All Hail Willis
Posted on 07/23/2015 7:23:22 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
I know, I know … Europeans also believe in the fantasy that they can live in a socialist utopia of sorts and the bill will never come due too. Er, except in Greece, of course.
This “new” outrage, though, is simply the usual Euro “superiority” fantasy. They always have a better/smarter/eco friendlier idea and we New Worlders, well, we’re wasteful, uncouth and unsophisticated barbarians, or something:
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.
Well good for them. Because as we recall back in 2003, their “superiority” worked out so well for them, didn’t it?
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.
Yes, that’s right, air conditioning can save lives. Lots of lives, apparently.
I’ll bet those 35,000+ might have found air conditioning being available to be lifesaving? We certainly lose a few to heat each year, but I’ll be honest, if I’d lost 35,000+ to heat in a single summer, I wouldn’t be smug enough to bring up America’s affection for air conditioning in a negative way.
But then, we’re talking about Europe, aren’t we? The land of very short memories, it seems.
I grew up in Houston without a/ c. We had no idea how miserable we were.
Easy for them to say
Few places in Europe even on the Med rival the American South or Southwest for heat
Anywhere an hour north of the Med coast you can easily live without AC
Yup —Washington DC was built on a drained swamp. Reason congress always recessed in August was to escape the ravages of Yellow Fever.
Swamp.....seems apropos.....
You’re right. It was the invention of A/C that led to the massive development of the deep south.
All Hail Willis
Let me think. Euros and AC??? Let’s see, I spent 20+ years in the US Army. TEN of those years was stationed in West Germany. I lived both in local German housing and in military housing areas. Let me think. No, none of them had AC. Was it hot at times. Mummmmmm, yes, by cracky, yes it was. So, YES SIR. I KNOW about Europe and AC. Well AWARE of it. Well AWARE of the LACK OF IT!
DC and St. Louis are tied in my book for the worst combination of cold winters and hot/humid summers.
During that `hot’ summer of 1983 they installed screens (”Fliegerketten”) on the windows of our quarters. The German workers installing them thought these uniquely American since their homes had lace curtains for that purpose.
Like the lace curtain window in “Blazing Saddles” as Lili von Schtupp was moaning, “It’s twue...it’s twue...it’s twue!”
Around Naples in the late 60’s we called the roadside prostitutes (all of whom were white) “Campfire Girls” since in the winter months they would gather around a 55 gal. drum with a fire in it.
fer sure
If you take a look at a globe and follow the latitudinal lines, you will find that Spain, the southernmost country in Europe, is about at the same latitude as Maine.
germany is not all of europe.
like i said, ac’s are in every bus,hotel,house and supermarket in spain,portugal,italy and greece and i just came form denmark and they have ac’s in the hotels,supermarkets,the train stations,the trains, basically everywhere.
Good! Glad you got the AC!
I didn’t stay in Germany all the time. I visited many, many countries while I was there. Switzerland, Austria, Italy, France, Holland, Belgium, Luxemburg, Spain, Berlin (when it was east-west), etc. I actually cannot remember if every one of them had AC, but I know for sure that all did not. I visited in summers in these countries, accept for Italy, Austria, Spain, Switzerland. I went to those in winter also. The military had great travel experiences through the American Express Travel. AE was the bank we had over there except for my last tour in the late 80s when a bank called Merchants out of Indiana I think it was had beaten out AE for the contract they had had forever for being the military bank.
Yer-up is the same latitude as Canada.
They can stuff it.
I’m kinda late to this, but, Dave, your comment about Oregon being cool seems funny in light of the fact that we’ve had a string of 100 degree+ days for a week, and today it was 108!
See ya’,
Ed
Ed, compared to Florida, Oregon is “relatively” cool. Here in the Tampa Bay area you need a/c from May to November. It’s not uncommon for the temps to hit 100 with 95% humidity from June through September. Without air conditioning Florida would be an almost unpopulated swamp full of cabbage palms and alligators.
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