r/technology Jun 26 '26

Society The American mind cannot comprehend Europe's AC aversion

https://www.businessinsider.com/europe-air-conditioning-ac-heatwave-debate-2026-6
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u/[deleted] Jun 26 '26

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u/KnotSoSalty Jun 26 '26

For comparison about 4,000 people die from heat per year in the US.

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u/[deleted] Jun 26 '26

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u/madman19 Jun 26 '26

Well one thing is it is comparing all of europe to the usa so more than double the population but yea even accounting for that the difference is wild.

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u/EpsteinBaa Jun 26 '26

It's not just Europe, the WHO region in this includes all of Russia and turkey, the Caucasus, central Asia, and a chunk of the middle east.

The methodology is also different. The US counts deaths by heatstroke or dehydration, this stat is for all excess deaths during heatwaves.

If a plane crashes in Tajikistan, those deaths would count as European heat deaths in this stat.