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The public may be unfamiliar with ancient air-conditioning systems such as windcatchers and ice-cooling, but these Middle Eastern technologies are exactly what may be needed in a hotter, more unpredictable climate.

Sue Roaf, professor of architecture at Oxford Brookes University, is co-author of a new book Adapting Buildings and Cities For Climate Change. Her study focuses on the ways buildings have to change as global warming intrudes further on everyday life.

Windcatchers, for example, are ancient ventilation and cooling systems, and are used widely in one very famous city, Baghdad.

“In Baghdad, where the temperature in summer gets up to 50C, (122 degrees F) windcatchers provide a source of conditioned fresh air by passing it through high, narrow shafts before entering the basement,” says Roaf.

Ice houses for cooling were used even in colder countries such as the United Kingdom. The last recorded delivery of Norwegian Wenham ice to the UK was in 1936. But they were also widely used in what is now Iraq, Iran and Syria from ancient times.

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An American dilemma

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Roaf devotes part of her book to looking at the way the United States has refused to come on board with global warming.

Instead of planning sustainable housing, it satisfies pent-up demand with cheap, lightweight, easy-to-construct housing creating solid profits for the powerful construction industry. These energy-inefficient houses help to suck up the 50% of the entire US energy demand. The 50% that goes into powering buildings.

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“The American building type, with its use of inefficient air-conditioning systems and thin, tight-skinned, unshaded, over-glazed, no-weight buildings is being exported to many countries and being imposed on some, like Iraq,” says Roaf.

This style of cheap housing not only adds to global warming by losing heat but also exposes the American public to future problems.

“The American people will be left, when the lights do go out in extreme weather events, trying to survive in highly vulnerable buildings, highly exposed.”

Leaked memos

This assessment is backed up by the perceived attitude of the US administration to global warming.

“The White House position that mandatory restrictions on emissions should not be countenanced until further research is undertaken is a popular line from the administration,” says Roaf.

“Meanwhile the clock ticks on and more Americans lose their lives to the climate.”

Roaf concludes that this attitude is exemplified by comments from leading Republican consultant Frank Lutz who said the Republicans have “lost the environmental communications battle”.

In a leaked memo, Lutz writes: “Voters believe there is no consensus about global warming within the scientific community. Should the public come to believe that the scientific issues are settled, their view about global warming will change accordingly.”

The latest scientific findings not only proclaim that global warming is happening, but happening significantly faster than was expected. If this is the case, it may not be long before Americans such as Lutz throw out their air-conditioning and look to Iraq for ways to cool their homes.