Deadly Air Conditioners?

Evidently, at some point in the past, I must have signed a petition at the website, change.org. I have a vague memory of having done so, although the subject matter of that particular petition is lost to me. I do, however recall that my signing the petition was done in jest.

I bring this up because, as a result of my having signed a petition in the past, I will, from time to time receive an email from change.org letting me know of a trending petition which they feel I might wish to sign. They're usually wrong.

When I received the latest email from the website, I knew immediately that the petition must concern, in some way or other, global warming AKA Climate Change as there was the mandatory polar bear jpg which, by law, must accompany anything dealing with anthropogenic climate change.

This petition comes from Kay Tea of Seattle Washington and concerns air conditioning.

Kay Tea isn't against air conditioning, per se, but merely against air conditioning units. She admits that cooler room temperatures save the lives of "children, the elderly,[and] pets" and therefore, AC isn't completely evil, but the AC units currently in use world wide are inefficient, and "spew 100 million tons of carbon dioxide into the air each year". Some, she maintains, "contain (and leak) refrigerants called hydrofluorocarbons, a very potent and long-lasting greenhouse gas".

If the petition put forth nothing more radical than that, I might agree. But of course, Kay Tea couldn't leave it there. She had to put forward a GOVERNMENT SOLUTION. You know, cuz Big Government is the solution to every problem we face.

Kay Tea believes that the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Budget and the U.S. Senate Committee on the Budget must use the power of the purse to make air conditioning innovation a top priority. It never occurred to her that there is nothing less efficient than government. It doesn't appear to have crossed her mind that letting the free market take care of this would be the best way to approach this (or any) problem. She need look no further than the failure of federal subsidies for alternative energy sources, like wind and solar, to see examples as to why her idea isn't the best solution.

Living in Philippines, where the four seasons are Hot,Hot,Hot and Hot, I am a....uh.....fan of air conditioning. I am not a fan of increased global temperatures or higher electrical bills. If Kay Tea can find a way to change the laws of thermodynamics and make air conditioning cheap and environmentally friendly, I'd be behind her 100%. I don't think, however, that the answer lies with the United States Government.