behold the power of cold

I haven't had time to read the article yet, but AlterNet displayed this great graphic demonstrating air-conditioning's effect on where people live in the US. It shows population changes in major cities over the past 50 years, when air-conditioning was introduced, and their average summer high temps. Clearly, almost no one would live year round in Las Vegas, the country's fastest-growing city, if not for air-con.

It's interesting to consider that the huge leaps in civic success of big southern cities haven't rested as much on effective planning, business know-how, and hard work as much as they may have on mass migration and rising tax bases.

Currently 20% of the electricity generated in the US goes to cooling us down. Air-conditioning has become a necessity that will exact a very big toll if we don't better address how to provide it with greener buildings and more sustainable power generation.