Can using less AC save the planet?

Are you selfish for wanting air conditioning? That’s what one CNN opinion writer, Paul Hockenos, recently wrote. He basically says Americans in particular are spoiled babies for expecting air conditioning to be running in most buildings when it’s hot outside or having pleasant temperatures everywhere you go all the time. Hockenos is from Berlin, Germany. I don’t know much about the weather in Germany, but I’m guessing he hasn’t lived through two months of straight 100-plus temperatures.

So what are we being selfish about, you may ask. He believes there are “environmental implications” with all the wasteful, high-energy usage. No, he didn’t use the little old lady in her house possibly dying of a heat stroke because our electric grid fails as an excuse to lower our AC usage. He uses the reasoning of saving the planet.

Who are we saving the planet for? I don’t think this man really cares about “who.” I think he cares more about sounding virtuous, or possibly politics.

That’s my problem with so many climate alarmists. Although they say they do, they don’t really care about people. Most of them do what they wag their fingers at the rest of us for doing - like driving cars and flying in planes and sitting in their homes with a comfortable temperature. Many of the famous climate alarmists like Al Gore and Leo DiCaprio try to shame us while doing much more to supposedly harm the Earth than most of us regular folks could even imagine.

I believe God made the Earth for humans to use. Yes, we should care for His creation. He did ask us to do just that. We shouldn’t be wasteful or destructive, but we were also told to take dominion of this planet and make something of it. Our technological advances should be celebrated. Those advances have helped people live longer and more quality lives. It seems like many of these people want us plebeians to go back to the dark ages and stop using electricity and stop traveling. Hockenos even gripes about us using refrigeration since the technology used for cooling contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. I guess he would rather eat out all the time? Or does he have a garden and chickens? I’m not sure how to limit refrigeration use and still eat a balanced diet.

They are in essence asking people who are poorer than them to suffer and sacrifice in order to save the planet. Our health, our needs, and yes our frivolous desires, do not matter to them. And it still remains to be proven that making any of these changes in our lives will make a real difference for the environment.

Since I believe that God created the universe, it’s hard for me to imagine being arrogant enough to think that what I do can doom or save the entire planet. I cannot believe that driving a pickup truck or setting my thermostat on 68 degrees at night will undo what God has done or thwart the plans He has for this planet and beyond.

Now, if you tell me that turning my thermostat up a couple degrees and trying to carpool more on long trips might prevent my town from losing power, which could harm vulnerable people in my community, I might consider a change.

I also have a hard time believing that our Earth is in such parel based on the actions of our current leaders. While they are sounding the alarm on the future of our planet, our President is going to other countries, who have much worse track records than the US does as far as environmental concerns go, begging for them to produce more oil. If things are in such bad shape, then why doesn’t our country invest more in American oil production, which is known to be produced with more concern for the environment than most of the rest of the world.

I think it’s more about making a huge change to how our economy runs and making people more dependent on the government than it is about saving the planet, and I don’t want that to happen.

So when our current national leaders and celebrities and the media begin to cry about the state of our planet, I simply do not believe them. If you want to show me you care, stop preaching and take your own actions. I don’t believe any of them are worried about our planet, and I don’t believe they care about the planet or the people who live on it, just like that CNN writer from Berlin.

Kimberly Jones is a Nolan County native, former news reporter, writer, wife, mother, and lover of small-town life. If you have an idea you would like to share with her, email her at kimberlyjgray74@gmail.com.