Chill out: Study says Beijingers 'happier with air conditioning'

The Guardian confirms that we're dependent on both our AC and heating

Some clever scientists doing research for The Guardian have come to the groundbreaking conclusion that residents of Beijing will be 'happier with air conditioning' during the summer, and also more comfortable with heating in the winter – 'no sh*t,' you're probably thinking.

The study, which looked into which cities are liveable without air conditioning, classified hundreds of world metropolises into four groups: those that don't need either air conditioning or heating; cities that need air conditioning in the summer but can get by without heating; cities that can get by in the summer without air conditioning but would probably enjoy heating in the winter; and finally, cities that get hot in the summer and cold in the winter, so residents would want both air conditioning and heating. Our beloved Beijing, of course, was grouped in the fourth category.

With average daily highs of 31 degrees Celsius in July, our hottest month, it seems a tad obvious that we would ‘be happier with air conditioning’, and with rather harsh winters dropping the temperatures to the negatives, heating sounds pretty good too. But while that may seem glaringly obvious to anyone who has been here long enough, the study actually went on, quite importantly, to look at how climate change might affect future temperatures and increase dependence on air conditioning.

Happier when freed from the confines of clothing, too, it seems.

Using data from the Climate Impact Lab, The Guardian's study modelled and visualised how the warmer parts of the planet are getting warmer, how those warm (or hot, realistically) spots are getting larger, and how average temperatures are predicted to rise over the next 40 years.

It looks as though 'happier with air conditioning' might one day transform into 'must live with air conditioning to avoid melting' for many; if these modelled trends emerge as suspected, more and more parts of our planet will be seeing rising record highs and sustained summer swelter – and a lot more people dependent on AC.

We Beijingers already need both air conditioning and heating, and that likely won't change; how the rest of the world deals with needing these extras is the hot question. How will residents cope if they cannot afford the luxury of air conditioning or heating? Will cities adapt and design better cooling systems? Will people move North or South? Or will we stick our heads in the sand and pretend this isn't really happening to us?

Looking to move to one of those idyllic cities out there that supposedly require neither heat nor AC? Try Australia's Sydney or Melbourne, Moroccan capital Rabat, South Africa's Port Elizabeth or Peru's capital Lima, among others. Make the most of it, while it lasts.

For ideas on how to deal with the summer heat in Beijing, hit 'Read more'.

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