The downside of air conditioning

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The scientist Stan Cox, in his 2018 book “Losing Our Cool”, blames air con for “resource waste, climate change, ozone depletion and the disorientation of the human mind and body”. Air conditioning emits some half a billion tonnes of CO2 annually, and the coolants used are even more polluting than CO2.
Air conditioners fuel a vicious cycle: they pump out heat, making the outside world hotter still. One study found that they increased the temperature of Phoenix, Arizona on summer nights by 2°C.

An air conditioned society, complains Cox, has fewer free communal spaces, and more commercialised indoor venues, such as shopping malls. It has also ended traditions such as the siesta, and condemned its users to what one critic calls “thermal monotony” – a global standard of 22°C (incidentally, a level calibrated to suit men, who have a higher metabolic rate than women).

My comment: I cringe with embarrassment. The height of summer was so scorchingly hot that we had a new aircon machine installed on the roof. Just shows – even environmentalist epicureans can sometimes be hypocrites. But not often! (at least, that’s my claim).

A Tale of Cruelty and Despair (in the UK)

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The way dementia patients in care homes have been treated during this pandemic “should make us sick with shame and pity”. Afflicted by an illness that attacks their memory and sense of self, they draw special comfort from the presence of loved ones. Yet in the name of infection control, the Government has seen to it that this vital human link has been denied them. No longer visited, they feel confused, abandoned. But it’s not the fault of the care homes: it’s the grotesquely inflexible official guidelines, which prohibit those who run the homes from devising sensible precautions while still acting humanely towards those in their charge.

That’s why John’s Campaign, a not-for-profit movement aimed at getting the Government to reform these rules, is so worthy of support. One of its main concerns is to ensure that family carers are no longer seen as “visitors”, but instead treated as a crucial part of the clinical team needing the same protection, testing and status as other key workers. The Government must be made to bring this “avoidable suffering” to an end.
(Nicci Gerrard, The Observer and The Week, 19 September 20)

My comment: Caring for people with memory loss can be very stressful. I have personal experience of dealing with someone with memory loss and intense frustration, which manifested itself as physical attacks on me personally, and upon others. This resulted in having to move her from home to home when carers could no longer cope. I salute those, usually poorly paid, who undertake this caring task on a daily basis.

Prescient!

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The Monmouth University Polling Institute conducted a poll in 2019. One thousand people were interviewed about their attitude towards religious fundamentalism, ethnocentric prejudice, and their political views and affiliations. The book written on the subject, “Authoritarian Nightmare: Donald Trump and his followers” by John Dean and Bob Altermeyer, was reviewed in the Washington Post on October 4th 2020. The following points are abstracted from that review:

– Most Trump supporters are highly authoritarian and religious. If necessary, were Trump unavailable, they would back another “strong” leader to take his place.
– Trump followers are overwhelmingly concerned about the “corruption” of American society. They don’t care about incompetence and dishonesty but are highly prejudiced against non-Anglo colored people, and would back Trump just as long as he protected them from the “danger“ of “lawless” minorities and immigrants.
– Trump supporters would support prosecution of his opponents, and would back him in the event that he had purportedly lost re-election, if he claimed it to be fraudulent, labeling it “fake news” (he has done so)
33% of respondents would “follow him anywhere”.
– Donald Trump followers have a remarkable lack of self-awareness. They assume that the “swamp” occupants look down on them anyway and don’t care about them or the views of the outside world, applauding Trump’s treatment of women, the military, the established system of American allies etc.

The book concludes (well before the recent election) that the US could be facing more strife and even an existential challenge.

My take: Yes, this blog is not supposed to discuss partisan politics. But the possibility of the undermining (even end) of the democratic system, enabled by politicians in Congress, is scary. The anxiety is made worse by the probability that the new Administration will meet a stone wall if it tries to get bipartisan agreement on anything important. One cannot govern successfully if obstructed on everything, and with a former President undermining the government every day of his life.

Who envíes President-elect Biden?

Death penalty

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Today’s Washington Post carries the news that the death penalty is alive and well and is being carried out, in several cases, in what appears to be a hurry before the change of administrations.

I naively believed for some reason that the deliberate killing of prisoners at the hands of the government was a barbaric thing of the past. Whatever the crimes of the several candidates for the elecic chair, killing them is pointless revenge and makes us complicit in what amounts to yet another murder.

The truth is that the death penalty is no deterrent to the killer. He (or she) is not going to pause before a murder and reflect on the risk to their own lives. You have to be, almost by definition, mentally disturbed to kill another human being. The electric chair might gratify a certain blood lust but does not deter murder. In short, the death penalty, banned in most civilized countries, is not only un-Epicurean but un-Christian as well.
What we should be doing is taking away as many means of murder as possible, and that refers, for a start, to controlling who can tote a gun. We should also put more money behind mental health.

The dire housing situation for so many people

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Before the pandemic hit, about 3.7m evictions were filed in the US in an average year – seven evictions every minute. Most poor renting families spent at least half of their income on housing costs and about one in four of those families spent more than 70%.

Most white families in the US own their homes in the US; most black families do not. Housing is the main driver of inequality.

The extremes of wealth and poverty in the US is a disgrace. One does not have to be a follower of Epicurus to realize this; the last time I looked it was against all christian principles as well. The future of the United States is not likely to be a happy one unless something is done about inequality, starting with education (please!)