I was disappointed to see the column by Tom Purcell extolling air conditioners (“A/C has made life cooler,” July 24, TribLIVE). Air conditioners are a big part of the problem, hardly a solution.

I wonder if he knows that while they are cooling a living area, they just move the heat outside, while adding more at the power plant as well as locally due to the inefficiencies of the machine. Also they encourage people to migrate to areas where we are not suited to live, causing more overpopulation, which is already the root of virtually every human problem.

Purcell states that excessive heat is an equalizer between rich and poor, because everyone suffers equally from the heat. Maybe nature meant us all to be equal? However, the poorest of us don’t have the money for an air conditioner or even a home in which to install it. Don’t we already have a big problem with wealth inequality in this country?

Considering so many policies of the right-wing regarding energy use and production, and attitudes like Purcell’s, I can only see that so many of us are racing us to human extinction.

Fred Durig

Delmont

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