One of the things that weather forecasts do is help people plan ahead. Farmers, for example, really rely on forecasts. Emergency response planning depends on good forecasts. And warnings. Just ask those poor people in Texas. A better early warning system might have saved lives. We’ll never know and our Mob Boss president and his Clot of Gangsters will never tell. But slashing and burning your way through the federal budget—a crass bit of political theater—actually harms people. Important services disappear on the cutting floor and real-life, honest-to-god, American citizens get hurt.

It’s that time of year. The HOT time of year. By ten o’clock in the morning it is too hot to be outside. And it barely cools off by ten o’clock at night.

It’s a good thing we have A/C. We used to have a “swamp” cooler, that is an evaporative unit with a fan. That kind of cooling is simple and cheap and works great in a dry climate. But it was bulky and inconvenient, not too mention useless in humid weather, and hazardous in smoky weather. It pulled in outside air and the house would smell like a wet barbecue.

Air conditioning takes a lot of electricity. And specialized refrigerant chemicals. Our units are pretty sophisticated and required professional installation. (Anyone can install a swamp cooler!). But they work great.

Demand for A/C is only going to increase. That means a lot more electric motors which means a lot more copper and so on and so on. We are going to make the world a lot warmer by burning the energy we need to mine the stuff to make the stuff we need to cool down our homes and buildings!