Less use of air conditioners would be better for us all A strict no-air-conditioning ban was enforced for 87,000 Taiwanese students taking the college entrance examinations this month despite temperatures in many areas reaching 34 to 36 degrees Celsius. Although this long-term practice is being promoted as a pragmatic means to ensure fairness, since air conditioning is not available at all exam locations, rather than for environmental reasons, it nevertheless offers a good opportunity for the country to reconsider its addiction to air conditioning. If students can manage without A/C in the heat of examinations, could not the rest of the population go cold turkey once in a while? If not 'Off,' then 'Down,' since air conditioners consume energy and contribute to climate change in proportion to each degree they are set below ambient temperature. Vehicle A/C systems can be a cause of sinusitis in some people, while poorly maintained air conditioning may lead to the proliferation of micro-organisms such as Legionella pneumophila, the cause of Legionnaires' disease. The problem with new high-tech machines is that they present a sizable contribution to man-made climate change. Cooling agents such as CFCs and their modern replacements are greenhouse gases with far more global-warming potential than carbon dioxide should they leak into the atmosphere. It is everyone's responsibility to minimize his or her own contribution to the problem.

Notes

• ban (n.) 禁令；禁止 The government has placed a ban on smoking in public places.

• pragmatic (adj.) 務實的；實用的 Your proposal was intriguing, but not very pragmatic.
• addiction (n.) 成癮；入迷 Jim dropped out of school due to his addiction to online video games.
• proportion (n.) 比例；比率 What is the proportion of boys to girls in this class?
• ambient (adj.) 週遭的；環繞的 The ice cubes are melting because they are colder than the ambient room temperature.
• proliferation (n.) （生物）增殖；激增 Our government must take action against the recent proliferation of violent crime.
• replacement (n.) 取代；代替 Racecar teams make sure they have plenty of replacement parts on hand when they are racing at a track.
• to go cold turkey 戒除壞習慣 After seeing how yellow the walls got from his years of smoking, my father quit cold turkey.
• high-tech 高科技的 A decade ago, cell phones were considered high-tech gadgets.
• global-warming 全球暖化的 Do people who live in cold climates consider global-warming a bad thing?