In the end, the most enduring legacy of air-conditioning may be the divide it has created between the cool and the damned. And the hotter it gets, the bigger that gap will grow. This is not a technological failure as much as it is a cultural and psychological issue. The simple truth is that in the second half of the twentieth century, prosperous Americans got hooked on comfort, with little thought about the cost of that comfort to others, to the welfare of other species, or to the world around them. That addiction has now spread to millions of people around the world, who find they too cannot
...more
