![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabbySo, I don't have a thermometer, but I'd estimate the current temperature of Missnegativity HQ* at 30ºC or more. Here's a science experiment that demonstrates exactly how hot it is:
9:45 PM
Overnight
I don't know how long it's supposed to take a block of solid ice to melt, but it seemed pretty fast. I live on a third-floor apartment with a full southern exposure, upstairs from a restaurant. The apartment is configured in such a way that all the heat from the restaurant ovens somehow ends up in my bedroom. I have two fans blowing cross currents but they don't help much. Neither kitty nor I have any sort of an appetite (that might be good in his case, but I do worry. He's lethargic and cranky.) I look very much like I do in this portrait done by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rote -- frizzy-haired, red-faced, and with little anarchy symbols for eyes.
Okay, maybe not the last bit.
The point of this infodump is: It's fucking hot, and I want air conditioning.
"Oh teh nooes!" you say, "How can an environmentalist who complains about smog and talks about peak oil and energy efficiency be considering getting air conditioning? You hypocrite!"
So, in fairness, I started doing some research on why air conditioning is environmentally destructive and what kind of alternatives exist forguilty white liberals people who are really hot right now and want a better way to cool down.
PlanetFriendly has an informative page that seems to be typical of environmentalist approaches to heat and energy conservation. And by typical, I mean bourgeois, classist nonsense. There's a lot of that in the environmentalist movement, of course, which is why I'm often quick to qualify what sort of an environmentalist I am. Let's take a closer look at what I'm talking about.
First, they guilt you with all the reasons why you shouldn't have air conditioning. Thing is, they are right. It's destructive to the environment, it wastes valuable energy, it's isolating, and somewhere Halliburton is probably making a profit from it. Okay. My apartment feels like the Ninth Circle of Hell here. Tell me what I should do about it!
Fans in each room: Okay, got that. I have three rooms and two fans. I don't need a fan in the bathroom. I have fans in the bedroom and kitchen. They're not actually helping very much. The site suggests ceiling fans. I'm sure my landlord will love it if I install one of those.
This is where the classism begins to emerge. Because I live in a rental building, like many people in urban areas, very few of the solutions mentioned on this site are feasible. This -- and every other site I've found about energy conservation -- is aimed at people who own their own homes. Middle class and rich people. The same people who are driving cars all over the city and filling it with smog.
Some of the other solutions -- "long-term solutions" encouraged by these fine folks: weatherization/insulation; light-coloured roofs; attic ventilation; deciduous shade trees; window awnings; highly insulative construction methods such as strawbale.
Here is a picture of my street. Plz tell me where I can plant deciduous shade trees kthnxbye.
They also suggest things like having a healthy diet and living near "green and shady spaces or a large body of water." This is great for the sort of people who get to shop around for a home. I'm afraid that all of the condos near the waterfront are already sold, though, so I'm out of luck there.
The best suggestion, though? Take off your shirt. Nope, I've never thought of that one. As I'm sitting here, I'm wearing a sweater. And mittens.
A sample quote:
Dear "primitivists" and Deep Ecologists: It's these sorts of statements that make the rest of us -- even those of us who might otherwise be sympathetic to your arguments -- not take you very seriously.
So I'm back where I started -- still looking for a way not to die of heatstroke. I don't think getting air conditioning would be the worst thing. After all, the same factors that make my place unbearable in the summer make it incredibly energy-efficient in the winter. This winter, I only had my heat turned on for about two weeks. It probably balances out. On top of that, living where I do means that I don't need to drive anywhere, I can buy locally-grown food for the most part, and I'm not sucking up huge amounts of energy.
This is another illustration of the idiocy of politics based on white liberal guilt. There's not a lot that I, an individual who already leads a not-really-damaging-by-First-World-standards lifestyle, can actually do about the smog problem in my city. It's caused by car-centric urban planning. We don't need people like me feeling guilty about air conditioning. We need cities that are designed better to integrate work and life, sustainable energy and development, and a sense of community. That's not saying that an individual shouldn't care or try to minimize the damaging impact of his or her lifestyle. But guilt trips are counterproductive and detract from the real, permanent solutions.
Still, if any of you have alternatives (that wouldn't blow the shitty wiring in my building), I'd love to hear 'em.
+++
frandroid tagged me with the music meme...
List five songs that you are currently digging. it doesn't matter what genre they are from, whether they have words, or even if they're any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying right now. Post these instructions, the artist, and the song in your journal, then tag five other people to see what they're listening to.
The songs:
Free Satpal Ram - Asian Dub Foundation
Neo-Con Luv Song - Iron Sheik, featuring Excentrik and Masari
Farewell to Nova Scotia - Stan Rogers
The Phantom of the Opera - Lacrimosa
Sleep Somehow - Wolfsheim
[Insert comment about having rather varied taste in music here]
I'm not tagging any of you. If you haven't done it yet and want to, consider this your invitation.
* I should have a contest to name Missnegativity HQ. We always meant to name the building something cool when the PKK boys were downstairs and Sara lived across the hall, and never got around to it.
9:45 PM
Overnight
I don't know how long it's supposed to take a block of solid ice to melt, but it seemed pretty fast. I live on a third-floor apartment with a full southern exposure, upstairs from a restaurant. The apartment is configured in such a way that all the heat from the restaurant ovens somehow ends up in my bedroom. I have two fans blowing cross currents but they don't help much. Neither kitty nor I have any sort of an appetite (that might be good in his case, but I do worry. He's lethargic and cranky.) I look very much like I do in this portrait done by
rote -- frizzy-haired, red-faced, and with little anarchy symbols for eyes.Okay, maybe not the last bit.
The point of this infodump is: It's fucking hot, and I want air conditioning.
"Oh teh nooes!" you say, "How can an environmentalist who complains about smog and talks about peak oil and energy efficiency be considering getting air conditioning? You hypocrite!"
So, in fairness, I started doing some research on why air conditioning is environmentally destructive and what kind of alternatives exist for
PlanetFriendly has an informative page that seems to be typical of environmentalist approaches to heat and energy conservation. And by typical, I mean bourgeois, classist nonsense. There's a lot of that in the environmentalist movement, of course, which is why I'm often quick to qualify what sort of an environmentalist I am. Let's take a closer look at what I'm talking about.
First, they guilt you with all the reasons why you shouldn't have air conditioning. Thing is, they are right. It's destructive to the environment, it wastes valuable energy, it's isolating, and somewhere Halliburton is probably making a profit from it. Okay. My apartment feels like the Ninth Circle of Hell here. Tell me what I should do about it!
Fans in each room: Okay, got that. I have three rooms and two fans. I don't need a fan in the bathroom. I have fans in the bedroom and kitchen. They're not actually helping very much. The site suggests ceiling fans. I'm sure my landlord will love it if I install one of those.
This is where the classism begins to emerge. Because I live in a rental building, like many people in urban areas, very few of the solutions mentioned on this site are feasible. This -- and every other site I've found about energy conservation -- is aimed at people who own their own homes. Middle class and rich people. The same people who are driving cars all over the city and filling it with smog.
Some of the other solutions -- "long-term solutions" encouraged by these fine folks: weatherization/insulation; light-coloured roofs; attic ventilation; deciduous shade trees; window awnings; highly insulative construction methods such as strawbale.
Here is a picture of my street. Plz tell me where I can plant deciduous shade trees kthnxbye.
They also suggest things like having a healthy diet and living near "green and shady spaces or a large body of water." This is great for the sort of people who get to shop around for a home. I'm afraid that all of the condos near the waterfront are already sold, though, so I'm out of luck there.
The best suggestion, though? Take off your shirt. Nope, I've never thought of that one. As I'm sitting here, I'm wearing a sweater. And mittens.
A sample quote:
For years we've been brainwashed by the advertising industry to feel ashamed of our bodies. To believe that sweat is disgusting – while the chemical stench of deodorants, hairsprays and perfumes is somehow acceptable.
Dear "primitivists" and Deep Ecologists: It's these sorts of statements that make the rest of us -- even those of us who might otherwise be sympathetic to your arguments -- not take you very seriously.
So I'm back where I started -- still looking for a way not to die of heatstroke. I don't think getting air conditioning would be the worst thing. After all, the same factors that make my place unbearable in the summer make it incredibly energy-efficient in the winter. This winter, I only had my heat turned on for about two weeks. It probably balances out. On top of that, living where I do means that I don't need to drive anywhere, I can buy locally-grown food for the most part, and I'm not sucking up huge amounts of energy.
This is another illustration of the idiocy of politics based on white liberal guilt. There's not a lot that I, an individual who already leads a not-really-damaging-by-First-World-standards lifestyle, can actually do about the smog problem in my city. It's caused by car-centric urban planning. We don't need people like me feeling guilty about air conditioning. We need cities that are designed better to integrate work and life, sustainable energy and development, and a sense of community. That's not saying that an individual shouldn't care or try to minimize the damaging impact of his or her lifestyle. But guilt trips are counterproductive and detract from the real, permanent solutions.
Still, if any of you have alternatives (that wouldn't blow the shitty wiring in my building), I'd love to hear 'em.
+++
frandroid tagged me with the music meme...List five songs that you are currently digging. it doesn't matter what genre they are from, whether they have words, or even if they're any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying right now. Post these instructions, the artist, and the song in your journal, then tag five other people to see what they're listening to.
The songs:
Free Satpal Ram - Asian Dub Foundation
Neo-Con Luv Song - Iron Sheik, featuring Excentrik and Masari
Farewell to Nova Scotia - Stan Rogers
The Phantom of the Opera - Lacrimosa
Sleep Somehow - Wolfsheim
[Insert comment about having rather varied taste in music here]
I'm not tagging any of you. If you haven't done it yet and want to, consider this your invitation.
* I should have a contest to name Missnegativity HQ. We always meant to name the building something cool when the PKK boys were downstairs and Sara lived across the hall, and never got around to it.
