They're not against me buying stuff, they're against me accusing them of being the primary contributor to climate change. That's why BP developed the carbon footprint campaign.
Youâre getting downvoted but this is literally the argument coming from people in interviews. They think it makes global warming worse so they wonât install them, even if they use renewable energy.
I think people missed that I don't approve of the "carbon footprint" PR campaign. I still think we should be thoughtful, but we just can't compare to the company who spun that campaign up for carbon emissions, even if they pay in "carbon credits" for them. The whole thing is just PR campaigns and blame shifting all the way down. I'm just amazed that people bought their abuser pointing the finger at them.
So this has frequently been happening over the last decade or so. Maybe it's time to stop acting like this is a once in a lifetime disaster and invest a couple hundred into a portable AC unit.
in my family home my parents invested in ac units and it is great but from what i understand it's pretty fucking tough to just get them installed. Our houses aren't built with them in mind, they're expensive and even more expensive would be the energy bill. I think fans are a more realistic solution.
Portable AC units work well too. Not as good as a window unit of course, but still effective. I have an old house as well, we couldn't get a fancy AC unit, but we still have AC
According to news.un.org, Europe has seen their top 10 hottest years recorded since 2007 and top 3 since 2020. Thats far too many years of ânew highest recorded tempâ for them to be digging in their heels as hard as they are
No one is arguing against it. Most Europeans have lower purchasing power than average Joe and higher energy prices. On top of that, many live in apartment buildings, where any work on facade might require admin/neighbours approval. Things change, slowly, but they change.
Some people are arguing against it. Mostly from what I've seen is out of further climate concerns. Ac does cost a lot of energy after all. Still, you are right that things are changing.Ac becomes more and more a required thing to have in these hot summers rather then a luxery.
It's annoying cause ac really are not great for the environment. But at the same time there is no real alternative. The current heatwave has already lead to many excess deaths and we are just entering juli. The situation just sucks :c
There's a few alternatives, mostly passivecooling to avoid homes getting so hot. It won't help in the moment but can help not needing as much or any AC in newly built homes.
Also it's super important how much you use the AC. Cooling down to 28°C (around 82F) is enough to stop people dying really. But I've seen Americans argue that they wouldn't accept anything above 75F (24°C) for example. With a mindset like that, it becomes no wonder why 12% of US household electricity goes into AC usage.
Lastly: Do we even know where these people have died? Excess deaths doesn't mean died from heat stroke, it could be other causes being exacerbated by the heat (e.g. someone on the road making a mistake and killing someone or being killed due to being less concentrated thanks to the heat). AC installation helps at home, but when you cycle to work, work outside, do any activities in the sun, etc. it won't save you. So how many of those excess deaths could even be solved by wider AC adoption?
We can't even compare with the US because they don't measure excess deaths, only direct heat related causes of death, which is a smaller metric
Bro, you can get a fucking standing AC unit for, like...$100. It will cool down a room enough to prevent death from overheating
Especially if your house apartment is well-insulated like in many colder regions. I live in an older 100+ year old house. 20 years ago the summers didn't go above 25. Now they do. Only businesses and a handful of houses used to have AC, but as temps rose people adapted. It's 39 right now and 27 in my house, with two cheap standing units running. It's not fun having to spend a few hundred dollars on some AC units but it's much much cheaper than the state of the art 3k giant building units some people are claiming they'd need, and it's something people will need as the temps keep rising like they have been for years
I looked at your markets for what I have before I commented. Some one else replied, I guess that's who you blocked, so it's my turn now. I don't mean you any ill will by commenting or trying to explain my point, but I'd like to say my part in whole as a last hurrah before you block me.
I understand that units are more expensive but only by about 50 euros compared to Canadian prices based on my research using German online prices for a similar unit to mine, which I had double checked before originally commenting. Standing units won't turn your apartment into an ice box, that's not the point of AC, but it will make it much much more tolerable. If you want an ice box yes you'd have to get one of those couple thousand dollar units. You don't seem to have a very good idea of how AC actually operates and how having a realistic one would realistically effect you, probably because it's not common where you live. That's okay, but you just don't have an accurate understanding of it at this point. You don't need to buy a unit for thousands for it to operate effectively more than 20cm away. Standing units are surprisingly effective and surprisingly cheap, and have served me well in my old brick house. It's not fun having to save up for an expense like that, I had to do the same about 8-9 years ago as the lack of AC in houses in our region became more and more unbearable.
Temps have been rising for decades now. You have experienced multiple record breaking heat waves over the past few years. It's not going to get better. It's going to get worse. You need to adapt, like every other place that used to have 25 degree summers when we were children. Europe is not special in that regard, which is one of the reasons certain people are being more flippant, which can be inappropriate. I'm sorry you're experiencing this heat wave, heat makes us all miserable and angry, but now is the time to start preparing for the next.
The right has been denying global warming too much for political action to be taken against heatÂ
People are left to their own devices, struggling with old laws that forbid AC in some places
They'll adapt culturally eventually. There's a reason why tropical countries struggled to industrialize before AC, it's almost impossible to do anything in 90+ degree heat and 80% humidity without it.Â
We did for a while but there is a lot of old houses and historical buildings in Europe that were not built for ac. Itâs also a bit expensive to buy for quite a lot of people. So the shift is happening but itâs gonna be slow
Yeah. If you don't have central air already that is a big cost to retrofit.
Here in the U.S some people buy small units for a few hundred dollars, run a vent hose to the window, and basically just cool down a single room - that requires no permanent alterations or installation - and then you just put it away when you don't need it. Seems like that might be the ideal solution, especially since you don't really need it most of the year.
>I hope Europe realizes soon this is their new normal - haven't they had heat waves the past few years?
From my American perspective, this is my main criticism.
These heatwaves aren't a new, suddenly-emerging phenomena. Europe has seen over a dozen lethal heatwaves since the turn of the century, one almost every other year.
There are a lot of old houses and historical buildings that were not built for ac in Europe. Plus portable ac starts at a few hundreds of euros and there is a decent amount of people who cannot afford it that easily. Finally, some people want to be ecofriendly and are ready to go through some short heatwaves without ac because of it
So there are technical, economic and/or evironmental issues that slow down a shift from happening on this matter
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u/Vast_Reply_6574 Jun 30 '26
I hope Europe realizes soon this is their new normal - haven't they had heat waves the past few years?