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US Army's A/C Bill in Iraq Greater Than Entire NASA Budget

Travel
by Jason Wire Jun 27, 2011

* Amount of taxpayer money spent on NASA: $19 billion
* Cost of providing air conditioning to the US troops in Iraq & Afghanistan: $20.2 billion

I have lived in an un-air conditioned place where summer temperatures reach into the 100 degree levels even late at night. I layed awake in my own sweat, feeling both the need for new sheets and the futility of changing them, making the trade-off between bearing with mosquito bites or suffocating inside closed windows. It sucks, but like most of life’s weather-driven inconveniences, you get used to it.

Aside from the simple idea that perhaps soldiers could bear to deal with sleeping in the same way humans have for thousands of years, the entire method of providing fuel to remote areas we’re waging wars in is as efficient as filling up your SUV 300 miles from your home. Additionally, more than 1,000 troops have died in fuel convoys. Could a more environmental approach be not only greener, not only cheaper, but SAFER as well?

Read NPR’s full story for the full take.

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