The degrowth movement fails to appreciate that human ingenuity and technological innovation can solve the very problems they aim to address.
Marian L. Tupy —
Summary: Like Rome’s ancient grandeur, today’s economy is supported by human ingenuity. Rome’s technological marvels such as the aqueducts were threatened by barbarians who sought destruction and ultimately achieved it. Modern sources of flourishing are likewise under fire. Today, the “degrowth” movement advocates for radical reductions in energy use. But like the Ostrogoths destroying aqueducts, this new form of regression underestimates human ingenuity as our source of prosperity.
In ancient times, the city of Rome was home to a million people—an achievement not to be repeated in Europe until the 19th century. The city flourished because of extensive Mediterranean trade networks, rule of law, and security provided by the far-flung legions. But Roman life would have been impossible without its aqueducts. These magnificent symbols of human ingenuity and progress brought water to the city, nourishing its population and lubricating its economy.
Rome began its long slide from preeminence in the 3rd century. By the 6th century, Rome was a shadow of its former self. It was then that the invading Ostrogoths sped up the process of decline by cutting Rome’s aqueducts and eventually capturing the city. Fast-forward to today and consider the “degrowth” movement, which advocates for slashing energy use in modern economies.
Degrowthers argue that to avert environmental catastrophe, we must drastically reduce our consumption of energy, particularly fossil fuels. They envision a future where economies shrink, energy use plummets, and humans adopt simpler, less resource-intensive lifestyles. While their intentions sound reasonable, their proposals are as destructive to our society’s prospects as the Ostrogoths’ actions were to ancient Rome.
The aqueducts of Rome were engineering marvels, bringing fresh water from distant sources to the heart of the empire. They enabled the city to thrive, supporting public baths, fountains, and private households. When the Ostrogoths cut these aqueducts, they didn’t just disrupt the water supply; they struck at the core of Roman life. In a similar vein, energy is the lifeblood of modern economies. It powers our hospitals, schools, factories, and homes. Cutting off this supply, as degrowthers propose, would not only slow our economies but would also unravel the fabric of our society.
Consider the immense benefits that energy has brought us. Over the past century, access to abundant and affordable energy has lifted billions out of poverty, extended life expectancies, and driven unprecedented technological progress. Our reliance on energy has enabled us to build skyscrapers, develop lifesaving medical technologies, and connect the world through the internet. To cut energy use drastically would be to turn our backs on these advancements and the potential for future progress.
The degrowth movement fails to appreciate that human ingenuity and technological innovation can solve the very problems they aim to address. Just as the Romans used their engineering prowess to build aqueducts, we can develop new technologies to create cleaner energy sources. Our use of solar and wind power is growing by leaps and bounds. Nuclear power is undergoing a renaissance, while geothermal and fusion energy hold much promise for the future. We’ll likely be able to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels without necessitating a return to pre-industrial lifestyles.
Put differently, degrowthers overlook the dynamic nature of human progress. Throughout history, humanity has faced and overcome numerous challenges. The Industrial Revolution, for example, caused significant environmental damage, but it also set the stage for the technological advancements that would eventually lead to a cleaner environment and greener energy sources. By embracing innovation rather than retreating from progress, we can continue to improve our quality of life while addressing environmental concerns.
It is also crucial to consider the global impact of degrowth policies. Developing nations, which are still striving to reach the levels of prosperity enjoyed in the West, rely heavily on energy to fuel their growth. Imposing stringent energy restrictions would stifle their development, thereby exacerbating global inequalities. Instead, we should focus on ensuring that these countries have access to affordable energy, enabling them to grow and share in the benefits of progress.
Degrowthers’ vision of a future with less energy consumption is a step backward, akin to the barbarians who, lacking understanding or appreciation for Roman civilization, sought only to destroy. Just as Rome’s aqueducts were symbols of human achievement, our energy infrastructure represents the potential for a brighter future. Let’s not let the modern-day barbarians cut it off.
“Mr. Mwebaze, 47, is one of thousands of developers across Africa who have turned to Chinese A.I. models in the past year. In Kenya, entrepreneurs are using the models to streamline legal and business services. In Nigeria, they have made educational tools that teach high school students. In Ghana, developers are building local chatbots.
China’s A.I. is surging, especially in developing countries, as people look for the best possible system at the lowest possible cost. Unlike models made by the leading American A.I. companies OpenAI and Anthropic — which are closed and charge fees — the Chinese systems are publicly available to download and modify without payment or approval.”
Organizational AI Adoption Increases Significantly
“Reported organizational adoption of AI grew sharply in Q2 2026. Forty-seven percent of U.S. employees now say their organization has integrated AI tools to improve productivity, efficiency or quality, up from 41% in the last quarter…
The AI applications that employees use most often are not the ones most strongly associated with productivity improvements.
The highest productivity ratings come from employees using AI for coding assistance and automation or process automation. More than three-fourths of workers who use AI in each of these ways (77%) say AI has had an extremely or somewhat positive effect on their productivity. The ratings are nearly as high among employees using AI for presentation or slide deck creation (76%) and for data science or analytics (75%).
Employees who use AI for general applications also provide positive ratings, but at lower levels. Sixty-eight percent of employees who use AI for writing and editing say it has improved their productivity, as do 65% of those using it for search or research.”
Keeping Cool: The Air Conditioner That Changed America
The time price of air conditioning has fallen 98.6 percent since 1952. That ordinary luxury saves lives every summer.
Gale L. Pooley —
Summary: Air conditioning has transformed extreme heat from a major threat into a manageable challenge, helping save lives, improve productivity, and make hot climates far more livable. Since its invention in the early 20th century, advances in technology and rising prosperity have made cooling dramatically more affordable, with the time required to earn an air conditioner falling by nearly 99 percent since 1952. Differences in air-conditioning adoption help explain why heat-related mortality remains much higher in Europe than in the United States, underscoring the role of innovation, wealth, and energy policy in protecting human wellbeing.
Heatwaves have pushed temperatures to record highs across both Europe and the United States. Yet the human toll between these two locales was dramatically different, with Europe recording more than 10,000 excess deaths in June.
The United Nations estimates that the European continent accounted for approximately 175,000 heat-related deaths annually between 2000 and 2019. The Environmental Protection Agency, meanwhile, calculates that about 1,300 deaths per year in the US are due to extreme heat. (This translates to four heat-related deaths per million annually in the US and 235 heat-related deaths per million annually across Europe.)
Europe and the US differ in demographics, urban density, reporting methods, and climate patterns. Even so, the death rate due to heat in Europe is 59 times higher than in the US.
In the United Kingdom, only about five percent of homes have air conditioning. In the United States, roughly 93 percent do.
Research identifies 72°F and 45 percent humidity as optimal for maximizing office and mental productivity.
With sweltering temperatures once again gripping much of the world, it is worth appreciating air conditioning — the quiet invention that transforms dangerous heat into manageable discomfort, shields millions from heat-related suffering and death, boosts productivity, and makes once-hostile climates livable. It is a powerful reminder that wealth, innovation, and human ingenuity enable societies to adapt to nature’s extremes and protect human life.
To understand why the US heat death rate is 59 times lower than that of Europe, it helps to begin with a young engineer named Willis Carrier.
The Father of Air Conditioning
Willis H. Carrier was born outside of Buffalo, New York on November 26, 1876, the same day inventor Alexander Graham Bell successfully demonstrated his large box telephone between Boston and Salem, Massachusetts. Carrier was an only child and attended a one-room schoolhouse. When he was nine years old he struggled to grasp the concept of fractions. His mother helped him master the idea using a pot of apples and slicing them into portions. Carrier remembered this event fondly as “the most important thing that ever happened to me.”
Carrier was awarded a full scholarship to attend Cornell University. He majored in engineering, earning a Master’s degree in 1901. After graduation, Carrier accepted a job at the Buffalo Forge Company for $10 a week.
The Sackett & Wilhelms printing plant in Brooklyn, New York was losing money because the sweltering, humid summers caused sheets of paper to absorb moisture from the air. The paper would expand and warp, throwing off the alignment of colored inks on the printed page and ruining entire print runs. They asked the Buffalo Forge Company for help. Carrier was assigned to solve the problem.
He was not trying to cool people. He was trying to save knowledge.
Air conditioning began not as a luxury, but as a technology of information, productivity, and adaptation — a machine that transformed oppressive heat from an economic barrier into a manageable inconvenience.
Carrier’s breakthrough system, in July of 1902, controlled both temperature and humidity, stabilizing the paper and rescuing the precision of mass communication.
Carrier applied for a patent on his invention, an “Apparatus for Treating Air,” which became patent No. 808897 and was issued on January 2, 1906.
In 1915 Carrier and six other engineers formed the Carrier Engineering Corporation using their personal savings of $32,600. Carrier Global Corporation (NYSE: CARR), the parent company of the Carrier HVAC and refrigeration business, has a current market capitalization of approximately $56 billion. This valuation makes it one of the largest climate and energy solutions providers in the world.
“With his new company,” Alexander Hammond notes, Carrier began to expand the use of air conditioning units by supplying hotels, department stores, movie theaters and private homes. His units were even installed in the White House, the US Congress and Madison Square Garden.”
Another overlooked legacy of Carrier’s invention is the birth of the summer blockbuster. Before air conditioning, movie theaters dreaded the hot months — few people wanted to sit in a crowded, sweltering auditorium. That changed in 1925 when the Rivoli Theatre in Times Square installed one of Carrier’s new cooling systems. Crowds flocked in, many as eager for the cool air as for the feature presentation. Almost overnight, summer transformed from Hollywood’s off-season into its most profitable season. Air conditioning didn’t just cool theaters — it reshaped the economics of entertainment and helped create one of America’s most enduring cultural traditions.
When New York City organizers launched the 1939 World’s Fair under the motto “Building the World of Tomorrow,” they sought technologies that would advance human progress and improve everyday life. Few embodied that vision better than modern air conditioning. During the Fair’s first 100 days, nearly 1.3 million visitors toured the striking “Carrier Igloo of Tomorrow.”
Carrier Corp’s Igloo, image from New York Public Library Digital Collections.
Inside, guests learned how air conditioning worked, explored a modern refrigerated food store, and experienced Carrier’s latest self-contained cooling systems — getting a glimpse of a future that would soon make homes, offices, and entire cities more comfortable, productive, and livable.
In 1985, Willis H. Carrier was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and in 1998, Time magazine recognized him as one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century.
By conquering heat and humidity with knowledge, Carrier enlarged the realm of human possibility. His invention transformed sweltering regions into thriving economies, extended human productivity, and brought comfort and prosperity to billions around the world.
One of the great triumphs of entrepreneurial capitalism is how quickly air conditioning traveled the familiar path from luxury to necessity. What began as an expensive convenience for a tiny elite became, within a generation, affordable to ordinary families. The market did not merely invent comfort — it democratized it.
In their report Time Well Spent: The Declining Real Cost of Living in America, Michael Cox and Richard Alm found that a 5,500-BTU air-conditioning unit cost about $350 in 1952. At the time, entry-level workers earned roughly 83 cents an hour, putting the time price at 422 hours.
Today, Walmart sells a far more efficient 6,000 BTU air-conditioning unit (with a remote control) for only $115. The current hourly wage for limited-service restaurant workers is around $19 an hour, putting the time price at six hours.
The time price has decreased by 98.6 percent. For the time it took US workers to earn the money to buy one unit in 1952, they get 70 today.
If air conditioning saves lives, why don’t more Europeans have it?
Europe’s electricity prices are typically much higher than the US, driven by higher taxes, network costs, renewable energy mandates, and energy import dependence. Customers in the US pay 17 to 19 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) compared to 25 to 32 cents in Europe. This means Europeans pay roughly 47 to 68 percent more per kWh than US customers.
Americans are also much richer than Europeans. According to World Bank data, American gross domestic product (GDP) per capita was $84,809 in 2024, while the European Union’s was 25 percent lower at $63,585. That $21,224 difference could buy a lot of comfortable cooling.
The European Union also prioritizes environmental targets over human comfort by imposing strict regulations for heating and cooling, making these amenities much more costly. The commission encourages citizens to use fans instead of air conditioning. Imagine the government doing that in Phoenix and Atlanta in July. Italy, Greece, and Spain even announced temperature limits in public spaces during the 2022 heatwave in an effort to meet these environmental objectives. Spain limited air conditioners to be set no lower than 80°F. No wonder European productivity is 38 percent lower than the US.
Historic preservation laws and strict landlord rules frequently ban exterior window units to maintain aesthetic uniformity.
While air conditioning ownership increases households’ electricity consumption, it may be a small price to pay for comfort and avoiding death.
The problem is not the climate but the policy mindset. Too many European regulators approach energy and technology through the ideological lens of scarcity rather than creative innovation and human flourishing. One reason such policies persist is that the officials who design them are largely insulated from the consequences of their decisions and rarely experience their costs directly. Instead, those costs are borne by millions of ordinary citizens.
Air conditioning is not ultimately a story about cooling. It is a story about knowledge. It transformed oppressive heat into comfort, inhospitable regions into thriving communities, and summer misery into year-round productivity. Coal, copper, and electricity become valuable only after humans discover how to harness them. The history of air conditioning is the history of knowledge triumphing over nature’s constraints.
The ultimate resource is neither energy nor matter. It is the infinite capacity of human beings to learn, create, and discover.
This article appeared in The Daily Economy on 7/13/2026.
New Initiative Connects 50 Million Africans to Electricity
“The World Bank Group and the African Development Bank Group announced today that Mission 300 has connected over 50 million people to electricity across 40 countries — a major milestone toward the initiative’s goal of reaching 300 million people by 2030…
Launched in 2024, Mission 300 is a joint initiative of the World Bank Group and the African Development Bank Group supported by The Rockefeller Foundation, the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet and Sustainable Energy for All, and a broad coalition of governments, development institutions, and private sector partners.”
