"Do Americans Need Air-Conditioning?" a New York Times piece asked in July. Air conditioning, it argued, is bad for the environment and makes us less human. It ran quotes suggesting that, "first world discomfort is a learned behavior", and urging "a certain degree of self-imposed suffering".I spent about $9000 replacing my furnace and air conditioner about a year ago and not once have I regretted writing that check. It gets pretty hot here in the Sacramento Valley--hotter than Paris and Dusseldorf--and I enjoy being moderately comfortable in my own little house.
If environmentalists ruled the world, air conditioning wouldn’t exist. And there’s a place like that.
90% of American households have air conditioning. As do 86% of South Koreans, 82% of Australians, 60% of Chinese, 16% of Brazilians and Mexicans, 9% of Indonesians and less than 5% of Europeans.
A higher percentage of Indian households have air conditioning than their former British colonial rulers.
Temperatures in Paris hit 108.6 degrees. Desperate Frenchmen dived into the fountains of the City of Lights with their clothes on. Parisian authorities announced that they were deploying heat wave management plan orange, level three, which meant setting up foggers in public parks and distributing heat wave kits. The kits consist of leaflets telling people to go to libraries which have air conditioning.
France24, the country’s state-owned television network, advised people suffering from temperatures rising as high as 110 degrees to take cold showers and stick their feet in saucepans of cold water.
A 2003 heat wave killed 15,000 people in France. And, in response, the authorities have deployed Chalex, a database of vulnerable people who will get a call offering them cooling advice.
The advice consists of taking cold showers and sticking their feet in saucepans of cold water.
Desperate Frenchmen trying to get into any body of water they can have led to a 30% rise in drownings. The dozens of people dead are casualties of the environmentalist hatred of air conditioners.
Only 5% of French households have air conditioning. Even in response to the crisis, the authorities are only deploying temporary air conditioning to kindergartens.
The 2003 heat wave killed 7,000 people in Germany. And, today, only 3% of German households have air conditioning. Germany’s Ministry of the Environment refused to back air conditioning as a response to global warming.
Temperatures in Dusseldorf hit 105 degrees. Officials in Dusseldorf had recently rejected proposals to install air conditioning systems because they’re bad for the environment.
The climate action head at Germany’s Institute for Applied Ecology explained that air conditioning wouldn't work because there's not much wind during heat waves, and the country can't end reliance on coal and run air conditioners at the same time. You can have air conditioners or save the planet.
But not both.
The issue isn’t poverty. in Greece, one of the poorest countries in Europe, 99% of households have air conditioning. What it comes down to is a willingness to choose comfort over environmental dogma.
In Europe, people are dying because they’ve been told that their sacrifices will save the planet.
The 2003 heat wave killed 70,000 people in Europe. That’s more than Islamic terrorists have.
When environmentalists claim that global warming is a greater threat than Islamic terrorism, they’re half-right. Global warming isn’t real, but the measures taken to fight it are killing thousands of people.
Regarding the last sentence in this post from last year: I'd have given anything for some a/c in that hotel!
Average temperatures in the hottest month for London, Paris, and Berlin are in the mid to upper 70's. Average temps in Minnesota, which is defined in the minds of much of the world as a snowy wasteland, has average highs in the low 80's. NYC, which gets buried in snow several time a year is the same. Both cities usually get at least one heat wave each summer with temps in the high 90's to low 100's, lasting a week.
ReplyDeleteThis debate always sets the preening Euros and Euro-wannabees against the evil US. But the climate of the US is dramatically different than Europe, with both much colder winters and hotter summers.
Whenever there is a rare major heat wave in Europe, which rivals what Minnesotans just call "summer", I fall into my John McClane voice: "Welcome to the party, pal!"
It's worth noting that most of the writers spreading this nonsense live in comparably temperate areas-not Nevada, Arizona, Texas or the Deep South. I daresay these same environmentalists would refuse to give up their oil fired furnaces in the winter months. In the end, it's always easy to insist other people give up amenities, but difficult to do it yourself. I'm willing to bet that if it was affordable, the French would willingly buy A/C's for their homes. Also worth noting is that heat in August is not anything particularly new in Paris, where residents have been leaving Paris for beach vacations in August for decades.
ReplyDeletePS. I would add that most people keep the A/C way too low. We keep ours at 78/80 during the hot months and it's fine. I don't get those folks who keep the temperature at 70 degrees or lower all the time. As hot as it gets in summer in Texas, such extreme changes in temperature is just not healthy. Also, it would help if people would go outside, even on hot days. I walk my dog twice a day-usually first thing in the morning when it is around 80 and just after dark when it's just below 90. Going outside in the heat makes it where you don't need to push the limits on your HVAC's capabilities.
ReplyDeleteI replaced my AC three years ago and I never regretted that purchase. I was arguing with my home warranty people that the policy said three failures and they replace it. And this was the 5th failure in 4 months, and I was in August. I asked the clerk where he was, and he said Pennsylvania. Nice state pal, but you can get by without AC. In Houston, it's a necessity. And yes, I've lived with AC in south Louisiana and Korea, similar climates, but for the family, hell no. The tech said he could get a new unit with a 10 year warranty for 3500. The insurance company offered to pay 1000, and I may not have a master's in math, but I could figure out 2500 for a new AC. DEAL! By the time they had the new unit installed, it was 92 degrees in my house. It took almost 5 hours to get it below 80, but the best 2500 I've ever spent!
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