--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Artificial lighting, air-conditioning…" description: "\"Artificial lighting, air-conditioning, and automobiles, all powered by fossil fuels, swaddle us in our giddy modernity. In our ergonomic chairs and aco..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/032/charles-c-mann-7228_carbon_artificial-lighting-air-conditioning-and_2244402.png" --- # Artificial lighting, air-conditioning, and automobiles… ![“Artificial lighting, air-conditioning, and automobiles, all powered by fossil fuels, swaddle us in our giddy modernity. In our ergonomic chairs and acoustical-panel cubicles, we sit cozy as kings atop 300 years of flaming carbon.” quote by Charles C. Mann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/032/charles-c-mann-7228_carbon_artificial-lighting-air-conditioning-and_2244402.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/032/charles-c-mann-7228_carbon_artificial-lighting-air-conditioning-and_2244402.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/032/charles-c-mann-7228_carbon_artificial-lighting-air-conditioning-and_2244402.png) > “Artificial lighting, air-conditioning, and automobiles, all powered by fossil fuels, swaddle us in our giddy modernity. In our ergonomic chairs and acoustical-panel cubicles, we sit cozy as kings atop 300 years of flaming carbon.” [Charles C. Mann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-c-mann/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Modern comforts rely on fossil fuels, creating a paradox of convenience and environmental risk. **In simple terms:** Our comforts hide climate danger. Key Takeaway Recognize and reduce fossil dependence. Themes environment technology convenience risk climate energy Mood concerned reflective Type informative analytical When to use this quote - home heating - transport planning - urban design - policy advocacy - personal lifestyle choices Key Concepts sustainability industrial ecology energy policy Questions to Reflect On - What small changes can reduce personal carbon footprint? - How can societies shift to sustainable energy? A Different Perspective Transition to renewables faces economic and political hurdles. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Climate](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/climate/) [Cozy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/cozy/) [Fossil fuel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fossil-fuel/) [Fossil fuels](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fossil-fuels/) [Kings](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/kings/) ## Related quotes > [“Our disenchantment of the night through artificial lighting may appear, if it is noticed at all, as a regrettable but eventually trivial side effect…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-macfarlane/our-disenchantment-of-the-night-through-artificial-lighting-may/) [Robert Macfarlane](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-macfarlane/) > [“Now fairy stories are at risk too, like the forests. 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If we do nothing, prices will continue to rise and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lucy-powell/fossil-fuels-including-oil-are-running-out-and-supplies-are-getting/) [Lucy Powell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lucy-powell/) ## More by Charles C. Mann > [“A milpa is a field, usually but not always recently cleared, in which farmers plant a dozen crops at once, including maize, avocados, multiple…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-c-mann/a-milpa-is-a-field-usually-but-not-always-recently-cleared-in-which/) [Charles C. Mann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-c-mann/) > [“In the classic successional course, each suite of plants replaces its predecessor, until the arrival of the final, “climax” ecosystem, usually tall forest.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-c-mann/in-the-classic-successional-course-each-suite-of-plants-replaces-its/) [Charles C. Mann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-c-mann/) > [In 1491 the Inka ruled the greatest empire on earth. 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Mann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-c-mann/) > [“The Maya collapsed because they overshot the carrying capacity of their environment. They exhausted their resource base, began to die of starvation and thirst,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-c-mann/the-maya-collapsed-because-they-overshot-the-carrying-capacity-of/) [Charles C. Mann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-c-mann/) > [Prediction is a mug's game, but taking the side of water polluters has not been a winning political strategy for 50 years. Presidents Reagan,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-c-mann/prediction-is-a-mug-s-game-but-taking-the-side-of-water-polluters-has/) [Charles C. Mann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-c-mann/) > [The queue of activists, interest groups, and ordinary people wringing their hands over what a President Donald Trump might do in office is long,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-c-mann/the-queue-of-activists-interest-groups-and-ordinary-people-wringing/) [Charles C. Mann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-c-mann/) > [“The varieties are not like islands, carefully apart,” Perales explained. “They are more like gentle hills in a landscape—you see them, they are clearly…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-c-mann/the-varieties-are-not-like-islands-carefully-apart-perales-explained/) [Charles C. Mann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-c-mann/) > [“export of food from Ireland during the famine: 430,000 tons of grain in 1846 and 1847, the two worst years. “The Almighty indeed sent…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-c-mann/export-of-food-from-ireland-during-the-famine-430-000-tons-of-grain/) [Charles C. Mann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-c-mann/) > [“all states can be parceled into four types: pluralist, in which the state is seen by its people as having moral legitimacy; populist, in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-c-mann/all-states-can-be-parceled-into-four-types-pluralist-in-which-the/) [Charles C. Mann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-c-mann/) > [The way I think of it, economics and ecology occupy two intellectual silos, isolated from each other. Even when they do take each other…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-c-mann/the-way-i-think-of-it-economics-and-ecology-occupy-two-intellectual/) [Charles C. Mann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-c-mann/) > [“Before Columbus, Holmberg believed, both the people and the land had no real history. Stated so baldly, this notion-that the indigenous peoples of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-c-mann/before-columbus-holmberg-believed-both-the-people-and-the-land-had-no/) [Charles C. Mann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-c-mann/) > [“More than a hundred sets of casta paintings are known. Many are beautifully crafted. Some were painted by mixed people themselves. Looking”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-c-mann/more-than-a-hundred-sets-of-casta-paintings-are-known-many-are/) [Charles C. Mann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-c-mann/) > [“Anything goes now, apparently,” Fiedel told me. “The lunatics have taken over the asylum.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-c-mann/anything-goes-now-apparently-fiedel-told-me-the-lunatics-have-taken/) [Charles C. Mann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-c-mann/) [Explore all 93 Charles C. Mann quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-c-mann/) ## More Carbon quotes > [Windmills and solar cells are carbon-free sources of electricity. But they are costly. If you've been investing in those, give it up. That game…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kenneth-fisher/windmills-and-solar-cells-are-carbon-free-sources-of-electricity-but/) [Kenneth Fisher](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kenneth-fisher/) > [every being is unique.god neva creates carbon copies,he alys creates originals.he is truly a creator.he neva repeats.but man goes on living in imitation.we are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/every-being-is-unique-god-neva-creates-carbon-copies-he-alys-creates/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [The brightest and most valuable diamond started life as just a lump of carbon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-dilger/the-brightest-and-most-valuable-diamond-started-life-as-just-a-lump/) Peter Dilger > [Washington bureaucrats have classified the very air we exhale as a pollutant and have gone unchallenged in this incredible assertion. 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Scientifically…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marc-morano/coal-is-the-moral-choice-particularly-for-the-developing-world-the/) Marc Morano > [Each year we pump at least six billion tons of heat-trapping carbon into the innermost layer of our atmosphere, whose outer extent is only…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ross-gelbspan/each-year-we-pump-at-least-six-billion-tons-of-heat-trapping-carbon/) [Ross Gelbspan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ross-gelbspan/) > [If every country committed to spending 0.05 per cent of GDP on researching non-carbon-emitting energy technologies, that would cost $25 billion a year, and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bjorn-lomborg/if-every-country-committed-to-spending-0-05-per-cent-of-gdp-on/) [Bjorn Lomborg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bjorn-lomborg/) > [We're full of electricity, and the walls and floor of a building contain carbon - the same makeup as a video tape - and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-james/we-re-full-of-electricity-and-the-walls-and-floor-of-a-building/) [Peter James](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-james/) > [Whether carbon dioxide is quite the environmental villain that some people make it out to be is not yet proven.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tony-abbott/whether-carbon-dioxide-is-quite-the-environmental-villain-that-some/) [Tony Abbott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tony-abbott/) > [“Steven Apfelbaum, a restoration ecologist in Wisconsin, says that every 1 percent increase in soil carbon holds an additional sixty thousand gallons of water…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/judith-d-schwartz/steven-apfelbaum-a-restoration-ecologist-in-wisconsin-says-that-every/) [Judith D. 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