Keepin’ It Cool: How the Air Conditioner Made Modern America

The world’s wealthiest can easily ignore rising temperatures by turning up their air conditioners. “But the effects of air conditioners reach far beyond atmospherics to the ways we build our houses, where in the country we live, and how we spend our time,” explains Rebecca J. Rosen of the Atlantic. “Air conditioners are the enablers of modern American life.” The 1902 invention transformed communities and daily routines by reducing the need for porches, outdoor socializing and summer breaks in work schedules and paving the way for development of computers and other appliances. Air conditioning contributed to population growth and business development in southern states like Florida, Texas and Arizona, Rosen notes, and allowed desert cities like Dubai to become global hubs. Shifting patterns of population growth and business development may yet continue with rising wealth in emerging economies of China, India and Brazil and an increasing reliance on air conditioning. – YaleGlobal