It's a cold wind that blows no good (Score 2, Interesting)

Air conditioning has helped to destroy the beauty of summertime. As a boy growing up in the pre-airconditioned South, you could walk the streets at twilight amidst a restful summer quiet. It was a quiet that is hard to describe. Not silence, but the peacefulness of a community winding down at day's end. Kids might be playing in the yards or loafing on a porch. You might hear the quiet sound of a radio through an open kitchen window. You'd see someone washing dishes, bathed in the pale yellow glow of her kitchen light.

Outdoors the sky would be turning darker as a shadowy purple became the predominant tint to the surroundings. The most prevalent sound was the synchronoized chatter of cicadas (locusts) with their bizarre rhythm of cyclic rattling. Oh, and of course their were the silent fireworks of the fireflies.

Now when you walk the street at dusk, you see no one, not even someone washing dishes, thanks to the ubiquitous dishwasher. Kids are nowhere to be seen. The steady drone of each and every house's air conditioning compressor fills the air, drowning out even the cicadas. You might as well be walking through a 24 hour per day widget factory. It is an industrial noise which blocks out all sounds of nature.

Sky watchers complain of light pollution; I would like to add to their complaint, the noise pollution of air conditioners which have helped to destroy the summer night.