The tip for beating the heat by ramping up the air conditioning is, in the bigger picture, incredibly misguided, and criticism of it is sharply on-topic. Donuel is right to say that we are failing to address the big issue, and there is absolutely no doubt that the resort to air conditioning, which consumes vast amounts of western nations' electricity generation, is one of the major contributors to that failure. It isn't even ironic that cooling your house or office makes the earth's atmosphere hotter. It's become bloody obvious, and your comfort is a dire threat to someone else, maybe someone a conveniently long way away, out of sight. Actually, thousands of air conditioners belching out hot air in a city makes that city considerably hotter, so it can even be bad on a local level.

An air-conditioned hospital ward can be vital and life-saving. That would be appropriate use of the technology. Routine use in homes and office blocks as soon as the temperature goes up is not appropriate. We occasionally stay at a hotel in London in which the rooms each have aircon - and non-opening windows. Insane.