๐๐ข๐ ๐๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐ฉ๐จ๐ซ๐ ๐๐๐ญ ๐๐ข๐๐ก ๐๐๐๐๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ข๐ซ-๐๐จ๐ง๐๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ข๐ง๐ ?
Did you know, many of the world's richest countries sit in temperate climates?
The United States. Germany. Switzerland. Sweden. Canada. Japan. South Korea.
Meanwhile, many of the world's poorest countries, meanwhile, are clustered around the tropics.
This is a well known, and well studied fact. Economists have spent decades trying to explain why.
Some point to disease. Before modern medicine, tropical regions faced malaria, yellow fever and a host of other illnesses that reduced productivity and life expectancy.
Others point to agriculture. Temperate climates made it easier to grow and store staple crops.
Still others argue that climate itself is not the real reason. Instead, institutions, governance and historical circumstances matter more.
Whatever the explanation, the correlation is striking.
๐๐จ ๐ก๐๐ซ๐'๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ฅ๐๐ฉ๐ก๐๐ง๐ญ ๐ข๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ซ๐จ๐จ๐ฆ: ๐๐ ๐ซ๐ข๐๐ก ๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐ญ๐ซ๐ข๐๐ฌ ๐๐ซ๐ ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐จ๐ฌ๐๐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐ ๐๐จ๐ฅ๐, ๐ฐ๐ก๐๐ญ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐ฉ๐จ๐ซ๐ ๐๐จ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ข๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ข๐ซ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ญ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐๐ฌ?
We sit almost exactly on the equator.
Step outside for five minutes and you will understand why British colonial administrators once described Singapore as "enervating." It is hot. It is humid. Your shirt becomes soaked within 5 minutes of stepping outside.
Yet Singapore today enjoys one of the highest GDPs per capita in the world.
I say, our success is attributed to the air-conditioning.
This sounds ridiculous until you think about it.
Modern office work is essentially indoor work.
Finance. Software. Research. Design. Administration. Planning. Data analysis.
Imagine trying to run a stock exchange, software company or government ministry in a non-air-conditioned environment where everyone is sweating through their clothes by 10am.
How to be productive?!
Lee Kuan Yew once described air-conditioning as one of the key inventions that made modern Singapore possible. In his first book "Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew", he wrote about how he realised the importance of having an air conditioning, having experienced it first-hand at home.
Because he viewed it as a prerequisite for productivity rather than a luxury, one of his very first acts upon becoming prime minister was installing air conditioning in buildings where the civil service worked.
If you'd like to prove this theory wrong, very easy - take your laptop down to the public park and see how long you'd last.
In many ways, air-conditioning allowed Singapore to simulate one of the advantages that naturally cooler countries enjoyed.
๐๐ ๐ญ๐จ๐ญ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐ข๐ฆ๐ฉ๐จ๐ซ๐ญ๐๐ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ง๐ญ๐๐ซ.
We then invested heavily in this technology. Singapore created millions of square metres of climate-controlled environments where people could think, meet, write, negotiate, invent and build businesses without constantly fighting the weather.
So the next time you walk from an air-conditioned office to an air-conditioned MRT station before entering an air-conditioned shopping mall, remember that you are participating in one of the most successful climate engineering projects in human history.
For generations, economists have asked why rich countries tend to be cold.
Singapore's answer may be surprisingly simple.
If you cannot move the country, cool the room.