Stepping out of Your Comfort Zone: 21 Cool Ways to Live with Less Air-Conditioning from The Stories of Meerkats, Primitive People, and Fried Rice with Eggs is the latest work of Prof. Tzu-Ping Lin, the Head of the Building and Climate Laboratory (BCLab) of National Cheng Kung University in summer 2022.

How to talk about temperature from the stories of meerkats, primitive people, and fried rice with eggs? After the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger takeoff explosion, Richard Feynman used a glass of ice water and an O-shaped rubber band to explain a physical phenomenon that was difficult for the public to understand. “Ah, I get it when you explain it like that!” is what I hope will resonate with you as you read this book. Therefore, each article in this book starts with a short story that seems to be unrelated to temperature, and with a humorous illustration, a story about temperature is staged to let you experience it.

The topic of temperature is an important topic in today’s society. It is both a theory and a phenomenon, but as a popular science book that communicates with the public, where should we start? If we use theories from earth science, thermodynamics, and human physiology to explain the effects of temperature, the content will be difficult to understand; if we only use the viewpoint of climate change and industrial carbon emission to examine the temperature rise, it is too distant from the public’s life. Therefore, Prof. Lin decided to explore seven key issues from the four themes of origin, residence, activity, and earth:
1. Where does temperature come from and why does the earth have the right temperature?
2. How do animals adapt to temperature and why are humans different?
3. How to maintain comfort in the house?
4. A new look at air conditioning and the rejection of low temperature extortion.
5. What are the unknown effects of temperature on various activities?
6. To make our lives comfortable, we must first help the earth to reduce its hot conditions.
7. Go back to simplicity of life, act now.

The famous psychologist Viktor Frankl once said, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” Although it is a habitual action to turn on the air conditioner when it feels too hot, we actually have more power to choose, and this is the important concept that Prof. Lin wants to communicate to readers through this book. “Your body is the good at adapting to temperature, and we don’t need much temperature control intervention. With a good understanding and early planning, you can keep your home cool, your activities comfortable, and most importantly, help cool the planet. This is a story about temperature, and I hope that the story I tell has a temperature that will motivate you to make changes.”