On top of that, as we experience higher temperatures, many people also crank up their air conditioners—which emit more heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
This is not correct. Air conditioning units do not 'emit more [...] greenhouse gases'. Air conditioners use a refrigerant--usually R134a--which does have a high global warming potential (GWP) compared to methane or CO2, but that refrigerant is in a closed loop; it's not going anywhere unless the system is damaged. Most a/c failures aren't from refrigerant leaking out of the system, and the system no longer being able to effectively transfer heat, but from the compressor motor failing. When the compressor fails, in most cases you can evacuate the refrigerant, replace the broken part, and then recharge the system. (The fact that they can be repaired doesn't mean that they usually are repaired. Which is shitty.)
What is true is that a/c units emit heat themselves. An air conditioner moves heat from inside a space to outside of that space; in the process of doing so, the a/c unit itself is creating an additional small amount of heat from the function of the compressor motor, electronics, etc.
Beyond that, most electricity that's used to run a/c systems--and every other electrical device--is produced from burning fossil fuels. So if there's more demand for electricity--such as from a heat dome that has everyone running their a/c full-time--then yes, more CO2 is going to get pumped out into the atmosphere. But if your electricity is coming from sources that are largely emissions-free, like solar, wind, or hydro, then air conditioning is a negligible source of heat.
tl;dr - don't feel bad about using your a/c when heat rises to dangerous levels; agitate at a local, state, and national level for renewable, carbon-neutral ways of generating electricity, and for more efficient use of electricity.
I don't think we should feel bad for housing AC. it was created by us to feel comfortable. Just because companies and bitcoin miners and ultron-ass skynet-ass LLM/ML-ass trainers are using stupid amounts of resource doesn't mean the population is the cause. it's the greedy few.
I agree with all of this. At the same time, I think that, in most cases, people should allow their body to adapt to heat, if they are healthy enough to do so. Most people can learn to be comfortable in higher heat than they believe, although some people have medical conditions that will make them more susceptible to heat exhaustion and heat stroke. If you can get by without it, you should. If you're at risk by not using it, don't feel guilty.
(FWIW, my office only has a/c because I have a very, very large printer in here, and it tends to have head strikes and scrap prints out if there's no climate control. But since I'm not printing at the moment, the current temp in here is 82F.)
So wearing a thin tshirt in cold weather for example can actually be colder than wearing no shirt at all. Same in reverse. I’m wondering if this material is doing that rather than being some sort of PCM.
Nighthawk in light shows how to make your own on YouTube. He has lots of videos about stuff like this. Someone else in the comments linked one of his vids.
I admit I didn't read the article throughly, but surely if it's impossiblely thin it can't exist. I only bring this up because I'm an obnoxious pedant.
Disagree. Even if we could, from what I understand, large, solid pieces of plastic are better than extremely small, thin, fragile pieces since those are going to turn into microplastics and get everywhere. I'd rather have them in one big chunk.
... Silk is used as a cold weather baselayer in active wear? Not sure if it performs differently as an outer layer, but it's got solid insulating properties for keeping in heat
Which would be great, because it would give people with high incomes places to live, lowering the competition for housing and the rents at the top end. Those people would spend and contribute to the local economy, since they have the money to spend.
This would be a huge win for everyone, as building more housing often is.