Post #3573876

One thing about the heat that I don't think is considered often enough is that it's not just "the heat" that affects people's lives. Yes, the heat is the cause, but it has a knock-on effect for everything else. Sleeping in a hot room is less healthy than one that's cool. But if you can't sleep at all or sleep poorly due to the heat, you're liable to have other health issues -- your immune system is less effective and your mental health may suffer (not to mention "productivity" or cognitive function). If you work out at home and depend upon that for exercise, you can't do that in the heat (or maybe you can, but I can't, and women generally sweat less and later than men, and as the body tries to pull blood to the skin to cool it, it's cardiovascularly stressful). And if this exercise is what helps you maintain emotional equilibrium, mobility, and an existence with fewer aches and pains, you're in a worse position there too. If you are neurodivergent, you may have a harder time regulating body heat, too. Older people have less resilience to it, too. And many other problems might be named depending upon if you have pets/children, commute, have different food storage conditions, have a chronic illness, etc. and that the suffering is unique or uniquely poignant depending upon these various factors. I think my point is that people in Europe who have dismissed the prior heatwaves haven't had to contend with or think that it's fine to just deal with the effects of hot weather (or aren't as sensitive to them as others) on society and that there's no reason to voice frustration with it. There's also the fallacy that everyone has more or less the same internal and external conditions. To be an adult and not realize that everyone is different and has variable levels of tolerance to anything is just a giant facepalm. As someone who has always been highly sensitive and therefore a canary in the coal mine, I've been talking about the ever-warming summers for years now. I've been repeatedly dismissed as being melodramatic or a whiner. And this is someone who was motivated to live where I live in part due to the mild summers because I can't do hot weather. So now I live in a country without reliably mild summers OR an AC culture.