Pirate's Cove

More specifically, they are concerned about the rising use of air conditioners in 3rd world shitholes developing nations

(NY Times) In the ramshackle apartment blocks and sooty concrete homes that line the dusty roads of urban India, there is a new status symbol on proud display. An air-conditioner has become a sign of middle-class status in developing nations, a must-have dowry item.

It is cheaper than a car, and arguably more life-changing in steamy regions, where cooling can make it easier for a child to study or a worker to sleep.

But as air-conditioners sprout from windows and storefronts across the world, scientists are becoming increasingly alarmed about the impact of the gases on which they run. All are potent agents of global warming.

Can we expect that the Times will turn off their A/C units at their headquarters? Insert laugh track here.

But these gases have an impact the ozone treaty largely ignores. Pound for pound, they contribute to global warming thousands of times more than does carbon dioxide, the standard greenhouse gas.

The leading scientists in the field have just calculated that if all the equipment entering the world market uses the newest gases currently employed in air-conditioners, up to 27 percent of all global warming will be attributable to those gases by 2050.

What that is referring to are the newer forms of gas that is being used to make the A/C units operate, now that the old CFCs are rarely used. Oh, and the standard greenhouse gas is water vapor, not CO2.

Anyhow, this article has driven Philip Bump at Grist over the edge.

For me, sitting in New York City where the temperature is still hot (as I won’t shut up about), this article is basically like the New York Times decided to tell me that my best friend is the world’s biggest jerk. I know that, New York Times. I know my best friend is a jerk. But he is my best friend.

You know what I read, New York Times? I read that chopping down trees and making paper out of them and slathering them with ink in a futile effort to cling onto a legacy media format that is far past its prime is also bad for the environment! That’s what I read, New York Times!

Deep breath.

I’m sorry. That was uncalled for. Yes, the gasses in air conditioners are bad for the environment. But the gasses in my air conditioner, my one little air conditioner – which is in Energy Saver mode, mind you – aren’t bad. They’re just his gasses! He can’t help it! Don’t pick on him, New York Times (and your affiliated research scientists).

Hmm. So, we know that air conditioners are bad for anthropogenic global warming (they actually do contribute a little bit, just to be clear), yet Warmists won’t give them up to save Gaia from developing a fever. Weird.