ASHRAE Journal - August 2023 - 16

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
I AM A CHILD OF THE 1970S.
Space exploration reached new heights.
Some amazing music came out of the
'70s, like that of Marvin Gaye and Joni
Mitchell. And when I turned 16, I got a
Ford Pinto.ord Pinto.
the time. My friends and I loved sliding across the hood
of a car like they did on Starsky and Hutch's red and
white Ford Gran Torino.
I got my own muscle car when I turned 16.
Actually, it was a Ford Pinto. Some of you might
remember that the Pinto from the '70s had a reputation
for exploding if the gas tank side was hit in a wreck. I
don't think my parents knew about this issue before they
bought me this car-at least I hope they didn't!
Luckily, all of my teenage wrecks impacted other parts
of that car, so I survived. But in my mind, I was driving
a souped-up Camaro. I even had a license plate on the
front that proudly stated, " Ginger's Pony. "
But, as a teenager, I was really only vaguely aware that
the world was experiencing an energy crisis. Aside from
long lines at the gas station, the biggest impact on me
personally was the fact that my mother would not let us
turn on the air conditioning in the car or in the house.
You see, a few years before I could drive my " Pinto
Pony, " during the height of the energy crisis, my mother
drove us around in the iconic car of that decade-the
family station wagon. Some of you might remember it
from the classic movie National Lampoon's Vacation as the
" Queen Family Truckster. "
There were no SUVs in the '70s. The station wagon was
the car of choice for families. But, as you can imagine,
they were not the most fuel-effi cient vehicles.
My mother told us that her reasoning for not using
the AC was so that we would not become dependent on
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the comfort of a controlled environment. In hindsight,
however, most likely she was concerned with rising gas
prices and higher electric bills. So, riding around on hot
summer days in the South with the car windows rolled
down-and yes, we actually had to " roll " the car windows
down-my brothers and I would end up getting very hot.
I can tell you, when it's hotter inside the house than it
is outside, you fi nd reasons to get outside.
Some of you might remember those days of the past-
when we sat on our porches on warm summer evenings
and talked to our neighbors. In my small Tennessee
town, we rode our bikes and motorcycles and went to the
local pool to stay cool.
Little did I know that the organization to which I would
be a volunteer member for most of my professional
career was already hard at work creating the fi rst version
of a standard to connect with the urgency of the energy
crisis-Standard 90-which has become the benchmark
for building energy codes and is accepted around the
world. ASHRAE accepted the challenge to improve
energy effi ciency in 1975.
And, since the 1970s, we've gone from approximately
20% of homes in the U.S. having central heat and air
conditioning to over 70% currently, with that number
still rising. Similar growth in the use of central heat and
air conditioning has been seen in many other parts of
the world.
Today, buildings account for nearly 40% of all greenhouse
gas (GHG) emissions worldwide, and that number
is not expected to decline in the near future.
With the growth of developing economies in other
parts of the world, and people moving from rural to
urban areas, it is estimated that we are building the
equivalent of a New York City every month across the
globe. Allow that to sink in-a New York City every month!
This is a staggering statistic.
Fifty years ago, in the 1970s, when it was hotter inside
than it was outside, we went outside to cool down. Now,
we are dealing with conditions where in many locations
it is much hotter outside than it used to be, driving
ROCKET: NASA, ALBUMS: ISTOCK.COM/ IMAGEDB, PINTO AD: FORD MOTOR COMPANY
http://www.ISTOCK.COM/ https://ashrae.org/
ASHRAE Journal - August 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ASHRAE Journal - August 2023
