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Why air conditioning isn’t as cool as you think.
Over the past 20 years, scientist and author Stan Cox has noticed a change during the summer in neighborhoods across the country—there’s no one outside. Where there used to be children playing and neighbors gathering are now suburban streets that look like ghost towns and he’s guessing there’s one thing keeping everyone indoors: air conditioning.
Stan Cox talks to Kathleen about his new book, Losing Our Cool, which reveals the many ways our air-conditioned world is wreaking havoc on our bodies, our health and the environment. Cranking out a half billion metric tons of carbon dioxide every year, Americans love their a/c like no other, and it’s making us fatter, more susceptible to allergies and asthma, and it’s polluting our planet at an alarming rate.
With the temperatures rising, how do we break our a/c habit? Cox shares some great alternatives and gives eco-friendly (and wallet-friendly) tips to keep your house cool all summer long.
Stan Cox is a senior scientist at the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas. His environmental writing has been published in newspapers in 25 states and widely in online publications. His book Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World (And Finding New Ways to Get Through the Summer) was recently published by The New Press. His book Sick Planet: Corporate Food and Medicine was published in 2008.
