(Cross posted from https://lemmy.world/c/technology)
Since Texas power sources are majority fossil fuel, this creates a fun death spiral.
Extreme heat => more power use => more fossil fuel emissions => more extreme weather => more power use => more fossil fuel emissions => more extreme weather => 💀
I live in a desert as well and this has been on my mind a lot lately. Planning to move as soon as I have the means. Until then we just have to try our best to use as little as we can without living in complete misery.
Fun fact barely no one lived in Texas before air conditioning was a thing. Gigantic sprawling cities in the middle of the desert are only possible because of oil
There is a interesting map that shows that:
On this map we can see that center of population in the United States moved almost on a straight line from east to west.
It’s only around 1940-1950 that the center of population started to move south. Coincidentally this is also the period where home air conditioning started to become accessible to the general public.
that’s very interesting, thanks. I keep in mind there are likely dozens of biases and other reasons contributing to this change, but air conditioning is realistically a significant part of it
I can’t understand how some Texas cities are attracting so many new residents right now. It’s just insanity to me.
