American ‘Addiction’ to A/C is ‘Stupid’, say Europeans

by McGuire | July 23, 2015 1:55 pm

I have to say, I live in a pretty moderate temperature zone of the United States. Washington State, west coast side, gets rarely too hot or cold. But let me tell you, when it does get too hot, everyone in the world is running out to buy a brand-new A/C from Walmart. Yes, really[1]:

[2]

I mean..I guess we can cool off somehow, right?

From Washington Post[3]:

Overall, it’s safe to say that Europe thinks America’s love of air-conditioning is actually quite daft. Europeans have wondered about this particular U.S. addiction for a while now: Back in 1992, Cambridge University Prof. Gwyn Prins called America’s love of air-conditioning the country’s “most pervasive and least-noticed epidemic,” according to the Economist. And according to the Environmental Protection Agency, it’s getting worse: American demand for air-conditioning has only increased over the past decades.

The U.S. has been the world’s leader in air-conditioning ever since, and it’s not a leadership Americans should necessarily be proud of. According to Stan Cox, a researcher who has spent years studying indoor climate controlling, the United States consumes more energy for air conditioning than any other country. In many parts of the world, a lack in economic development might be to blame for a widespread absence of air-conditioning at the moment. However, that doesn’t explain why even most Europeans ridicule Americans for their love of cooling and lack of heat tolerance.

At least 35,000 people died as a result of the record heatwave that scorched Europe in August 2003, says an environmental think tank.

[…]

The EPI calculated the huge death toll from the eight western European countries with data available. “Since reports are not yet available for all European countries, the total heat death toll for the continent is likely to be substantially larger,” it says in a statement.

France suffered the worst losses, with 14,802 people dying from causes attributable to the blistering heat. This is “more than 19 times the death toll from the SARS epidemic worldwide”, notes the EPI.

Hmmm. Well, maybe not where I live, but your Euro-superiority complex clearly lost 35,000 lives here, buckaroo. I’m willing to wager a hefty sum those folks might have thought a bit more of A/C than you do. Maybe you want to think twice before you go off too half-cocked, fools.

Written by Katie McGuire. Email the author at [email protected] or feel free to send hate tweets to @GopKatie,[4] where I will be sure to do almost nothing about it.

Source URL: https://rightwingnews.com/human-interest/american-addiction-to-ac-is-stupid-say-europeans/

---