To understand how AC and heat pumps work, I built the world’s worst mini-fridge (opens in new tab)

Without refrigeration, you might be dead. It allowed us to largely eradicate measles, rubella, and polio with mass vaccination. It has made large-scale human habitation of Florida and Arizona possible. Without refrigeration, you wouldn’t even be reading this sentence: The internet runs on servers that would melt without continuous cooling. Refrigeration is a structural support that makes our world possible. It is also both a driver of climate change and a climate solution. Refrigeration, in t...