Last year, you could still buy a 2-door Jeep Wrangler Sport without air conditioning. This was the only American car left on the market without air conditioning as standard equipment.
Alas, no longer. As of 2023, you have to buy your Jeep Wrangler Sport with air conditioning.
Sorry, folks, you don’t have a choice.
Of course, no one is requiring you to actually turn on the air conditioning. If you want, you can simply remove the doors and the roof instead. You might end up getting sand on the dashboard, and in your beverage holder, but everything has its disadvantages, doesn’t it?
There are also disadvantages to using an air conditioner.
First of all, “real men” do not use an air conditioner. A real man sweats. Sometimes profusely. Is the weather too hot? The real man takes off his shirt. Maybe even the roof of his car. He definitely doesn’t turn on the air conditioner.
Another disadvantage is global warming. (This applies also to women).
Most people don’t even think about the fact that they are contributing to global warming when they turn on their air conditioner. On the contrary, they might even blame global warming for their summertime electric bill.
So we need to sort out who is to blame, for what.
Mechanical cooling of interior spaces was invented accidentally by Willis Carrier in 1902, who was trying to invent a machine to control humidity. It turns out that cooler air holds less water vapor than warm air, so making a room cooler also makes it less humid. Mr. Carrier soon discovered that people generally like cooler temperatures, especially in the summertime. The first widespread use of air conditioning was in movie theaters… back in the day of double features, which could in some cases require up to four hours sitting in a stuffy theater.
Now that we are binge-watching on Netflix from the couch, we expect to have air conditioning in our own homes.
Here in America, air temperature has become so important to us that 48 percent of all energy consumption in American homes comes from cooling and heating, according to the Energy Information Administration.. Of course, that doesn’t include movie theaters, shopping malls, marijuana dispensaries, and Jeep Wranglers.
Some economists warn that America’s romance with air conditioning is now spreading — like a pandemic? — to the rest of the world.
The real problem isn’t the energy consumption, even though that’s certainly something to worry about.
The real problem is the fact that air conditioners extract heat from interior spaces. But the excess heat they extract doesn’t disappear; it has to go somewhere. Where does it go?
Into the atmosphere.
Willis Carrier didn’t fully think that part through, back in 1902… that he was creating a machine that cause allow businesses and homes to pump excess heat into the atmosphere. Or maybe he thought the atmosphere could contain all that extra heat, without causing people to form organizations like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The makers of the Jeep Wrangler held out as long as they could. Then they caved.
But I’m not blaming them (even though I’m sorely tempted to). And I’m not blaming Americans, or the people around the world who want to live like Americans. Heck, even I myself would like to live like an American.
But we need to blame someone. So I’m blaming Willis Carrier.
It’s always better to blame someone who’s no longer living.
Which will be all of us, someday soon. “No longer living”.
At the rate we’re going.