If it does, I have "exercised" a lot indoors this summer!
I love spring. Temperatures start getting warmer, the grass is green again, flowers start blooming — there always seems to be a promise of renewal, and I get excited about things I want to do over the summer and all the possibilities of fresh produce and sunshine and being outdoors.
OK, so perhaps I am in love with spring.
Then it starts to get hot outside. And humid, and muggy. And every single restaurant, office, store, mall, airport and movie theater cranks up the air conditioning like it’s going out of style. Hope you enjoyed those fair-weathered days, because now we’ve entered The War of Extremes.
I had to keep myself from cheering in agreement when I read this New York Times opinion piece last month, “Oh to be warm in summer’s heat.” The piece is written by environmental reporter Elisabeth Rosenthal, who asks, “Why are airports, shops, offices and homes in the United States and elsewhere chilled to sweater-weather temperatures in summer when the temperature outside rises?”
Over the years, I’ve learned to fly in pants rather than shorts — no matter the outside weather — and pack a pair of socks in my purse. Two weekends ago when I flew out of Philadelphia, I had a T-shirt, sweater and fleece jacket on in the airport. Inside! In perfect-weather September!
Rosenthal explores a few potential reasons for our abundant use of AC, like the United States’ obsession with cold (ice in your soda, beer from the fridge). But what she also notes is the environmental impact of developing countries catching on to the U.S. habit of blasting the air conditioner when a temperature setting of 74, 76 — even 80 — degrees might do:
“If hundreds of millions people in China and India expect to be cooled to our frigid standard of 71.6 degrees all the time, the environmental impact might be far less comfortable.”
How do you handle your AC in the summer? What about the environments you can’t control, like a movie theater or an airport? Or have you forgone your unit in favor of open windows?
