QUESTIONS NOBODY IS ASKING: “Is aircon right wing? How cooling systems got caught in a culture war, “ the London Independent claims.

Even though the UK has nowhere near the 90 per cent of homes in the US with air conditioning, demand for some kind of relief from the heat is reportedly soaring, with a 64 per cent increase in AC unit sales between 2023 and 2024. The UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) estimates that up to a third of British homes will have aircon by 2050.

This is a fundamental change in the way we live. For decades, anything over 25 in the UK has been proclaimed “a scorcher” by the newspapers. Puzzled American tourists complaining about the lack of AC in Britain would be told wryly that the country is naturally air-conditioned most of the year round.

However, across ever-hotter Europe, when it comes to turning your house into a fridge, there is a large, sweaty elephant in the room.

Attacking the climate crisis head-on using technology, with the accompanying summer surge in electricity usage – an extra 7 gigawatts of it, according to the UKERC – is becoming deeply political.

People broadly on the right are prepared to put comfort ahead of environmental concerns. People broadly on the left tend to say that aircon is distinctly uncool, almost as if sweating through the summer is our moral comeuppance for humanity’s longstanding profligacy.

You know what else is distinctly uncool? Making insane doomsday predictions:

Also, I’d like to know if the Independent believes that greater access to air conditioning would benefit this beleaguered class:

In any case, in America, it’s best to not take chances. As Glenn wrote in 2016: Ban A/C for DC! “We won two world wars without air conditioning our federal employees. Nothing in their performance over the last 50 or 60 years suggests that A/C has improved things. Besides, The Washington Post informs us that A/C is sexist, and that Europeans think it’s stupid.”