As Hong Kong steams into summer, millions of air conditioners kick in to cool the sweltering city — ensuring, scientists say, that the future will be even hotter.
“I don’t think I can live without air cons,” said 45-year-old accountant Angus Lee, speaking for most of the city’s 7 million inhabitants.
“I don’t think I can function properly in Hong Kong’s heat — I need to be cool in order to think,” Lee said.
But that love affair with chilled air — which is growing fast throughout Asia as living standards rise — comes at a heavy environmental price.
Scientists predict that Hong Kong will have almost no winter by the end of the century as the electricity guzzlers help heat up the city. “Local temperatures are rising at a speed of 0.6ºC each decade, more than three times the global average,” said Lee Boon-ying, director of the Hong Kong Observatory.
“The excessive use of any electricity-powered machines like air conditioners will accelerate global warming, raising temperatures,” the director said.
Scientists link climate change to the greenhouse effect, in which gases emitted by burning fossil fuels such as coal to produce energy trap heat in the atmosphere.
Air conditioners account for up to 60 percent of Hong Kong’s electricity usage in the hot, humid, sub-tropical summers, according to government figures.
The city is notorious for its over-chilled interiors, from arctic shopping malls to icy bank towers, with many street-side shops leaving their doors open and letting the cool air out, enraging environmentalists.
Popular travel guide Lonely Planet warns travelers of the big chill, saying “temperatures are set so low you may find your extremities turning blue.”
The government recommends buildings set all indoor temperatures at 25.5ºC, but there is no legislation to force compliance.
Measurements taken by Agence-France Presse inside some of Hong Kong’s major shopping malls showed indoor temperatures around 21.5ºC, far below the government’s recommended figure.
The Environmental Protection Department said it investigated any complaints and would press the venues to use air-conditioning efficiently.
Hong Kong is not alone in its growing dependence on cooler air, with the Asia-Pacific region representing the largest global air conditioning market.
The region accounted for about half of global demand in 2008, according to a report by US-based Global Industry Analysts, and is also the fastest growing market worldwide as income levels rise.
A large percentage of Hong Kong’s air conditioners also use hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), but less-harmful refrigerants are available, department spokeswoman Eva Wong said.
The environmental watchdog hopes to reduce consumption of HCFCs, which experts say deplete the ozone layer and contribute to climate change, by 90 percent over the next five years, she said.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
RSS