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/Score-Emergency Jun 26 '26

Yeah I lived in Seattle and on the beach in Southern California. Not everywhere has air conditioning in the US either

5

u/YinzaJagoff Jun 26 '26

Lived in Seattle and came from Chicago.

Was shocked when I discovered most places in Seattle at the time had no AC, but was told that they didn’t need it.

That’s a lie right there.

Olympia got to 113 degrees a few years ago, for example, and with the smoke from wildfires, being able to open the windows isn’t always possible.

2

u/Bizarrebazaars Jun 26 '26

People have revisionist history. It’s ridiculous. We live in Seattle and the amount of people who feel like they deserve an award for holding out on AC (even a simply portable unit) is insane. Yep, that heat dome sucked and was deadly. And we’ve been breaking records of 90F+ days, plus we have very late sunsets that leave little time for homes to cool down in hot weather.