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Recode Daily

Can we stay cool without heating up the planet?

Recode Daily

Recode

Science, Technology, Society & Culture

4.61.3K Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2022

⏱️ 15 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How do we stay cool on a warming planet? Air conditioning is one way, but depending on what kind of AC unit you have, it could be actually polluting the air and making the problem worse. Umair Irfan, climate reporter at Vox, has been looking into this (extremely frustrating) air conditioning paradox. Read Umair’s article: https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/23067049/heat-wave-air-conditioning-cooling-india-climate-change Today’s episode was produced and engineered by Sofi LaLonde, and hosted by Adam Clark Estes. Support Recode Daily by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Mailchimp would like to talk to you about customers.

0:03.6

A customer is what happens when marketers fail to personalise their marketing,

0:07.7

grouping customers with very different behaviours into one tangled mess.

0:11.8

But with MailChimp, marketers can use real-time behaviour data to personalise every email for every customer.

0:18.2

So get MailChimp and turn your customers into customers.

0:22.4

Into it MailChimp, the number one email marketing and automation brand.

0:26.8

Based on customer numbers, per verification email, advertising at MailChimp.com.

0:37.0

It's Rico Daily. I'm Adam Clark Estus.

0:41.3

It's finally summer.

0:45.3

Time to sit back and relax to the dull soothing home of your air conditioner.

0:51.2

You might have a cheap window unit or a fancy smart AC that you can connect to your phone,

0:58.4

but do you know what kind of environmental impact your air conditioner has?

1:02.5

Turns out that as you crank up your air inside, your AC unit could be polluting the air outside,

1:08.7

which honestly feels pretty unfair, especially since we need the cool air to escape the heat from

1:14.8

a warming climate. So how do we cool ourselves as the planet gets hotter all around us,

1:22.4

without making that problem worse? It's quite the paradox, and Umar Irfan,

1:30.0

climate reporter at Vox, has been looking into it.

1:36.4

There's roughly two billion air conditioners in the world, according to the

1:46.6

International Energy Agency, about half of them are in the United States in China,

1:50.9

and we're talking about air conditioners that are used to cool spaces that people live in,

1:54.8

but we also use things like refrigeration, things like keeping food cold,

1:58.8

but also for industrial processes that we need really strict temperature regulations.

...

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