Sheltering From The Sweltering Heat
"Parisians could be seen plunging fully clothed into the fountains of the Trocadero, Viennese cooled themselves in municipal misters and Amsterdamers dangled their feet in a repurposed kiddie pool at a cafe."
"Nearly 90 percent of American households now have some form of air-conditioning, more than any other country in the world except Japan."
Penelope Green, The Times
"Narrow streets coupled with high buildings shaded them, while thick-walled buildings and open windows allowed the inside of buildings to keep cool [in centuries-old architecture as a remedy for heat]."
Cecile de Munck, French national weather service
"If you modify your actions, it's good for the planet, it's good for everyone."
"Also, I'm a lapsed Catholic and I'm Irish, so I need a certain degree of self-imposed suffering."
Mark Feeney, eschewing air conditioning in Boston
/https://public-media.si-cdn.com/filer/Demeure-de-la-Vignole-Hote-631.jpg) |
The Demeure de la Vignole Hotel has underground rooms in caves.
(Atlantide Phototravel / Corbis)
|
Europe has been suffering year after year under scorching heat waves, yet very few households there have air conditioning in contrast to the U.S. and Canada where air conditioning is common in all commercial buildings, government offices, shopping malls, and homes. Europeans look somewhat askance at the waste of energy involved in air-conditioning which discharges hot air with the use of a lot of power.
This contribution to climate change is not viewed kindly. "By cooling off the inside and warming the outside, we are feeding a disastrous vicious circle", Brice Tremeac, head of the Laboratory of Cold, Energy and Thermic Systems in Paris observed. Where he is stationed in Europe less than ten percent of households have air conditioning.
There are those who believe smarter alternatives to air conditioning exist: "Making the most of fresh and natural places is a smarter solution", commented Sadio Kante, cooling off in the Trocadero. And then there is Erica Rex, who leaped at the opportunity to own the ideal home. About 240 kilometers southwest of Paris, nestled in the Loire Valley, she lives several meters underground in her "maison troglodyte", a group of interconnected caves.
 |
| Erica Rex lives in a network of French caves where the temperature last summer was 22 degrees. Pete Kiehart for The New York Times |
Her home is about 158 square meters, a limestone residence with the amenities of a modern home, "its air-conditioning built in to the geology". The temperature in her home failed to exceed 22 degrees Celsius last summer. According to Christophe Leotot, a geologist and forensic expert, in the Loire Valley there are two thousand human-inhabited caves where as temperatures continue to rise, caves become a popular choice of residence.
In another example of living with nature, the U.S. desert Southwest's Phoenix, Arizona is one of the hottest, fastest-warming cities in North America, hosting 128 days at or above 37 degrees last year. And where residents make do with a simple resolution; doing as much as is possible before the sun rises. Construction workers, zookeepers, hikers, and all occupations in between venture an early start to the day.
"Here it is always coolest before dawn", one Phoenix dweller said, belying that old canard: "They say it is always darkest before the dawn".
 |
| Dozens of homes angle out of the hills of Souzay, complete with alleyways that plunge into the cliffs. Kristin Olsen |
Labels: Air Conditioning, Environment, Europe, Heat Waves, North America
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, August 28, 2019
<< Home