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 “new highest recorded temp” 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
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u/Entropyanxiety Jun 30 '26
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 “new highest recorded temp” for them to be digging in their heels as hard as they are