Start climate change battle with your AC

After Cooling has its greatest impact when it asks us to think deeply about the reasons humans wish to change the temperature of their surroundings

In his prelude to After Cooling, Eric Dean Wilson tells us that he started his research not knowing “a tank of Freon from propane.” It’s a subtle chemistry joke, but a good one. By the end of the first 20 pages, however, the reader realises beyond a doubt that the author is very aware of everything there is to know about what we call air-conditioning. After his deftly persuasive opening argument that cutting back on machine-made cooling is the most pressing environmental task of our generation, Mr Wilson walks us through the science of chemical coolants in detail, both the