After Cooling

On Freon, Global Warming, and the Terrible Cost of Comfort

By: Eric Dean Wilson

Narrated by: Eric Dean Wilson

This “ambitious [and] delightful” (The New York Times) work of literary nonfiction interweaves the science and history of the powerful refrigerant (and dangerous greenhouse gas) Freon with a haunting meditation on how to live meaningfully and morally in a rapidly heating world.

In After Cooling, Eric Dean Wilson braids together air-conditioning history, climate science, road trips, and philosophy to tell the story of the birth, life, and afterlife of Freon, the refrigerant that ripped a hole larger than the continental United States in the ozone layer. As he traces the refrigerant’s life span from its invention in the 1920s—when it was hailed as a miracle of scientific progress—to efforts in the 1980s to ban the chemical (and the resulting political backlash), Wilson finds himself on a journey through the American heartland, trailing a man who buys up old tanks of Freon stockpiled in attics and basements to destroy what remains of the chemical before it can do further harm.

Wilson is at heart an essayist, looking far and wide to tease out what particular forces in American culture—in capitalism, in systemic racism, in our values—combined to lead us into the Freon crisis and then out. “Meticulously researched and engagingly written” (Amitav Ghosh), this “knockout debut” (New York Journal of Books) offers a rare glimpse of environmental hope, suggesting that maybe the vast and terrifying problem of global warming is not beyond our grasp to face.

Critic reviews

“Ambitious. Powerful. Delightful.”
— Hope Jahren, The New York Times

“Meticulously researched and engagingly written, After Cooling is essential reading for the planetary crisis.”
— Amitav Ghosh, bestselling author of The Great Derangement

“After Cooling is a deeply discomforting book – and that's the point. Eric Dean Wilson's message, which could not be more timely, is that we need to rethink how we live and what we want.”
— Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Under a White Sky

“A spectacularly interesting read! After Cooling offers a lively history of air-conditioning and explores all the complexities of the fight over Freon.”
— Eula Biss, National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of On Immunity

“Excellent.”
—Rolling Stone

“A knockout debut by a gifted writer.”
— New York Journal of Books

“As entertaining as it is edifying. You'll learn what put a ‘hole’ in the ozone layer, how the Rivoli movie theatre in New York inaugurated our present ice age, who in this country is still hoarding Freon, how air conditioning is exacerbating heat waves – and lots of other ecological horrors. This is a brilliantly researched book.”
— Edmund White, National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of City Boy

“As much sociopolitical commentary as history of science... Wilson digs deeply into the linkages between Western desire for material comfort and racial oppression, including critiques of capitalism and profit-seeking industry.”
— Science

“Thoughtful, rigorous, and rich with lessons for our warming world.’”
— Robert Moor, bestselling author of On Trails

“A masterful piece of creative nonfiction… A must read.”
— The Raven Bookstore (Lawrence, Kansas)

Kinda preachy

It's easy to talk about living without AC when you've never lived further south than Tennessee

Fantastic. So enlightening.

This is going on the read again pile. Especially liked the part retelling conversations with those who you might think you have little in common with.

We Are Not A Closed System

An insightful history and sociology of one of the most destructive substances ever mass produced, both for our environment and for our civic life. Very engaging in its mix of science, biography, philosophy, and first hand reportage.

Fascinating, even if you don't agree politically

Spoiler alert before I start. Even though I skipped some parts that talked politics at length, the idea that if the Montreal Protocol hadn't happened would've meant the end of the world as we know it by today was amazing to hear. I loved how he followed Sam and how he narrated the book. This book is literally why you have Audible, it's the kind of book that most people like me couldn't have the attention span to read, but just had so many good parts to it that hearing it was actually better.

Too much race, not enough substance.

The book would have been much better if the author had stuck to the consequences on the environment and physical health. It would have been more engaging for more people on a topic that is very important and will only continue to get more important in the future. I'm a liberal guy, and this is far too preachy with woke politics to attract a wide audience from both sides of the political spectrum unless they are already woke to begin with.