper-efficient cooling devices at affordable prices for this rapidly growing market.

A clean energy transition is already underway globally that can provide affordable, safe and sustainable energy for all. We must now incorporate cooling for all needs within this transition, while keeping us on track to reach our global climate and energy goals.

Read more: https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/06/1041201

While I applaud the idea of air conditioned comfort for everyone, I suspect the 800 million or so people who don’t get enough to eat probably have other priorities.

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joe the non climate scientist
July 1, 2019 2:32 pm

“While I applaud the idea of air conditioned comfort for everyone, I suspect the 800 million or so people who don’t get enough to eat probably have other priorities.”

OUCH !

Maybe food
Maybe clean water
Maybe improved sanitation

Samuel C Cogar
Reply to  joe the non climate scientist
July 2, 2019 4:06 am

OUCH!!!!! …….. is right.

Excerpt from: “Keeping cool in the face of climate change”

From the cold chain systems that maintain uninterrupted refrigeration during the delivery of food …….

WHAT!!!!!!! ……. Uninterrupted (commercial) refrigeration will prevent dead biomass (human food) from rotting away ……. but natural (wintertime) refrigeration exacerbates the rotting away of (outdoors) dead biomass.

AMAZING!!!!! …….. simply AMAZING!!!!

F1nn
Reply to  Samuel C Cogar
July 3, 2019 10:37 am

Yes, and all this (+ many many more?) from UN wonderland.

Tom Halla
July 1, 2019 2:35 pm

The term “sustainable” probably means paying off the wind and solar lobby, then building a real power plant anyway.

Hot under the collar
Reply to  Tom Halla
July 1, 2019 5:05 pm

‘Rachel Kyte, Chief Executive Officer of Sustainable Energy for All, and Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL)’. Wow, she must have an extremely large ID badge.

Over one billion people have no access to electricity whatsoever, many of those that do have electricity can’t afford to heat their homes and more people die of cold than heat. Ms Kyte must be living on a different planet.

Nik
Reply to  Hot under the collar
July 2, 2019 3:26 am

She must also have a hat size to match that badge.

Consider that there are likely thousands of other drones like her at the UN, all with ridiculous titles and UN-invented portfolios, with aims to suck and destroy ever more wealth from producers. Makes one wonder why the US continues to fund almost 1/4 of the UN’s budget.

Frenchie77
Reply to  Hot under the collar
July 2, 2019 3:35 am

“Cooling is essential to human health and prosperity. ”

Yes, of course, and that is precisely why almost everyone in the north flies to the south for their vacation. Clearly they want to be cooler!

Michael S. Kelly LS, BSA Ret.
Reply to  Hot under the collar
July 2, 2019 3:11 pm

I used to work in the US government (FAA), and one thing I observed is that the lower you are in the chain of command, the longer your title. It’s almost as if they are deliberately trying to make less important people feel more important than they are.

Robert JF
Reply to  Tom Halla
July 1, 2019 5:46 pm

That is nuts. I actually have a solar powered air conditioner, so I have an idea what is practical. I have 2kw of panels powering a 1kw air conditioner. This is an off grid system using four 100 amp hour batteries. This system produces 10kwh on a good day and I get about 10 hours of air conditioning. The batteries are only to stabilize the syatem when clouds pass by. At night I switch to utility power. The roof area covered solar panels are equal to about one third of the living space. That makes such a system practical on a one or two story house only. If this were a grid tie system it would eventually pay for itself. But the inclusion of batteries guarantees that it will never do more than break even.

kenji
July 1, 2019 2:45 pm

I am interested in how the UN proposes to air condition the tents of 130,000 homeless squatters in Los Angeles?

Pop Piasa
Reply to  kenji
July 1, 2019 3:39 pm

🎵Here come those Santa Anna winds again…🎶

joe
Reply to  kenji
July 1, 2019 3:39 pm

Send them to Greenland. There the air conditioning is free.

Reply to  joe
July 1, 2019 8:34 pm

So all we need is a really long vent conduit?

Reply to  joe
July 2, 2019 5:38 am

Kamala Harris may be onto something … with her proposed “busing” plan … we just need to re-target her intended demographic …

Dave Keys
Reply to  kenji
July 1, 2019 3:40 pm

By sending millions of US dollars the UN. UN will employ millions of new UN officials. Who will then say America has failed to meet its cooling target. The main stream media will then say that America is bad and demand America sends more money.

lee
Reply to  kenji
July 1, 2019 7:31 pm

Everyone should have a punkah wallah.

F.LEGHORN
July 1, 2019 2:50 pm

“Sustainable” cooling? Move to Alaska maybe?

markl
July 1, 2019 2:54 pm

There is no “clean energy transition is already underway globally” as fossil fuel use keeps increasing. The only thing ‘transitioning’ is Western industrial economies into the 19th century.

Fiona
Reply to  markl
July 2, 2019 3:12 am

And it is becoming clear that is the objective.

n.n
July 1, 2019 2:58 pm

That would require a green blight with renewable unsustainable periods.

Jesse Fell
July 1, 2019 3:02 pm

Mr Worrall responds to this issue with a false dichotomy: people with too little to eat have other concerns than extreme heat. That is, if the world’s people have problems in addition to extreme heat, extreme heat isn’t such a problem, or doesn’t demand attention, or something — at any rate, we don’t have to thing about it. But extreme heat kills people. We’ve seen it. It’s happening. It even kills people with too little to eat. But it is the position of this web site that global warming is a hoax, or if it is real, is somehow, anyhow, not a problem. Which is what makes this website asinine.

Earthling2
Reply to  Jesse Fell
July 1, 2019 10:55 pm

The majority of the warming we have measured the last 150 years has been in the northern or polar regions of the NH, and at night, to give a total increase in global average of .8 C since 1880. While we know we have been warming out of the LIA the last 150 years, we have no way of knowing how much was natural variation and how much caused by humans.

In any event, the daytime maximum temps around most of the world are not that much different from what they were 50 to 100 years ago. They had identical hot weather back then, so I don’t see your connection that extreme heat is killing people, other than now there is multiples of times more people now living in hot area’s. Which is similar to the argument that we have more damages now due to extreme weather than we did 50 years ago. Well, we have a lot more people everywhere, and a lot more housing and infrastructure to get demolished every time there is an extreme weather event.

Jesse Fell
Reply to  Earthling2
July 2, 2019 12:53 pm

The 2003 heat wave that killed 70,000 people in Europe was described by meteorologists as an extreme statistical anomaly. It would have been such an anomaly regardless of the population of Europe. 2019 is shaping up to be an even greater catastrophe for Europe.

Of course, you can argue that the heat waves in Europe were deadly because people didn’t have air conditioning. Exactly — and the reason that they didn’t is because in the past, they haven’t needed them.

And heat waves such as the one in Europe in 2003 are deadly because it doesn’t cool off enough at night. This is new. Charles Doughty, in his classic « Travels in Arabia Deserta » describes how it got chilly in the desert at night after the sun went down. That was toward the end of the 19th century, when there was a lot less CO2 in the atmosphere. Now, with an historically high amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, temperatures can stay in the 80s at night, giving the elderly and the sick little respite from heat stress.

And in fact, temperatures are higher world wide. Records are falling everywhere. The extra heat in the atmosphere is not evenly distributed; where it collects, it can kill. India is ripe for catastrophe such as we have never seen.

Earthling2
Reply to  Jesse Fell
July 2, 2019 2:00 pm

You are confusing the Urban Heat Island with CO2 warming, but I am not surprised since you are willing to say that the temps are now in the 80’s at night, when historically in the past there were no hot weather events because CO2 levels were lower. If you haven’t heard of the UHI causing much higher urban temps at night where the majority of the population live, then I am wasting my breath.

I can see having any type of discussion with you about the real science of CO2 warming would be about as effective as having a discussion with with a cult member waiting for the comet to come and pick them up.

Jesse Fell
Reply to  Earthling2
July 2, 2019 2:36 pm

The 2003 heat wave was not an example of UHI — it was a heat wave, and one that covered almost all of Europe. During this heat wave, the nighttime temperatures were much higher than normal — that is largely why the mortality during the heat wave was 70,000 in excess of the normal for that time of year.

Cosifantutti
Reply to  Earthling2
July 9, 2019 5:46 am

I still have my purple shroud ready for the return of Hale Bopp in year 4385. I was late for the last exit party, but next time I won’t be. It’s gonna be awesome.

F1nn
Reply to  Jesse Fell
July 3, 2019 11:14 am

“””And in fact, temperatures are higher world wide. Records are falling everywhere.”””

Yes, and temperatures are higher because 1920-40 data is wiped out from history. Without this data manipulation we would be exactly in same level of warming. Distorted data won´t make this AGW BS true.

Jesse Fell
Reply to  F1nn
July 3, 2019 3:14 pm

Really? I’m eager to hear where you read that all that data was wiped out. But even if the data from 1920 – 1940 is lost, we still have data from the last 79 years, which shows rising temperatures.

In the meanwhile, the fact that glaciers and the polar ice caps are melting rapidly, I would suggest that temperatures are in fact rising.

DanQuébec
Reply to  Jesse Fell
July 3, 2019 3:46 pm

Hm, global temperatures are not rising. They did so in the 1920s and 1930s, then dropped slowly but surely from the mid 1940s till the mid 1970s (Ice age scare). Then from 1978 on you can really start claiming something scientific globally with the launch of the first global weather/temperature satellites. And those numbers have been adjusted time and time again, while pushing up artificially the most recent decade and down with older decades, because even it’s not there, global warming has to appear somehow to proof the AGW church dogma and ideology is right. It’s a big FRAUD and FAKE. Shame on you and those crypto scientists from the AGW church. It feels Galilei and Kopernik all over again! In the Netherlands past heatwaves have « disappeared »:

principia-scientific.org/dutch-climate-experts-cant-be-bothered-to-explain-fake-data/

Or they move the official central KNMI thermometer miles away so it boosts all mesured temps with about 1 F, here discussed before at wattsupwiththat:

wattsupwiththat.com/2009/09/24/ooops-dutch-meteorological-institute-caught-in-weather-station-siting-failure-moved-station-and-told-nobody/

The Australian BOM is upping their records:

dailycaller.com/2017/07/31/australia-weather-bureau-caught-tampering-with-climate-numbers/

And those before mentioned satellite data sets « adjustments », especially GISS but also others like RSS:

thsresearch.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/ef-gast-data-research-report-062717.pdf

Jesse Fell
Reply to  DanQuébec
July 3, 2019 5:01 pm

Why, then, are glaciers around the world melting, and the polar ice caps, too? Why are the oceans getting warmer?

You contend that temperature records have been fudged. All of them? Everywhere? And they all have been fudged the same amount? Who is the maestro who is conducting this operation?

And weren’t some of those temperature records published, which would make it hard to mfudg them without getting caught?

DanQuébec
Reply to  Jesse Fell
July 3, 2019 10:45 pm

Well, Jesse. That’s the problem. There are everywhere false claims, like the polar bear cover on Nat.Geo. I immediately cancelled my membership, those lying bastards. You probably don’t know either that Antarctica had the largest sea ice cover EVER registered in march 2014. Nor do you probably know that this planet has registered the coldest temperature EVER in 2013, also in Antarctica, -93 C or -136 F, breaking the 1983 record with 4 C! If they keep on « adjusting » the numbers, we will never have a clear picture, not even a direction to where global temperatures go. And if we are stupid enough to follow all your IPCC Paris COP24 AGW church’ recommandations, and all 173 signatures are respected to it’s fullest by every country (-95% CO2 emissions by 2050), the effect is still almost nil, a lean 0.05 C or 0.09 F « cooling » on those 1.50-2.00 C they claim the warming up will be. Then where the heck is the other 1.45-1.95 C warming up coming from if it’s not CO2?? Meanwhile it’ll cost 100s of trillions of $$. This whole circus is ridiculous!

Jesse Fell
Reply to  DanQuébec
July 4, 2019 2:01 am

What I know is that CO2 is a major greenhouse gas; that we have been adding millions of tons of it to the atmosphere every year; that the level of CO2 in the atmosphere is now higher than it’s ever been before in the history of mankind; that nights are staying warmer worldwide (as predicted); that the most rapid rise in temperature is occurring in the high northern latitudes (as predicted); that the northern polar ice cap and Greenland ice cover are melting rapidly (more rapidly than predicted); that permafrost is melting everywhere in the high northern latitudes; that the forests in Alaska are being decimated by warm weather pests; that the frozen body of a stone age man was recently revealed in Switzerland as the glaciers there continue to melt; that the Atlantic lobster is no longer present in numbers to support commercial fishing in Long Island sound or anywhere south of Cape Cod, owing to the warming of the Atlantic Ocean; that the ocean is becoming more acidic as it absorbs more CO2; and that the rhododendron in our front yard is now blooming in May which is a month earlier than it was blooming when we bought our house in 1991.

I also know that all the phenomena that I list above are reasonably explained as consequences of the addition of CO2 to the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels; and that it is vanishingly unlikely that the above changes occurred randomly; and that there is no known cycle of nature of the right size and shape to account for the totality of these changes.

Rod Evans
Reply to  Jesse Fell
July 2, 2019 12:05 am

Jesse,
It is a fact, climatic conditions when they become unbearable kill people. It is also a fact that more people die every year in the UK from cold than die from heat. That medical fact is also true for all countries that experience winters where the temperature falls below freezing.
At 288.8 deg K the world’s average temperature is below optimal. At 412 PPM the level of CO2 in the atmosphere is far below optimal. At world population levels above 7.5 billion the human race is over represented as a species on Earth. The good news is, as we gain wealth and reliable energy the population stabilises (always) and the ever increasing population declines.
With those simple facts in mind, I sleep easy at night knowing, we do not have a run away problem that nature/human ingenuity won’t solve.
NB. I am also still looking for that research paper that proves a link between human induced/evolved/released atmospheric Co2 and climate change. If you know of one please leave a link. Thanks

Doc Chuck
Reply to  Jesse Fell
July 2, 2019 12:18 am

Jesse, I just want you to know that I feel at least as strongly about this as you and SEAforAll CEO Rachel do. Summer has arrived hereabouts and I must tell you that I lack the refrigerated air you’ve acknowledged is my human right. This intolerable inequity continues as I count the days until you deliver the goods. So make it snappy, bub! You know you’ll feel so much better once you’ve redeemed that pledge of yours. And thanks in advance for your personal generosity.

Jesse fell
Reply to  Doc Chuck
July 2, 2019 12:33 am

A very silly response to a serious issue. In the summer of 2003, a heat wave killed 70,000 people in Europe. This year’s heat wave may exceed that total. India is poised for catastrophe that will dwarf any yet seen.

Providing every on the planet who needs protection from extreme heat with a solar powered air conditioner or the like is to be sure an extremely amibitious goal. At the same time, both air conditioners and solar panels are rapidly becoming more efficient. Whose to say great advances will not soon be made.

The argument that because we can’t safe everyone, there’s no point to saving anyone, does not appeal to me.

A C Osborn
Reply to  Jesse fell
July 2, 2019 3:11 am

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/weather/2015/05/20/cold-weather-deaths/27657269/

20 times as many people die of cold than heat.
Stop reading UN propaganda.

John Dilks
Reply to  Jesse fell
July 3, 2019 10:47 am

Jesse, Please stop it with the feelings. You are free to invest your wealth in air-conditioners and send them where ever you wish. No one is stopping you. Save all that you can.

David Guy-Johnson
Reply to  Jesse Fell
July 2, 2019 12:45 am

Jesse Cold kills more people than heat by a factor of ten at the very least. To say that an extra degree or so of heat is a drastic problem is what is really asinine.

observa
Reply to  Jesse Fell
July 2, 2019 6:34 am

I’m with you Jesse but I need the motivation and leadership of the true believers holding the reins of power to repent my wicked ways. I’m just waiting for my PM to proudly announce that forthwith no publicly paid official will remain airconditioned on his watch to the rousing cheers of those impacted. Coming out in solidarity with all those who work in the great outdoors and under the iron rooves of our factories and workshops. Back to the future like the grandparents’ day all for the sake of the grandkiddies.

What say you to such noble leading from the front to set the shining example for all we weak sinners and deplorables Jesse?

F1nn
Reply to  observa
July 3, 2019 11:46 am

Hear, hear.

+42

July 1, 2019 3:03 pm

A clean energy transition is already underway globally that can provide affordable, safe and sustainable energy for all. We must now incorporate cooling for all needs within this transition, while keeping us on track to reach our global climate and energy goals.

Can I have a puff of what she’s smoking?
Does she actually know the minute percentage of the world’s energy needs that have “transitioned”?

Clearly the extent of her science education is to learn the word “hyper-efficient. (Is that a real word?)

The lady wants to not only meet unattainable renewable energy goals for the world’s current energy needs, but also make sure that farmers around the globe work in air conditioned comfort.

David Baird
July 1, 2019 3:09 pm

Hey! I have an idea. Give everyone a shovel and they can dig down to where the ambient temperature is around 55°F at around 6′ depth. And if many of the 800 million or so people who don’t have enough to eat……….I guess that solves 2 problems at once.

John Pickens
Reply to  David Baird
July 1, 2019 9:38 pm

It’s funny that you mention the temperature of holes in the ground. If all the money wasted on wind turbines and solar panels were instead directed at simple geothermal heat pumps, we could have saved millions of tons of CO2 emissions. Not that I think that CO2 is the monster molecule which the climate alarmists think it is, but the energy savings from converting to geothermal space heating and cooling would have been amazing!

Sweet Old Bob
July 1, 2019 3:09 pm

She can go fly a Kyte . Less hot air and more productive .
😉

Roy W. Spencer
July 1, 2019 3:11 pm

Why is it that UN bureaucrats remind me of immature adults living off their rich parents?

F1nn
Reply to  Roy W. Spencer
July 3, 2019 11:42 am

Well, they are. And we all are their rich parents. Everybody have to adjust their life to match their income. I don´t know (and don´t want to know) UN`s income, but it must be humungous, because they have time to find all kinds of BS to “save” the world. They must make themselves very important to justify their “work”.

R Shearer
July 1, 2019 3:12 pm

Then similarly, everyone ought to have the right to heating which they can afford to prevent freezing to death.

TeaPartyGeezer
Reply to  R Shearer
July 1, 2019 4:30 pm

Bingo! For the majority of the population, heat is far more critical than air conditioning.

Farmer Ch E retired
Reply to  TeaPartyGeezer
July 1, 2019 7:06 pm

There is no money in heat. Can’t tax carbon if it is the solution and not the problem.

Flight Level
July 1, 2019 3:20 pm

Dear Rachel Kyte,

I sincerely hope you read this and consequently publicly and officially renounce to all, inclusive air travel.

You’d hate to know how we keep you fresh on board nor where the cool air you’re so happy to breathe has been just moments before.

Air conditioning is NOT limited to hot environments. Without it, you’ll freeze solid while en-route to your next UN climate junket. It’s cold outside, think -50C even in summer.

In other words, unless high-level ignorance is a primary asset in your trade, just keep it low and concentrate on your duty-free shopping list.

Greg
July 1, 2019 3:23 pm

A/C of any kind not cheap, either to install or to run.

Pretending anyone is going to give you “hyper-efficient” “sustainable” a/c at an affordable price is plain, simple deception. A load of political bull that will never happen.

Rich Davis
Reply to  Greg
July 2, 2019 10:52 am

Yes, so that must mean that all 240 Democrats running for president pledge to provide it for free to as many illegal aliens, er unauthorized Americans, as we can coax over the border to become unauthorized Democrat voters.

Pop Piasa
July 1, 2019 3:25 pm

They can have their cake and refrigerate it too if they build state-of-the-art nuclear plants. Should the west be doing that instead of just giving money to dictators?

Rick
July 1, 2019 3:31 pm

Sustainable cooling…tiny wind turbines that actually work in reverse to harness the owner of electricity to generate wind.

Reply to  Rick
July 1, 2019 8:36 pm

I propose a pipe from the bottom of the deep ocean to a chiller in my attack, and a return run to whereeverhellIdoncare.
You should get you one too.

Dave Keys
July 1, 2019 3:31 pm

Off they go. So everyone must have free cooling. Of course provided by us. Only bad people would deny the poor free air conditioning.

These white western liberals see them selves as the good white folk. They also expect all other white folk to aspire to their goodness. They represent the spirit of whiteness, the soul of whiteness. White people being so superior to all other races must of course take leadership in solving all the worlds problem. As a white person they are the soul of whiteness. As a white person they see themselves as OUR SOULS.

The west has allowed OUR SOULS to take power.

bwegher
July 1, 2019 3:34 pm

Abolishing the UN is essential to human health and prosperity.
At least drop all US participation in anything UN. That includes all monetary interaction.
Preferably jettison anything UN from the USA, outlaw any UN activity in perpetuity.
Enact an audit of the UN residue for the purpose of determining waste, fraud and abuse.
Anything left is billed for repayment to the US treasury.

Sheri
July 1, 2019 3:48 pm

The fantasies get bigger and bigger as the insanity grows.

pochas94
July 1, 2019 3:53 pm

No brain no problem: Become an EU Bureaucrat.

July 1, 2019 4:06 pm

But wait, there’s more …

Having banned inexpensive and safe CFC-based refrigerants because they were destroying the ozone, we now use less cheap HFC refrigerants which are powerful greenhouse gases. So now the EPA demands we phase out HFC refrigerants for other substitutes which among their other desirable properties (a) force you to pay more money, and (b) create more demand for bureaucrats. Actually, one of the potential substitutes is CO2 (oh, the ironing!).

So how are we going to provide A/C for all to compensate for global warming without causing yet more global warming?

Maybe I missed it, but this is surely one Obama-era EPA mandate that should be scrubbed.

n.n
Reply to  Alan Watt, Climate Denialist Level 7
July 1, 2019 6:28 pm

Another fascist collusion between government, corporate, and environmental special interests?

Earthling2
July 1, 2019 4:16 pm

The people I know in the 3rd world that do have electricity sure can’t afford to buy an A/C unit, let alone pay the .25 cents/Kw/h it takes to run it. And that is the majority of the 2+ billion poor people who already have the electricity hooked up. What about the hundreds of millions of people around the world that don’t even have any electricity? And we are going to deny them the ability to get affordable fossil fuelled energy to bring them up to the same speed we enjoyed 50 years ago? Ensuring they only have renewables is going to doom them to energy poverty, especially the poor folk who are only ever going to scrape by without hardly enough to eat.

John
Reply to  Earthling2
July 1, 2019 6:52 pm

Earthling2: That is why, when they talk about “affordable”, “they” never mention the income level at which something becomes affordable. Do they start at 500,000 U.S. dollars, a million, 10 to the 9th power ?

SMC
July 1, 2019 4:26 pm

My A/C unit just died over the weekend. Will the U.N. pay for the repair parts and labor? A/C is my right…

R Shearer
Reply to  SMC
July 1, 2019 5:27 pm

Sorry, yours isn’t sustainable.

Reply to  SMC
July 1, 2019 8:38 pm

You should have never admitted having one, then a free one would be your right.

Max Porath
July 1, 2019 4:28 pm

Long ago, back when a peanut farmer was President of the United States, I remember thinking that it sure would be nice to have AC. You see, I lived in El Cajon, Ca at the time and, while it’s only a dozen or so miles from the coast here in San Diego County, it tended toward sweltering heat being on the eastern side of the coastal hills. I often wondered what moron would build a house where it got so, damned, hot during the summer. Being fairly young and not knowing the history of the area, I didn’t know or realize that, well, when the house was built in 1951, every street in the city was lined with giant carob trees and, where there weren’t houses, there were citrus and olive groves. Who needed AC when there was a tree throwing shade in every direction? Times change and the groves gave way to more housing and some fool decided that the trees did too much damage to the sidewalks and streets and they were all cut down leading to my lament, in the era of the peanut farmer, that it was too damned hot to not have AC. The saving grace, at the time, was that summer usually didn’t arrive, in all it’s 90+F at 9AM glory, until mid to late July and only hung around until early to mid September and, a nice beach was only 30 minutes away and an air conditioned mall was only a mile, as the crow flies. Being, to put it bluntly, dirt poor at the time, spending money on something I was only going to get use out of for a couple months of the year, and then, have to pay to run it to boot, didn’t make much sense to me. If it’d been there already? I’d have made judicious use of a wall unit if I thought I could afford to run it and, chances are, I wouldn’t have been able to.

So, here we are, 40 or so years later, and I still reside in San Diego County in a city that’s a bit inland from the coast where having AC is a good idea in the summer and, by golly, I have AC. Thankfully, I’m not dirt poor, but, for reasons entirely outside my control, I may as well not have AC because I can’t really afford to run it.

Somewhere in my little diatribe/walk down memory lane, there’s a lesson to be learned about land use changes, short sighted municipalities and blatantly idiotic power generation schemes. I have a solid, middle class, income with very little debt and I’m still looking at sweating my A$$ off this summer, to avoid a $1500 a month electric bill. Just five years ago I could run AC 24/7 for about $300-$400 a month. Renewables have come to the rescue and saved me from the evils of AC I guess. Or, maybe I’m just too cheap.

Cheers

Max

R Shearer
Reply to  Max Porath
July 1, 2019 7:31 pm

Gosh (not my first choice of words), $1500/month for electricity? You can buy a nice house for that in many parts.

John Andrews
Reply to  Max Porath
July 1, 2019 9:39 pm

Max, you didn’t mention that all the store fronts along the main street had shade over the side walks provided by extended roofs. I suppose that this was to replace the shade provided by the carob trees after they were removed.

Steve O
July 1, 2019 4:39 pm

Why not ask that renewable energy infrastructure be built using renewable energy?

Michael Jankowski
July 1, 2019 4:54 pm

$2B in renovations to the UN Building complex in NYC completed in 2015…no mention of any renewable energy.
https://www.wbdg.org/additional-resources/case-studies/united-nations-headquarters

Can’t find any information on even a token solar panel or wind turbine associated with the campus.

yarpos
July 1, 2019 5:00 pm

There is no “clean energy” transition, yet they talk about it as if its real. There is real energy generation and there are so called renewables faffing around on the sideline, destabilizing and adding cost to the grid.

Have Germany, Ontario and South Australia not been big enough disastrous, useless , money pits to make the point clear?

Sara
July 1, 2019 5:05 pm

A/C ? I don’t need no stinkin’ A/C!

I bought a cooling pad for my cats last Friday while I was shopping. It’s filled with a gel that drops its own temperature when pressure is applied to it, thus creating a cooling effect. My two spoiled cats did not appreciate the $10 I sacrificed for their comfort in the humid, heated air of July in this Great Frozen North, so I’m keeping it for myself and the cats can go pound sand.

It is, in fact, better than A/C, because it cost me $10 to buy it and nothing to “run” it and when the weather cools off, I can put it away for next winter when we have a massive heat wave generated by Gorebull’s Big Warming Machine.

Air conditioning! What a limited world that bunch of dopes live in!

Tom Abbott
July 1, 2019 5:08 pm

From the article: “As global temperatures reach record highs, providing cooling systems which are effective, sustainable and which do not harm the environment is increasingly essential for everyday life. That’s according to Rachel Kyte, Chief Executive Officer of Sustainable Energy for All, and Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL).

From the cold chain systems that maintain uninterrupted refrigeration during the delivery of food and vaccines, to protection from extreme heat waves globally – access to cooling is a fundamental issue of equity, and as temperatures hit record levels, for some, it can mean the difference between life and death.”

We should wait until it looks like temperatures are going to hit record levels before stressing out about it. There is a good chance we won’t see temperatures hit record levels anytime soon. In fact, the globe has been cooling since Feb. 2016, the supposedly “hottest year evah!” The globe is currently about 0.5C cooler than Feb. 2016 and there are a lot of indications that things are cooling off, so this author is a little premature in her predictions.

The last time it got as warm as Feb. 2016, was in 1998, where 1998 was 0.1C cooler than Feb. 2016 (a statistical tie), so it took 19 years after the last high temperature was reached in 1998, for the global temperature to again reach that level in 2016. Let’s see: 2016 plus 19 years equals 2035. So it might be that long or longer before the world revisits the Feb. 2016 temperature, if it ever does in our lifetimes.

Don’t worry, Be Happy! Things are not as bleak as some would make them out to be.

Walter Sobchak
July 1, 2019 5:31 pm

And men in he11 demand ice water.

Do they get it?

He11, No.

Reply to  Walter Sobchak
July 2, 2019 9:04 am

Except at the bottom level, which is a frozen lake according to Dante.

Toto
July 1, 2019 5:51 pm

“everyone has the right to air conditioned comfort powered by magic”
Oh, they mean cold fusion.

ScienceABC123
July 1, 2019 6:01 pm

No one has the “right” to the goods or services provided by others. In order for such a “right” to exist, those providing the goods or services must first be made slaves.

Mike
Reply to  ScienceABC123
July 2, 2019 5:56 am

Ahhhh….somebody who understands what a right is!!!

July 1, 2019 6:05 pm

This is a good video, taken of our fathers, the Great Generation, in WW2 Europe during 1944-45.

D-Day to Germany: Cameraman Jack Lieb comments on original footage of 1944-45
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4kmRTZrgMQ

“Spectacular HD-scanned footage of 1945 with narration by newsreel cameraman Jack Lieb. According to this source (https://unwritten-record.blogs.archiv…), Lieb’s voice had been recorded in 1976 by his son, Warren, one of his final lectures. Lieb went to Europe in 1943 to film war coverage for Hearst’s News of the Day newsreels.
0:00 London (Westminster Abbey) 10:06 Landing on the Utah beach (by a British landing craft) 23:46 Mont St. Michel 30:19 Paris (on the day of liberation) 37:16 Westwall 38:10 Aachen 39:11 Berlin”
~25 minutes Ernest Hemingway

One wonders what has happened to recent generations – how did so many people get to be so damned gullible and so intensely stupid? How could any sensible person believe global warming, climate change and green energy nonsense?

Is there a new stupid gene in the population? Is there a toxic chemical in the drinking water?

As George Carlin said: ““Think of how stupid the average person is; and then realize half of them are stupider than that!” 🙂

Tom Abbott
Reply to  ALLAN MACRAE
July 1, 2019 6:48 pm

“Is there a new stupid gene in the population? Is there a toxic chemical in the drinking water?”

I read a study some time ago (less than a year) which proposed that conservatives and leftists brains work differently. I wasn’t much impressed with the study at the time, but there is definitely something that is causing otherwise intelligent people to look at the same reality and see things completely differently. Maybe brain structure or how the brain works in different people is part of the answer.

My first impulse is to blame the propaganda machines of the Main Stream Media and the Entertainment Media and the Leftist teachers in our schools for all the deluded individuals we find ourselves having to deal with. Propaganda fools a lot of people but not everyone is taken in by the leftwing propaganda, so what causes one reasonably intelligent person to buy the leftwing propaganda and what causes another reasonably intelligent person to reject the leftwing propaganda? The Right and the Left are currently living in completely different realities. One of those realities is false.

Reply to  Tom Abbott
July 2, 2019 1:53 pm

re: “The Right and the Left are currently living in completely different realities. One of those realities is false.”

I can simplify it for you further: One of those ‘worlds’ is simply not reality.

If someone tells you they can fly, can see into the future, or walk through a wall they are not dealing with reality, since these things in our present temporal plane are impossible for a human being. If someone says they can fly using a paramotor this then is a completely rational statement (assuming you know what a paramotor is.) The other two activities are still outside our present temporal plane.

I have had this thought many years earlier, there are really only two types of people in the world, those that are rational, and those that are irrational. This, for me, satisfies the differences seen between so-called ‘left and right’.

The press, politicians, the MSM et al then play upon the fears, hopes and desires of these two types of people, and we get the result we now see …

Randy Wester
July 1, 2019 6:07 pm

My read of the article, access to cooling isn’t necessarily air conditioning, the priority should be refrigeration for vaccines, then for food preservation. And it shouldn’t be that technically difficult to store cold overnight made from daytime pv solar. Or use absorption cycle refrigeration. The equity part is fairly offensive though. Places that get 45 c in summer don’t get minus 45 c in winter. Life’s like that.

kim
July 1, 2019 6:31 pm

Sustainable cooling, then rigor mortis.
==============================

Gamecock
July 1, 2019 6:49 pm

We should tell the UN, “No.”

Then close it.

I’d love to see the look on the face of the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All when she was told, “We don’t need any of that anymore. Your position is eliminated. You have an hour to clean out your desk. This security guard will be your escort.”

icisil
July 1, 2019 6:59 pm

Guadalajar, Mexico just got a nice delivery of sustainable cooling: six feet of hail.

https://electroverse.net/six-feet-of-hail-buries-the-mexican-city-of-guadalajar/

Reply to  icisil
July 1, 2019 10:52 pm

It’s that global warming I tell ya, it’s that there climate change too, and it’s all because of CO2.

If we don’t stop burning fossil fuels right now, we’re all gonna die, I tell ya! We’re all gonna die!

[sarc/off]

Wiliam Haas
July 1, 2019 7:36 pm

Without burning additional fossil fuels, nuclear power plants is the only rational approach to applying the additional required energy to supply adequate power for all. At the same time we need to gradually reduce the world’s human population and relocate those that are in areas that require excessive air conditioning and or are too far from electrical energy sources. I also want the UN to install central air conditioning in my home because I cannot afford to do so.

Reply to  Wiliam Haas
July 2, 2019 5:35 am

Thunderf00t would agree, but, seeings as he is basically ” a mechanic”, he recommends “mechanic” cures, sort of like here, cures that ignore a larger socio-spiritual-cultural aspect.

Also, such written, specific “prescriptions” cannot possibly take into consideration unforeseen (or, underway BUT not recognized by the public at large) developments on the energy and/or science fronts. Most of the “shackling” of future human development is self-imposed, such as was “germ” (medical) science a few hundred years back. We find similar ‘shackling’ WRT to science today as well …

DanQuébec
July 1, 2019 7:55 pm

This is incorrect. Prairies type places, often in the middle of a continent, like Saskatchewan and Kazakhstan, do have climatological swings from plus to minus 45 Celsius.

By the way, in my province of Québec using the airco is only 10% of the cost of heating in winter. Either way, all our energy is province owned renewable hydro, and it’s super cheap.

July 1, 2019 8:11 pm

So according to the UN’s Intellectual-Yet-Idiot Rachel Kyte, nuclear power plants are not able to run air conditioning units in Socialist Hell Green Utopia.

Someone needs to take her to France and show her how they make most of their electricity.

Randy Wester
Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
July 2, 2019 2:29 am

France is having to curtail nuclear output due to a lack of available cooling. Rooftop solar PV gets less efficient in 45 c weather but doesn’t have to be shut down. And doesn’t take so long to build. And literally turns some of the energy to electricity instead of heat. It might be wise to have both nuclear and solar PV with ground source heat pumps. I can’t think of anything less useful than a solar panel on a winter night except maybe an air conditioner in a blackout caused by a heat wave.

Jesse Fell
Reply to  Randy Wester
July 2, 2019 2:49 am

In other words, because solar panels are not the complete and sufficient solution, they are of no use at all. Got it.

Randy Wester
Reply to  Jesse Fell
July 2, 2019 3:03 am

Almost exactly… not what I said. Rooftop solar PV and nuclear are complementary in meeting a need, not alternative solutions. Both highly useful / not, at roughly oppoaite times.

Jesse fell
Reply to  Randy Wester
July 2, 2019 4:27 am

I stand corrected, then.

Reply to  Randy Wester
July 2, 2019 1:06 pm

Randy Wester July 2, 2019 at 2:29 am
France is having to curtail nuclear output due to a lack of available cooling.

Is this due to a seasonal (hot weather thing) or the unavailability of suitable sites? I’m having to infer this, since your statement as made might indicate the laws of physics or something like that had changed …

Randy Wester
Reply to  _Jim
July 2, 2019 5:49 pm

Summer nuclear curtailment in France is due to limits set on discharge water temp and low river flows. Not a problem at the coast. Their physics work the same as here, and they’re pretty good with the Metric system. They just don’t have a Lake Ontario for cooling water and a Niagara River for hydro.

July 1, 2019 8:32 pm

Who do I contact at the UN to get my free AC?

Reply to  Nicholas McGinley
July 1, 2019 9:49 pm

Rachel, the IYI.
https://www.seforall.org/people/rachel-kyte

on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/rkyte365

She’s leaving her UN post in September for a high paid Dean’s Yob at Tufts University in Boston. Kyte will assume the deanship on October 1, 2019.
https://www.seforall.org/news/rachel-kyte-named-dean-of-the-fletcher-school-of-law-and-diplomacy-at-tufts-university
email:
Rachel.Kyte@tufts.edu

Just tell her you want your “fair-share” of all that Free Stuff that Democrats are promising to the kiddees (anyone under 26) and to all the illegal aliens.

July 2, 2019 3:16 am

It’s totally bizarre, people die world wide from cold and that mainly because they lack the money to buy effective fossil fuels. Sure, people in air conditioned offices might think that everyone should eat cake (to apply a well known instance of delusional people with no empathy for the real problems of anyone outside their air conditioned offices). But cold is the killer … this was even obvious on an episode of “Naked and Afraid” filmed in a tropical forest in Malaysia. One participant got so cold they were experiencing the early symptoms of hypothermia.

The biggest problem we have is not heat (especially in a world that is not currently warming), but moronic, out-of-touch, scientifically imbecilic, deluded, fat-cat bureaucrats without a bone of empathy for anyone else.

Randy Wester
Reply to  Mike Haseler (Scottish Sceptic)
July 2, 2019 8:47 am

I see the offensive part of the UN pronouncement as conflating ‘need’ with right’ and hinting that the rest of the world should fork over. The rest is restating the obvious – rooftop solar is now a relatively cheap way of providing refrigeration. Probably the UN should first stick to making sure that people’s homes aren’t getting regularly blown up, and their ‘fridges and solar panels will work even better.

Reply to  Randy Wester
July 2, 2019 12:24 pm

I like my A/C at night, I like my lights at night. I like my reliable electricity on even on cloudy rainy days.
Solar is just an added expense with little value added when a complete life-cycle cost analysis is done. It’s only utility is “virtue signaling.”

Jesse Fell
Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
July 2, 2019 12:35 pm

The cost of solar panels is falling and will continue to fall for a while. Even now, people who install them recoup the expense in a few years. They stay on the grid because, yes, it gets dark at night. But by using solar panels, they reduce overall demand on the grid, which means that power plants burn less fossil fuel to meet demand. And they their electric bills.

John Dilks
Reply to  Jesse Fell
July 3, 2019 11:28 am

Jesse, those statements are just a dream. Solar is a waste of money for houses that have access to inexpensive electricity. By the time that you recoup your expense it is time to replace the system. They also don’t reduce demand on the grid, they destabilize the grid.

Randy Wester
Reply to  John Dilks
July 3, 2019 6:10 pm

We’re deregulated, so the main savings in adding a 10 horsepower solar system were in reduced transmission fees on daytime usage. And shingles underneath will last forever.

Jesse Fell
Reply to  Randy Wester
July 3, 2019 6:44 pm

They destabilize the grid? in what way? And why would the power utilities allow the grid to be destabilized?

And if houses are making some of their own electricity, how could they NOT be reducing demand on the grid?

And why are so many houses in our area putting solar panels on their roofs?

Randy Wester
Reply to  Jesse Fell
July 3, 2019 6:50 pm

I think clouds passing over solar panels can destabilize the grid in the same way that electric clothes dryers do. Not a concern or the utility would force curtailment. Or they wouldn’t let it be connected in the first place.

Randy Wester
Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
July 2, 2019 1:09 pm

I like stuff to work at night too, so we’re still grid connected. We have solar panels because it cuts our power bill by about 2/3. Probably going to get micro-chp for backup because natural gas is cheap and we sometimes need heat in the middle of summer. If we lived in an upcountry part of Cameroon, for example, grid connection might not be an option. Storing cold in frozen saltwater is not difficult engineering, and storing enough battery power for overnight LED lighting isn’t too difficult either. It’s not as much about ideology and saving the planet, as getting it done as well and cheaply as possible.

Olen
July 2, 2019 7:21 am

The UN creating rights. Who else created rights with class warfare and gifts. All feel good stuff with very bad results in the old defunct USSR.

observa
July 2, 2019 7:59 am

“A clean energy transition is already underway globally that can provide affordable, safe and sustainable energy for all. We must now incorporate cooling for all needs within this transition, while keeping us on track to reach our global climate and energy goals.”

The shorter Rachel:
We have to make sure the deplorables don’t expect us to go without airconditioning with the sacrifices required of them so let’s get that straight here and now.

July 2, 2019 9:34 am

From the top pic, I hope Harlem doesn’t have even a small earthquake. Then again, NYC sits on very stable bedrock.

Roger Knights
July 2, 2019 12:43 pm

On June 15, 2019, I commented in the Seattle times, at https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/heat-waves-could-kill-hundreds-more-in-seattle-as-globe-warms-researchers-say/#comments :

In my house I’ve avoided installing air conditioning by adding:
Insulation in the rafters.
Blown-in wall insulation
Large (Sunsetter) awnings on sunny side windows.
An attic fan, thermostatically controlled.

One idea I’ve had that ought to be tested is adding thermostatically controlled and time-limited sprinklers along a roof-beam, to cool the house by evaporation. This would be cheap and very cost-effective, I suspect.

There are already garden hose timers that let one program water to flow every hour or so for a specified length of time, and I seem to recall seeing a thermostat arrangement to control garden hose flow. The cost of both, plus a couple of sprinklers and 50 feet of garden hose should be half that of an air conditioner.

What’s needed is for some group of greens who are looking to reduce energy consumption to put this brainwave to the test—assuming it passes an initial sanity check regarding costs and benefits. (I’m just guessing regarding those, obviously.) It seems to me that this arrangement would be a social and individual benefit even if there were no climate change issue. (If water gets short, prohibit lawn-watering—other types of ground cover are just as attractive.)

I think there’s a good chance a pilot-test-study would get funded if a proposal were submitted to some agency or foundation concerned with the topic of sustainability.