Welcome to Locally Sourced, a biweekly Covering Climate Now newsletter for journalists working to localize the climate story. Share this newsletter with colleagues and journalism students interested in localizing the climate story.
Story Spark: Air Conditioning
As heat waves across the world become more frequent and intense, air conditioning (AC) is no longer a luxury, but a life-saving necessity. Studies have found that air conditioning significantly reduces heat-related illnesses and deaths, with widespread adoption in the US being credited with a 75% decline in deaths due to heat during the 20th century. It’s estimated that air conditioning averted nearly 200,000 premature deaths globally in 2019, the third hottest year on record.
However, not everyone can afford effective cooling systems, including in the US where nearly one in five low-income families have no AC. Window units are less expensive than installing a central cooling system, but are less efficient, causing already high energy bills to skyrocket. And just “staying out of the heat” inside isn’t an option on the hottest days; analysis has found that nearly half of people who have died in the US from heat since 2004 perished at home.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that there are around 2 billion AC units in the world and projects that this number could reach over 5.5 billion by 2050. This increased demand is not only climate-driven but can also be attributed to rising incomes globally. In other words, if people in countries that experience extreme heat could afford to have AC today, they would already have it.
While AC poses a life-saving solution to rising temperatures driven by fossil fuel pollution, it unfortunately creates a “climate conundrum.” AC uses around 7% of the world’s energy and is responsible for nearly 3% of annual greenhouse gas emissions. However, this fact shouldn’t be used to argue against AC adoption worldwide, as those who suffer the most from heat have contributed the least to carbon emissions. Rather, efforts need to be made to provide more efficient, affordable cooling systems to those who need them most, to create a cleaner, more resilient energy grid to support growing AC demands, and to explore other solutions to lessen the need for air conditioning.
Stories We Like
- The Appeal reveals that many of the hottest states keep prisoners in blocks without AC, with deadly consequences as extreme heat gets worse.
- While federal programs assist those who can’t afford heating, the same can’t be said for cooling, which treats extreme heat as simply “a source of discomfort,” Politico reports.
- The New York Times examines the “vicious cycle of extreme heat” as a hotter world requires more energy to cool down homes and businesses, which results in more planet-warming emissions.
- The Sacramento Bee explores how the city’s most vulnerable are handling heatwaves without AC, as the essential cooling systems are beyond their budgets.
- Though AC is ubiquitous globally, there are more climate-friendly alternatives. DW reports on possible solutions, including passive cooling and urban design.
- In India, increasingly extreme heatwaves are forcing some of the country’s most impoverished people to go into debt to pay for life-saving air conditioners for their homes, Global Health Now reports.
- CBS New York highlights a new bill that would require landlords to provide air conditioning to their tenants as a matter of public health.
Helpful Links
Resources
- Explore the detailed statistics of residential air conditioning units by state as compiled by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).
- Dive into how cooling demands are rising quickly around the world through data from Climate Central.
Experts
- Nihar Shah, presidential director, Global Cooling Program at Berkeley Lab
- Narasimha Rao, professor of energy systems, Yale School of the Environment
- Yueming ‘Lucy’ Qui, professor, University of Maryland College Park
- Local cooling center organizers
Before We Go…
The next Locally Sourced will highlight water scarcity. Have you reported about how your area’s water crisis is threatening local farmers, the health of communities, and the economy? Send them to us at local[at]coveringclimatenow[dot]org. We’d love to consider them for the next edition of Locally Sourced and our media trainings and social platforms.
The Climate Station is a free-of-cost training program from CCNow that equips local TV station newsrooms in the US, including journalists, producers, and meteorologists, to cover climate news more effectively. For inquiries, please email Elena González at elena[at]coveringclimatenow[dot]org. Or apply here.
Want more story ideas? Check out the Locally Sourced archive for more topics to explore, including resilient agriculture, emergency alerts, climate anxiety, and more.
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