WaPo article about the global market for air conditioners

Here is a link to the Washington Post article The world is about to install 700 million air conditioners. Here’s what that means for the climate,  which is referenced in one of the Case Study exercises.

The article begins,

As summer temperatures finally settle in, many in the United States take it for granted that they can dial down the thermostat: Americans use 5 percent of all of their electricity cooling homes and buildings. In many other countries, however — including countries in much hotter climates — air conditioning is still a relative rarity. But as these countries boom in wealth and population, and extend electricity to more people even as the climate warms, the projections are clear: They are going to install mind-boggling amounts of air conditioning, not just for comfort but as a health necessity.

Introduction to Writing Assignments

The Mathematics for Sustainability textbook supports a course that has been taught at Penn State for several years.  A very significant component of the course as taught has been the requirement that students develop extended pieces of writing which use the mathematical skills developed in the course in support of advocacy or analysis of specific sustainability-related proposals. See the introduction to the Case Studies section (7.1) for more detail about this. Continue reading “Introduction to Writing Assignments”