Post #4361615

This is gonna get me in hot water (no pun intended), but I feel like I want to say a few words. I "can't wait" to see the comments... ugh. But here goes. Just saw a post talking specifically about the weather in Central Europe. Central Europe, huh. So the person likely meant like Germany, Poland, Denmark, Czechia, *maybe* France? I live in Poland. Is that Central European enough for ya? Am I allowed to talk about this? The post talked about the heat wave, and talked about how AC is the solution. The post suggested tha EU should supply 100% coverage with AC everywhere. How about uhh... fucking no? Don't get me wrong (and I know someone is gonna strawman me into saying that AC is evil and people should die or something like that). Changes in infrastructure that make it possible to live inside as the climate gets worse and worse are inevitable. Yes, AC is becoming an inevitability in many places, and it's gonna get much worse. But also, no, fucking air conditioning is not the solution, it's a stopgap. Structural changes to how people live should incorporate better thermal insulation, smarter energy use, changes to labour laws so that people do not do physical labour in the hottest part of the day - are. AC is part of it, but talking about it like it's the solution is such a fucking US-centric approach I can't even begin to tell ya. AC is a luxury in most cases (shut up, let me finish). In the US it is, I am told, nearly everywhere, especially nearly everywhere urban. And there are areas where it's needed, yes. But a few things. One, Warsaw or Berlin or Vienna aren't fucking Deep South in the US. Even with the heatwaves, we get to like 40 degrees. AC is not so much a thing in Europe not because we're weird, it's because it's less needed. Because, and get this, we do not build a lot of our houses out of cardboard the way it is done in much of the American South. You know what the US energy consumption per capita was in 2003? about 9500 W. Eleventh-highest globally. "well, that's not too ba--" - let me stop you. The top ten includes Iceland (pretty fucking cold much of the year), as well as Trinidad and Tobago, Quatar, Kuwait, Brunei Darussalam, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain. Those are very hot places, and in the case of Kuwait and the Emirates, also places where a lot of fabulously wealthy people live. The rest of the list? Luxembourg (that's a high energy consumption, but also it's a city-state of 700 000 people. I promise you they're not going to contribute that much to climate change). And Canada (almost like Canada is very similar to the US. Also, Canada is quite a bit colder than the US, and some large cities are in parts where you will need quite a bit of heating to make buildings livable). How about most of Europe? Poland, where I live, was about 3500 W in 2003 (a little over a third of the US). United Kingdom, 4300. Austria, France, Germany all between 5300 and 5400. Now, Northern Europe consumed more energy - Finland 9000, Norway 8800, Sweden 7300. Hint: not because of those scorching hot Oslo summers. ("but what about China?" One, it produces most of consumer goods consumed in the West, that's energy-intensive. Two, 2400 W per capita. Shut the fuck up about China) What does that have to do with anything? I am so glad you asked!