On Monday, the Obama administration publicly unveiled its Clean Power Plan in an effort to fight climate change, pushing the issue to the forefront of political debate. Climate change, caused in part by greenhouse gas emissions, will change how Americans use air conditioning and heating in their homes. At the end of the century, as winters get warmer, the number of days each year that northern states use heating and air conditioning will decrease. Meanwhile, the number of days in which southern states use these utilities will increase, inevitably putting people at risk for a number of health problems.
Recently researchers calculated changes in temperature over the last 30 years (1981 to 2010), including when temperatures were low enough to require heating or high enough to require air conditioning in order to establish a “comfort level” of 65 degrees. For the study, published in Scientific Reports, they also made projections based on the model, calculating when and where heating or air conditioning would be needed to maintain this comfort level shouldgreenhouse gas emissions continue to cause climate change in the way they have.
“Changes in outdoor temperatures have a substantial impact on energy use inside,” said Ken Caldeira, an author of the study and senior scientist at the Carnegie Institution of Science’s Department of Global Ecology, in a statement. “So as the climate changes due to greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the amount of energy we use to keep our homes comfortable will also change.”
If our country continues to go about business as usual, sometime between 2080 and 2099, climate change will cause states that have a high number of heating-required days to stop using their heating systems. In other words, states like Minnesota, Maine, and some parts of North Dakota won’t need to use heating systems during the winter as their days get warmer. Meanwhile, states like Florida and Texas will see increases in the number of days they use air conditioning.
Researchers then looked at the total number of heating-required days and the air conditioning-required days from both the past and the projected future to determine where in the country temperatures were most comfortable. They found the city with the minimum number of days required for both heating and cooling was San Diego. However, their future projections suggest that around the end of the century, the city with the most comfortable outdoor temperature will be San Francisco. In New York City, the number of heating and cooling days required will be equal to current day’s Oklahoma City, Okla., according to the researchers.
This research is a small example of the way in which greenhouse gas emissions will affect the planet as a whole, inevitably affecting how and where we live. Warming temperatures also cause a range of health effects, including aiding in the spread of mosquito-borne diseases and increasing the risk of heat strokes. Rising temperatures also cause increases in air and water pollutants, affecting people with respiratory problems, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
Of course, the research assumes that greenhouse gas emissions and energy usage will stay the same in America — President Obama’s plan might reduce these emissions by a significant margin. A survey from the Pew Research Center showed that while most American adults (64 percent) are in favor of moving to limit emissions, 31 percent of adults oppose it. Republican leaders vowed to oppose the plan, stating that it would cause electricity prices to increase.
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