Air conditioning is not an option when countries are hit by natural disasters. Be it wildfires or hurricanes and tropical storms. Today, 2.5 million people in Texas are without power due to downed power lines caused by Hurricane Beryl. Hurricane Katrina, not the deadliest in New Orleans, was warm and responsible for at least nine of the city’s 14 hurricane-related deaths.
Air conditioning is not a panacea, it is the least reliable measure. Air conditioning uses huge amounts of energy, most of which comes from fossil fuels that still warm the planet, meaning it exacerbates the very problem it’s used to alleviate.
Moreover, it is only available to those who can afford it and pay for its use, further widening social inequality. At the same time 2024 looks more hostile than 2023.
But this is the difference between life and death, staying and fleeing. It allows people to live in places where temperatures approach habitable limits and extreme heat persists even at night.
The demand for air conditioning is increasing as is the demand for electricity
Demand for air conditioning is increasing and is expected to triple globally by 2050 as global temperatures rise and incomes rise. The problem is that without electricity, there is no access to air conditioning.
Due to increasingly frequent extreme weather and increased demand for cooling, many power grids are reaching breaking point. Sometimes with the complicity of citizens who do not properly regulate cooling.
Air conditioning works best with windows and doors closed, about 10 degrees above indoor temperature. When the set temperature is reached, the air conditioner turns off. But if it’s set to an unrealistic temperature like 18 degrees Celsius, it will run continuously drawing power every minute until you turn it off. Something citizens pay out of pocket, but also with power outages, small or large drops in the network render the air conditioner unusable.
According to a report by Climate Central, a nonprofit research group, 80 percent of U.S. power outages between 2000 and 2023 are due to weather. “Every aspect of weather is hitting an already vulnerable network and really testing it,” Jen Brady, senior data analyst at Climate Central, told CNN.
The aging grid in the U.S. is “not designed for the weather of the future, but for the weather of the past,” said Michael Webber, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.
Between 2017 and 2020, the number of blackouts in the United States doubled
Heat has an effect. In very hot weather, the system works less efficiently. Webber compares it to how someone running a marathon in the heat might feel – “we just collapse”. The grid can also buckle under the weight of demand as everyone turns on their air conditioners at the same time to combat the high temperatures.
The number of major outages in the United States that affect more than 50,000 customers and last at least an hour doubled between 2017 and 2020, said Brian Stone Jr., a professor of urban environmental planning and design at the Georgia Institute of Technology. .
“Most of the growth happens in the summer months, which tells me that these systems are not sustainable,” he told CNN.
Power cuts for everyone – Worldwide
Power outages are now commonplace in most countries around the world. The United States is not alone in facing these problems. In June, when The temperature in the south of Europe exceeded 40 degrees, Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Italy and some regions of Montenegro have experienced power outages for hours due to increased demand for electricity. And Sicily is getting ready becoming desert or at least 1/3 of their land.
“If a grid goes down during a heat wave, it goes from unpleasant to deadly very quickly,” Webber said.
Heat can affect vital organs and cause heat exhaustion, heat stroke, and even death. If the power goes out when it’s very cold, people can dress in layers, light a fire, and gather together. “If it’s too hot, there’s only one way to cool down, and that’s electricity,” Webber said.
Power cuts and heat waves spell death for vulnerable groups
The combination of heat and power outages is “the deadliest climate event we can imagine,” Stone said.
He and a team of scientists examined the potential effects of a heat wave coinciding with a multi-day power outage caused by extreme weather or a cyber attack.
Focusing on Atlanta, Detroit and Phoenix, they looked at the impact on people’s homes during power outages, a major factor in heat-related illness.
800,000 people will need hospitalization
The evidence was particularly stark for Phoenix. During a three- to four-day heat wave and shutdown, half of the city’s population — about 800,000 people — will need hospitalization for heat-related illnesses, according to the findings.
More than 13,000 would die. Ironically, air conditioning can make residents less tolerant because they’re used to cooling their homes and workplaces, Stone said.
Phoenix officials say the city is well prepared. Mayor Kate Gallego said Stone’s investigation was based on an extremely unlikely scenario. “The study doesn’t take into account any of the emergency response plans in place or the fact that our power grid is consistently among the most reliable in the country,” Gallego told CNN.
The best defense is to reduce the pollution that causes global warming
Drastically reducing planet-warming pollution is the best long-term defense against heat and extreme weather, Stone said, but the world is already committed to several decades of warming. There are ways to limit vulnerabilities in the short term. Making the grid more robust and resilient is one of them, Stone said.
This includes repairs and upgrades that take into account the climate of the future. Expanding and modernizing the grid, including adding more power plants and providing a variety of energy sources, will also help strengthen it, Webber said.
“But we also have to recognize that these networks are going to fail, and they’re failing more often, and so we have to have backup plans,” Stone said.
Green is necessary to reduce electricity consumption
This means rethinking cities where trees are replaced by concrete, steel and asphalt. Designing urban areas to be greener and cooler “can improve the resilience of the grid without really investing in the grid itself,” he said.
Climate Central’s Brady pointed to community solar projects that can keep local power going when the grid goes out. Babcock Ranch in Florida – “America’s first solar town” – managed to turn on the lights when Hurricane Ian passed in 2022, unlike nearby cities.
Homes that better adapt to extreme weather can help reduce electricity demand when temperatures rise.
Ultimately, “we’re vulnerable because we’ve built our lives around air conditioning,” says Webber, living in places where life would be impossible without it. The pressure extreme weather puts on the grid shows that “climate change is here and we have to deal with it.”