Air Conditioning

THE FOURTH OF JULY came and went, and here in the hot humid southern part of the United States I still have not used my air conditioner this summer. Or, more accurately, I have used it in the car, but not in the house. I'm trying to see how long I can hold out without it, sort of a game, and also a money saver. I really didn't think I would last this long, and now, fortified and encouraged, I am setting my sights on Bastille Day (July 14) as my goal for AC abstinence. Maybe even beyond. Maybe, just maybe, I can make it all sumemr without ever once turning on the central air, although at some point I probably need to turn it on, if only briefly, just to make sure it still works and to give it some exercise. Cool as my shaded house stays, its hard to imagine enduring the entire upcoming months of July and August entirely without AC. At least, I never have yet. July and August in my neck of the woods are both brutal, just as they arein almost the entire northern hemisphere. My house was deliberately built twenty years ago firht smack dab between two large trees on both the east end and the west end of the house, both trees loom shadily over the house all summer long, and my house spends almost the entire day immersed in shade, and the sun is blocked for all but about two or three hours every day throught June, July, and August. At night, the internal temp gets down to about sventy degrees,and seldom rises above seventy five or six, ever, during the day. That's comfortable for me. When its ninety five outdoors, seventy five indoors will do just fine. Its a nice arrangement, and my heating and cooling bills are low. In the winter, the sun is low in the southern sky, and shine right through my leafless barren trees into my living rooom, which faces the south and has large picture windows. Thus have I managed to greatly reduce my "carbon footprint", which pleases me, and yes, it is important. Air condtioning spews...what....chloroflourocarbons, or some such, into the atmosphere? So it goes with freon gas circulation. Powerful greenhouse gases come from air conditioning, which ranks right up there with cattle raising and car driving as global warming sources. Twenty years ago,when I had my house built,I planted dozens of saplings on m property,and they have now all gorwn big, and supplant my neighbor's treesin keepingmy pro[erty cool in teh summer,but inundated in fallen leaves in the autumen and winter. Future, natural fertilizer, as I see it. I rakeup only the excess. I have a feeling that whoever owns this house and land after I die might not want to have as many trees as there are, and might cut some of them down. That, in my opinion, would be a mistake. When I reflect on how much I have decreased my driving over the past few years, I can take pride on my toned down contributions to climate change. At my age, seventy, you either givea damn about what happens on planet Earth after you die, or you don't. I do. I wnat to finish my life knowing,or at least believing that the difference I made, however small, contributed to something much, much greater than I; a long productive future of humanity, ever growing in knowledge, awareness, and progress. Therefore I fervantly hope that our descendants save themselves from the mess we are bestowing upon them. It would be far more comforting to believe that we, ourselves, and us, will have left this world after having at least begun the planetary healing process.