While I'm a strong believer in "every little bit counts", it's also worth recognizing that the energy consumption you are responsible for by your usage of an air conditioner doesn't even amount to a drop in the bucket when compared to the energy usage of air conditioning alone within big businesses. Consider one Amazon warehouse with 30-40 roof top units cooling an entire warehouse while loading dock doors are open the majority of the day as trailers come and go, and are loaded and unloaded. Multiply that by hundreds of Amazon warehouses, plus hundreds of thousands (if not more) of other large businesses, factories, and every other kind of big building in the US alone, not to mention as much in every other country in the world that has a climate where "open the windows" isn't a solution to a swelteringly hot warehouse or office building.
If you, as an individual, no longer using your air conditioner is not going to make a difference, you, as an individual, should not feel any guilt or responsibility for it in my opinion. Again, I'm a big believer in "every little bit counts" because every little bit added together is a hell of a lot of bits - but for this scenario, it's not even feasible for everyone in the world who uses air conditioning to move to a region where they can avoid using air conditioning (not to mention the energy usage of all of these hypothetical people needing to uproot and move their entire family, their belongings, and all of the new housing that would need to be built to accommodate that)
As time goes on, the power consumption of your (as an individual) air conditioning energy consumption is also shrinking. As power grids around the world move to incorporate more green energy production like nuclear, solar, wind, and other methods that have low to no carbon emissions, the power can be made more and more efficiently with less and less emissions, directly leading to lower impact of your own air conditioner usage. Very similar theory behind electric vehicles that I think a lot of people overlook, whether due to lack of familiarity or malicious ignorance - YES, the battery manufacturing process is a dirty one with loads of environmental impact of its own that should be considered and addressed as an individual topic. However, over time, as battery technology improves to the point where they become cleaner to manufacture and able to hold a higher capacity. Power plants, even dirty ones with plenty of carbon emissions, are able to produce electricity a hell of a lot more efficiently than your own internal combustion engine can burn fuel to move your car. It's an economy of scale thing.
tl;dr the bigger the building, the bigger the energy needed to cool the building. Small building, small energy. I don't think there's anything ethically or morally wrong with using an air conditioner to cool your home if you live in a climate where they are commonplace and necessary to maintain a comfortable living environment.
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BigOnYa:
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Kirbydogs:
