No summer blockbuster. No Las Vegas and no skyscrapers in Dubai. No chocolate bars when the weather gets hot. Air conditioning is one of those things we take for granted but that has transformed the world around us, for good and for bad.
There are 1.6 billion air conditioners in the world today and they consume an estimated 10% of all electricity. Both these figures are likely to rise dramatically as the climate changes.
But when air conditioning first appeared people were slow to adopt it. People were so used to suffering extreme heat that it's as if it was hard to believe this godsend was real. Now it is hard to imagine life in many parts of the world without it.
Who do we have to thank for this transformative piece of technology?
How did Queen Victoria keep cool?
And what is the connection between Hollywood's summer blockbusters and air conditioning?
Our guest to explore this world-changing technology is Salvatore Basile, author of – Cool: How Air Conditioning Changed Everything.
The episode was produced by Emily Whalley
The senior producer is Charlotte Long
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But we managed without baby formula for a very, very long time. So when did the United...
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The way we measure things changes the way we see the world. Measurements have shaped our history and are bound up in ideas of statehood, power and control.
“Measu...
Imagine knowing no language at all…
*wordlessness*
…and then giving birth to one.
This is what happened amongst the children at a school for the deaf in Nicaragua in the 1980s.
And my guest today was there to witness and document it.
Judy Shepard Kegl is a linguist who specialises in sign l...
