July 17, 2010

 

Cool it

 

                                    We find our climate too warm, and cool ourselves,

                                    Thereby making our climate even warmer.

 

                                    In 2007, the United States was using 13 percent of its

                                    Total electricity consumption to run its air conditioners.

                                    This amounted to 484 trillion watt-hours of electricity,

                                    About equal to the electricity used for all purposes

                                    By all of the nearly one billion inhabitants of Africa.

 

                                    The air-conditioning of buildings in the United States

                                    Emits an amount of carbon dioxide equivalent

                                    To that which would be produced, were every

                                    Household in the country to purchase an additional

                                    Vehicle, and drive it an average of 7,000 miles a year.

 

                                    Air-conditioning is now central to the structure of

                                    Our society.  It has driven the recent migration of

                                    The population, principally of the white and wealthy,

                                    Southward, helping make possible the present

                                    Shift to the right in the country’s political center.

 

                                    Since 1928, when central air-control was installed

                                    In the Capitol, bi-partisan consensus on the matter

                                    Has not wavered.  And no one has suggested that

                                    President Obama appear before the Nation dripping

                                    In sweat as he explains to us our energy predicament.

 

                                    Would American commuters, who, in 2005, spent an

                                    Average of 38 hours in traffic stoppages, during which

                                    They used more than 3 billion gallons of gasoline, not

                                    Be in open revolt, were it not for air-conditioning and

                                    Other comforts now integral to the definition of a car?

 

                                    In homes, air-conditioning in the master bedroom

                                    Has priority, and indeed, cooler air has smoothed

                                    The seasonal fluctuation in conceptions, previously

                                    Characterized by a low during the summer months –   

                                    A decrease in sexual activity the most likely cause.

 

 

 

                                    Cool, moderately humid, clean air, with outside noise

                                    And danger shut out, is one of the country’s top-selling

                                    Non-pharmaceutical sleeping aid, appreciated by the

                                    64 percent of us who suffer from chronic insomnia, and

                                    Especially the 41 percent with problems almost nightly.

 

                                    During Arizona’s record-breaking 2003 heat wave,

                                    Hard-line Sheriff Joe Arpaio kept the 2,000 inmates of

                                    Maricopa County Jail in tents without air-conditioning.

                                    The temperature was measured at 138 degrees.

                                    In an annex, an animal shelter was air-conditioned.

 

                                    Badly-behaved children, especially if underprivileged,

                                    Can be made to spend the summer in an air-conditioned

                                    Classroom.  Our Nation’s “human capital” is thus protected

                                    From venting its aggressiveness and lack of focus, in

                                    The wild, where it might be out of the reach of Ritalin.   

 

                                    In retail, the higher the prices, the lower the temperature.

                                    Among the Manhattan clothing store, Bergdorf Goodman

                                    Keeps its temperature at 68 degrees, and Bloomingdale’s

                                    At 71.  Between 1995 and 2003, the Nation’s retail sector

                                    Increased by 66 percent the energy it uses to keep cool.

 

                                    In the meat industry, a temperature brought down

                                    To 50 degrees brings bacterial reproduction almost to

                                    A halt, thereby obviating the need for a mid-shift

                                    Interruption of production to wash and sterilize

                                    Equipment.  Profits increase despite high electricity bills.  

 

                                    In Afghanistan and Iraq, our troops could not survive

                                    The summers in enclosed, heavily armored vehicles,

                                    Such as the Humvee, were these not equipped with air-

                                    Conditioning.  In 2008, 85 percent of the diesel fuel

                                    Used by forward bases, powered air-cooling systems.

 

                                    In Matamoros, Mexico, where only 32 percent of homes have

                                    Air-conditioning, 78 percent of residents are infected with

                                    The mosquito-borne dengue virus.  Across the Rio Grande,

                                    In Brownsville, Texas, where 83 percent of homes have

                                    Air-conditioning, just 40 percent of residents are so infected.

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                    In 2006, our information technology equipment (residential,

                                    Commercial and industrial computers, and accessories),

                                    Used 6 percent of our total electricity consumption.

                                    This was around 219 trillion watt-hours – approximating

                                    The total consumption of electricity by Australia, in 2005.   

 

                                    A good share of the electricity we use to run the

                                    Internet, is aimed at convincing users to consume more

                                    Of everything.  Between 2002 and 2008, revenues

                                    From Internet advertising nearly quadrupled.  Of all

                                    Internet traffic, 25 percent goes to retail sites.

 

                                    The limiting factor to data processing performance is

                                    Cooling technology, liquid now replacing air for cooling.

                                    It is likely, however, that improved cooling capacity will

                                    Be used to further expand computer power, keeping its

                                    Present uses, not in order to reduce our energy footprint.

 

                                    Air-conditioning does not feature any prominent

                                    Culprit – individual, corporate, economic or political. 

 

                                    It has insinuated itself into the fabric of our society,

                                    Airily contributing to our present unsustainability.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

 

Principal Reference:

Cox, Stan. 2010. Losing our cool – uncomfortable truths about our air-conditioned world (and finding new ways to get through the summer). New York, N.Y.: The New Press.

Pp. xi-xii, 29-30 and 32 (In 2007, the U.S. used 484 trillion watt-hours for air-conditioning), 41 (if every household in the country bought an additional vehicle), 45 (Maricopa County Jail), 59 (pollution), 67-68 (mandatory summer school), 74-76 (the political rise of the South, climate control in the Capitol), 80 (38 hours in traffic stoppages), 93-94 (energy cooling the retail sector increased by 66 percent, 1995-2003; Bergdorf Goodman), 97-98 (meat-handling industries), 107 (Afghanistan and Iraq), 115 (Matamoros, Mexico; Brownsville, Texas), 125 (sleep problems), 129 (seasonal variation in conceptions).

 

Pp 143, 145-146 and 153-154 (the cooling component of information technology). 

 

In 2005, Mexico’s total electricity consumption was 183 Terawatt-hours (trillion watt-hours, 1012 watt-hours), and Australia’s total electricity consumption was 219 Terawatt-hours.  In 2008, total consumption in the United States was 3,873 Terawatt-hours.  According to Cox (p. 153), this means that, around 2005-2008, in the U.S., computers and peripheral equipment used between (183/3,873) 100 = 5 percent and (219/3,873) 100 = 6 percent of total electricity consumption. 

 

I have refined this estimate in the following way.  In 2001, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimated that our information technology equipment used 3 percent of our total electricity consumption.  According to Cox (p. 153), in 2006, the Environmental Protection Agency estimated that network data centers (large computing facilities which do much of the work of the Internet, as well as process bank and credit-card transactions) had doubled since 2000.  The refined estimate for 2006, therefore, is that, in the U.S., computer technology uses 6 percent of the country’s total electricity consumption.

 

The figure quoted in the poem is 219 Terawatt-hours, in 2006 – 6 percent of total consumption – equivalent to total electricity consumption in Australia, in 2005.

 

Pp. 154 (the limits of air cooling), 155-156 (Internet advertising).

 

 

 

 

 

Other References:

Index Mundi, 2010. “United States Electricity Consumption.” (In 2010, total electricity consumption by the U.S. was 3,873 Terawatt-hours, a decrease from 3,892 Terawatt-hours, in 2008).

http://www.indexmundi.com. Accessed July 18, 2010.

  

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory,

2001. “Research finds Computer-related Electricity Use to be over-estimated.” (Allan Chen). February 1, pp. 1-6.  (A study by the Laboratory estimates that 3 percent of all U.S. electric use powers computers and accessories).

http://www/lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/net-energy-studies. Accessed July 18, 2010.

 

Undated. “Information Technology and Resource Use Project,” pp. 1-3. (As of 2001, total office equipment electricity use in the U.S. was estimated at 3 percent of all electricity use).

http://enduse.lbl.gov/projects/InfoTech.html. Accessed July 18, 2010.

 

Population Reference Bureau and Africa Population and Health Research Center, 2008. “Africa Population Data Sheet.”  (In mid-2008, Africa’s population was estimated at 967 million).

http://www.prb.org/pdf08/africadatasheet2008.pdf. Accessed July 18, 2010.

 

Wikipedia, 2010.

“Energy Consumption of Computers in the U.S.A.” (The article reports on the 1999 study by Mark Mills, questioned by numerous researchers.  Mills gave a figure, for 1998, of  8 percent of all U.S. electricity consumption used for the Internet).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. Updated July 9. Accessed July 18, 2010.

 

“List of Countries by Electricity Consumption.” (In 2008, electricity consumption by the United States was 3,873 Terawatt-hours.  In 2005, electricity consumption by Mexico was 183 Terawatt-hours, and by Australia, 219 Terawatt-hours).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. Updated July 9. Accessed July 18, 2010.

 

 

 

 

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