Air conditioning for the middle school and climate change

I wrote this for the Facebook Enfield Community Page after some people complained about the need for air conditioning at the JFK middle school

There’s a very interesting climate change calculator in the New York Times based on data by the Climate Impact Lab. It projects the number of 90+ temperature days by year. It’s fun, check it out.

I ran the numbers for Enfield for someone born in 2007. This person would be between the age of 11-12 years and attending middle school.

In 2007, the number of 90 or more degree days was 10. (It’s actually estimated at 9 for this year. There will be variation by year, but the trend is up)

By the time these 11 year olds are 80, in 2087, they could see 25 days that are 90 and above, with a likely range of 90+ degree days of 11 to 38.

These projections assume that mankind will get its act together and try to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

Rising temperatures will create a large number of problems.

It will impact wildlife and plant growing seasons. The changes will happen so quickly nature won’t be able to adjust, and its estimate that as many as 25% of all land animals could become extinct.

Most of the carbon dioxide (CO2) today is absorbed by seawater, and that is raising acidity of the oceans. By the end of this century the acidity levels may be 150% higher. This could disrupt the ocean food chain. The sea levels will rise and if the tundra melts, it will release large amounts of methane, which will accelerate the impacts.

There are a fair number of people who do not believe that mankind is raising the global temperature. But, even if they are raising the temperature, these folks reason, it will help, not hurt, humankind. That’s not what the mainstream science says.

But here’s a test: If you can look a 12 year old in eye and say that climate change is not happening, and even if it is, the impact won’t be bad and there's nothing to worry about, then you pass this test. Because if you can say this to a 12 year old, there is nothing that will convince you otherwise. I’ll accept that.

But a more prudent approach -- even one that has doubts about the science -- will be to say say that there is a risk, and it’s better to take action to reduce the risk, than to do nothing at all.

This is a long way of saying that JFK -- and all our schools -- will have air conditioning. You don’t have a choice. This data only looks at 90 and plus degree days. This doesn’t account for humidity or the number of days where the temperature is above 75 degrees.