By Danny Bloom
CHIAYI CITY, TAIWAN — It’s a novel approach, blaming it all on the air conditioning men.
Kathy Shaidle is a longtime historian of air conditioning, and from her base in Canada, she explains to all who are hot and sweaty as the summer of 2012 heats up, on both sides of the political divide: “Pre-air conditioning, [East Coast] Jews who could afford the trip traveled to the Catskills resorts [each summer in the 1950s] to cool down. They were ‘entertained’ by budding and veteran stand up comics, best represented by sole Borscht Belt survivor Jackie Mason.”
But then something unforeseen happened, Shaidle says on her humor blog “Five Feet of Fury,” and her remark is telling: “As affordable home air conditioning became ubiquitous [in the 1950s and 60s], these trips became less necessary until the Catskills was reduced to a shadow of its former self. It’s over 300 venues for comedy died off.”
Then she asks a very interesting question, something only a humorist would think of: “What if the Catskills comics had tried to ban air conditioning in NYC because it threatened their ‘way of life’?” In other words, who knew that the invention of air conditioning would spell the end of Jewish comedy in the Catskills? Indeed, who knew?
I bring this up here because recently the New York Times featured a roundtable discussion with a group of global warming experts headlined: “Should Air-Conditioning Go Global or Be Rationed Away?”
You see, while comfortable Americans like to beat the heat with air conditioning, developing countries like Taiwan and India and China strive for the same comfort. Enter the debate about climate change and global warming and rich countries and poor ones.
Is it a good goal for everyone in the world to have access to air-conditioning — like clean water or the Internet? Or is it an unsustainable luxury, which air-conditioned societies should be giving
up or rationing?
Me, I’m living in a subtropical island nation and summers are hot here in Taiwan, and I mean hot. And I do not use air conditioning. I just have a few electric fans in my home, and use the open windows in the morning and at night to cool the place down. I’m not doing this to save the planet, mind you, although I would like to save the planet. No, I just dislike air conditioning, and always have. It gives me a headache, and I often come down with a summer cold if I spend too long in air conditioned offices. My simple apartment life in southern Taiwan fits me to a T, and the t-shirts I wear do a good job of keeping me feeling comfortable and aired out. Who needs air conditioning?
I’m all for banning air conditioning everywhere, completely. No more air conditioning, Get used to it.
I asked Ms. Shaidle in Canada if she believed in global warming, and she replied in Internet time by email: “Man-made global warming is a myth.”
She added, in no uncertain terms, but don’t forget she’s a Canadian humorist: I don’t ”care” [scare quotes mine] about.
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Bloom is Taiwan bureau chief for San Diego Jewish World as well as an inveterate web-surfer. He may be contacted at dan.bloom@sdjewishworld.com