How May Future Climate Change Influence Global Seasonal Cooling Demands? (Credit: Climate Central)

DISCUSSION: As planet Earth continues to evolve with time, there is little to no debate that global climate change issues will continue to impact various aspects of the global economy. The greatest concerns are tied to the fact that as the Earth’s average seasonal temperatures continue to gradually increase with time, there will continue to be a proportional increase in the respective energy demands by people from around the world. More specifically, with hotter Summer days, there will be more and more demands for air conditioning resources around the world as well as water demands for both general day-to-day hydration and cool showers. To get a bit more into this issue, there is an exact excerpt attached below from a recent article which was published by the online science writer team from Climate Central which goes into greater detail regarding how this issue has evolved over time.
 
“Summers are getting hotter and this is coming with a cost. As greenhouse gases build in the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels, the number of hotter average and extreme temperatures continues to mount. To better understand how this is impacting local communities, Climate Central analyzed trends in cooling degree days and minimum temperatures for cities across the U.S. in a special report: The High Cost of HOT.
 
Our study analyzed the number of nights each year when the temperature remained above 65°F (for cities that rarely experience nights above 65°F, we chose 55°F), which is an engineering temperature standard for keeping buildings cool. In our analysis of 244 cities across the U.S., we found that 87 percent are having more of these warm nights since 1970, with the biggest increase in the Southwest. Warming nights are driving the increase in average temperatures. According to NOAA/NCEI, overnight lows since 1900 are warming at a 20 percent higher rate than the daytime highs.
 
Another way to measure the increase in heat is  cooling degree days (CDD), which are used to determine how much cooling is needed to keep a building at a comfortable temperature. CDDs do not actually measure days at all. Rather, they measure the number of degrees that the daily average temperature is above 65°F. So, if the average temperature for a day is 80°F, there were 15 CDDs in that day. Some of the largest increases in CDDs are also seen in the Southwest, however CDDs are increasing sharply in places that traditionally did not need air conditioning in the summer months. For example, the number of CDDs has nearly doubled in San Francisco and Portland, Oregon in the last half-century.”
 
However, another major issue is the corresponding increase in the cost to power such facilities which are responsible for providing cooling resources. This is a very complicated issue but can nonetheless be addressed through a brief overview of the topic which was reasonably well captured as well by the Climate Central team’s investigations Thus, attached below is another excerpt from the corresponding article which discusses the issues of cost in much greater detail.

“Cooling costs are rising as a result. Air conditioning already makes up the largest share of residential electricity use (17 percent) in the U.S., with Americans spending over $27 billion to cool their homes in 2015. The average annual cost for homes with air conditioning across the U.S. is approximately $250, but in the high use areas of the South, air conditioning costs are almost $450 a year. A 2014 Climate Central analysis of projected future summer temperatures shows that by 2100, New England summers will be as hot as current summers in Florida, dramatically increasing the need for artificial cooling.”

To learn more about the actual warming projections as investigated from across the United States courtesy of the corresponding article generated by Climate Central research team, click here!

To learn more about other global climate topics, be sure to click here!

© 2018 Meteorologist Jordan Rabinowitz