Freon Addiction The wind was silent and motionless. Trees were unmoving and stationary. Even the birds and the beasts were all gasping for breath. The blistering heat was continuing. The sun was getting hotter and hotter making the summer day intolerable in Sacramento. Instead of beads of sweat rolling down the backs of Sacramentans, they were comfortably chilled with their central air conditioning. The ability to cool our homes with a touch of a button sounds pretty magical. But all that magic chilling comes at a cost. According to Stan Cox, senior scientist at the Land Institute, “Turning buildings into refrigerators burns fossil fuel, which emits greenhouse gasses, which raises global temperatures, which creates a need for – you guessed it – more air-conditioning.” The statistics of air conditioning consumption in the United States are astounding. Living in most parts of America during the summer months, means being dependent on air conditioner (A/C). With temperatures regularly climbing past 90, many people today hardly get any fresh air at all. From their cooled home, they move in their cooled car to the office with A/C without so much as breathing good fresh air. They insulate their homes so that the expensive cooled air can't escape. Before the invention of A/C, we earthly beings were functioning just fine without this costly convenience. The human body is surprisingly quite adaptable to deal with heat if we let it. Change could happen, if society, came to the conclusion that we could no longer afford our freon addiction. It isn't cheap to run A/C. During hot weather it can be the most expensive appliance. Units, filters and other parts need to be regularly serviced to ensure everything is running efficiently. This also adds to the overall cost. Should units break down, the repair bills can be huge. The key to keeping cool is to keep air moving. By opening windows we can provide air inlets and outlets. Fans are inexpensive to buy and are less costly than expensive air conditioning units. They are portable so it can be moved from room to room. Fans circulate and move the air around in homes so there won't be that stale feeling in the atmosphere. Let the fresh air come in through open windows and let the fans do their work. Ceiling fans are also wonderful for helping airflow.
Planting variety of trees, shrubs, and vines would provide excellent shade from the blistering summer heat. Turning off heat sources indoors would mean more outdoor cooking. Families would gather around porches or backyard patios over board games and flowing iced tea. Instead of sitting in front of a television set or playing video games all day, more children would be spending time outside. There would be more bikes and scooter rides and swimming would be the preferred form of exercise. Cox states, “In a world without air conditioning, a warmer, more flexible, more relaxed workplace helps make summer a time to slow down again (Cox 345).” He suggests adopting