Air Conditioners Can Actually Support the Power Grid. Hereβs How

Air conditioners place a heavy burden on the grid when the weather gets hot, but this strategy shows they can actually helpβand without compromising your home's temperature.
When the Vietnam War finally ended on April 30, 1975, it left behind a landscape scarred with environmental damage. Vast stretches of coastal mangroves, once housing rich stocks of fish and birds, lay in ruins. Forests that had boasted hundreds of species were reduced to dried-out fragments, overgrown with invasive grasses.
The term βecocideβ had been coined in the late 1960s to describe the US militaryβs use of herbicides like Agent Orange and incendiary weapons like napalm to battle guerrilla forces that used jungles and marshes for cover.
Fifty years later, Vietnamβs degraded ecosystems and dioxin-contaminated soils and waters still reflect the long-term ecological consequences of the war. Efforts to restore these damaged landscapes and even to assess the long-term harm have been limited.
Β© Bettmann via Getty Images