In a Warming World, Air Conditioning Is a Necessary Evil. Or Is it?

As carbon emissions push Earth’s average temperature to new heights and usher in unprecedented heat waves, humanity’s reliance on air conditioning is growing. The trouble is, AC consumes massive amounts of energy and—due to the world’s continued reliance on fossil fuels—emits lots of carbon.

Overcoming this feedback loop presents a significant engineering challenge that is becoming increasingly urgent as the world warms. Enter passive cooling: non-mechanical approaches to lowering indoor temperatures.

2026 Newly Elected Members of World Academy of Art and Science

In July, WAAS announced the results of its 2026 elections. Six new Trustees were elected, while two Trustees were re-elected. The Academy also elected 25 new Fellows and six new Associate Fellows, and re-elected one Associate Fellow and seven Junior Fellows.

Air conditioning is not enough to keep people cool — can scientists find an alternative?

 

As large swathes of Europe and Asia swelter through record heatwaves this summer, discussions have centred around an obvious way to keep people cool: more air conditioners. Popular in high-income countries such as the United States, Japan and Australia, these units are less common in homes in Europe or in low-income countries. But air conditioners are expensive to run, use vast amounts of energy and generate heat, so installing them in every home that needs one is not the answer, say scientists. Instead, they say that, over the past few years, there have been advances in materials that passively cool buildings, offering a solution without the drawbacks.

Letter of the President of the Legislative Council

 

Air Conditioning Saves Lives. Scientists Think It Also Might Doom Us All.

 

One of the major reasons we find ourselves in this current climate crisis is because of a near-religious devotion to convenience. For more than a century, scientists have known that burning coal warms the planet, but the finite, energy-dense resource was too convenient a fuel to pass up. Some of the first cars to ever hit the road were clean electric cars, but cars with internal combustion engines were more convenient to mass produce. And so on.

As the planet continues to inch past the 1.5 ºC increase in global temperature—a threshold originally reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as critical to avoiding catastrophic climate impacts—this same dedication to convenience dominates the conversation

Διακοπές στα τσιμεντονήσια: Το φαινόμενο της αστικής θερμικής νησίδας και πώς το αποφεύγουμε

Για τον έναν στους δύο Έλληνες που δεν θα πάει διακοπές φέτος το καλοκαίρι, το φαινόμενο της αστικής θερμικής νησίδας φροντίζει να τον μεταφέρει νοερά σε τροπικές ζώνες, με άσφαλτο και τσιμέντο αντί για βλάστηση.

Πρόκειται για ένα φαινόμενο που το γνωρίζουμε πολύ καλά όσοι ζούμε σε πυκνοκατοικημένες περιοχές, ακόμα και αν δεν ξέρουμε πώς να το ονομάσουμε. Η αστική θερμική νησίδα

BUILD UP Expert Talk - Matthaios Santamouris