> (With conventional mechanical air conditioning already accounting for a fifth of total electricity consumption globally, ancient alternatives like the wind catcher are becoming an increasingly appealing option.
The descent into religion. Denial that better modern solutions work at all. Acceptance than an old (before the gaze of modern criticism can fatigue it) technology is better because it is older. The fantasy that a problem exists due to the existence of man, innate in his original sin of taking breath at all. The legions now employed to drive these new dogmas is astounding. Lastly, abandoning reason, to presume air flow by convection is the same as cooling.
Although I agree that a lot of the environmentalist movement is transforming into religion, I don't think this is a good example of it. In locations with cheap land and feasible climate, passive cooling achieves cooling whilst using no power.
It's not better because it's older, it's better because it is more efficient.
If you know anything of the religious extremists destroying our cities you know there are enough that they will take something like this, try and integrate it into a design, get some engineer from the same denomination to approve it and put it in a building to grease the moral self applauds of the planning committee desperate to please the gods.
There is a building in my city, fully built, which decided to put 3 wind turbines at the top of it. If you are familiar at all with wind turbines you know they create a lot of vibration and noise. They shouldn't be built in high density areas. Of course this meant those living in the building within 15 floors near the turbines experienced constant noise, and vibration. They are now permanently disabled.
It was allowed to be built where no tall building existed mainly because of these talismans.
> The turbines are of course not merely decorative but have a function which is directly related to the Elephant’s status as an energy action area and to the achievement of the zero carbon growth which is a key objective of the framework.”
Your city has it particularly bad, don't let that convince you that everywhere is like London. I live somewhere much more pragmatic, and passive cooling is used without the religious issues you predict.
There is definitely some weird pseudo religion around things which are old. Anyone who says "cavemen ate like this, that means it's good for you" don't know what they're talking about. That's not the case here.
Let me rewrite this as a modern invention: Someone invented a wind powered cooling system. No other fuel is necessary and it will work for years with minimal maintenance. The mechanism is simple enough that they can be built both in large metropolitan areas and smaller, struggling regions.
It's absurdly inefficient and cumbersome compared to other options. The reason people tolerate such ideas is the fear of the cost of electricity.
The cost of electricity in the west has been a matter of false scarcity imposed by religious economic terrorists who sacrificed our stability around the era of the Kyoto Protocol.
Simplicity. Simplicity prevails majority of the time. Simplicity and alignment with vs fight against.
You discount "the old" perhaps with the misguided assumption that we know better because we live now and not then. As if civilizations have not risen and fallen countless times, and as if humanity has not been forced to re-learn the forgotten lessons again and again.
Simplicity is the hardest to accomplish, because it requires thorough understanding, patience, and perspective -- something 90% of us don't have.
I will leave you with a modern example: a four-way traffic-light-controlled intersection vs a roundabout. The former leverages modern technology (maybe even ML with data from a larger traffic network!), and yet it is less safe and most of the time generates more traffic backup than the latter. The latter has no external dependencies, and instead shapes the space in such a way as to make dangerous collisions impossible.
If anything is a religion, it's the blind belief that "newer is better"
I discount this because it doesn't make sense in high population density cities. The age simply ads a mysticism that makes it attractive to weak minds.
And to your roundabout Vs traffic lights the space/geometry of the area available is often the difference in choosing which to build
The descent into religion. Denial that better modern solutions work at all. Acceptance than an old (before the gaze of modern criticism can fatigue it) technology is better because it is older. The fantasy that a problem exists due to the existence of man, innate in his original sin of taking breath at all. The legions now employed to drive these new dogmas is astounding. Lastly, abandoning reason, to presume air flow by convection is the same as cooling.