Let's see how "Europeans complaining about Americans and calling them weak and excessive for having air conditioning" is playing out this year.
For some reason, I hear these complaints less and less.
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@thomasfuchs Europe getting hotter aside, maybe the "air conditioning is bourgeois decadence" people have finally started to figure out that the number of AC units in the world is projected to more than double by 2050 for reasons that have almost nothing to do with Europe or North America
@thomasfuchs We've had AC since '98 (a 3.6 kW mini-split), though it's been getting used more and more every year.
@jernej__s out of curiosity, if you don’t mind answering, what country are you in?
@jernej__s makes a lot of sense. I emigrated from Austria to the US in 2012 but even back then within Austria you’d see those more in the south of the country
@thomasfuchs Things are changing... Switzerland, for example, has laws prohibiting the installation of ACs, and it had even more of those a while back. The heat is catching up with us and with its people's experiences and with that the laws.
I wish you a nice, and when necessary cooled down, summer ⛱️ 🌞
@fabianegli this seems excessively anti-human, even for a (partially) Germanic culture country
is heating forbidden, also?
@thomasfuchs 🤣 Indeed. Luckily we have laws that demand sufficient heating of rented quarters.
On a more serious note, and you probably know this already, there's significant over-mortality on heat days. Even in Switzerland. You are spot on by calling these rules anti-human.
These laws were once made, they claimed, to save our precious energy. Now they need to change to save our precious lives.
@fabianegli “Fun” fact, heat is way more dangerous than cold.
@thomasfuchs I'm puzzled...
So there are more and more heat waves and the proposal is more AC everywhere?
@gdupont the heatwaves aren’t going to go away quickly even if we stop all emissions fueling climate change today
people are dying and getting gravely injured from the heatwaves
so yes, we should have AC everywhere
this isn’t puzzling
@thomasfuchs FYI I'm not totally against AC
And I share your concerns for fragile people.
I'm puzzled by the "everywhere"
There are many ways to fight heat. Many are related to adaption in building that are not more expensive/difficult than AC.
AC (given it's enormous energy bill and overall counterproductive mindset against climate change) should be reserved to the most fragile people.
Not everywhere.
@thomasfuchs I'm in Europe and regret to inform the air conditioning is a lie. My house has 2 standing fans and that makes me more high tech than like 80% of German homes
