Air-conditioning has become both our answer to a warming planet and a major obstacle to actually confronting it.

Emily Badger, who covers cities and urban policy for The Times, explains the increasingly dangerous paradox of trying to control the temperature.

Guest: Emily Badger, who covers cities and urban policy for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• From 2017: How air-conditioning conquered America.
• Air-conditioning use will surge in a warming world, the U.N. has warned.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.