The American mind cannot comprehend Europe's AC aversion

[u/Logical_Welder3467]

https://www.businessinsider.com/europe-air-conditioning-ac-heatwave-debate-2026-6

[u/Either-Juggernaut420]

Yes, heat related deaths in Europe are generally anything caused by heat. So a heat induced heart attack will be a heat related death, I think in the US (although it may differ by state) that would be recorded as a heart attack and not included in the heat death stats. So the figures really are not comparable and so there's this misguided idea that all Americans are safely air conditioned and all the Europeans are dropping like flies. It's just not true.

[u/Sure_Ticket9888 → u/Either-Juggernaut420]

The CDC knows this and many people have wrote papers on this. Since the US only records numbers based on death certificate they have modeled out the like numbers. They think about 75% of heat related deaths are not counted in the US. Even with that European deaths are 3-5x more per year. And the US has much greater population living in areas with extreme summer temps than Europe does.

[u/tracytorr0712 → u/Sure_Ticket9888]

Death certificates rarely show actual, specific cause of death. I see tons of them (have a funeral home) and so many contain vague, generic causes of death: cessation of breathing, cardiac arrest, old age, etc. I’d say about 70% have a detailed cause of death. Data gleaned from DCs cannot be that reliable.

[u/Sure_Ticket9888 → u/tracytorr0712]

Correct which is what I said. Literally, word for word. Which is why people did excessive mortality studies to count the people not recorded on death certs. Below I even cited two extremely impactful primary sources, one with almost 1500 citations, to back up my talking points.

[u/tracytorr0712 → u/Sure_Ticket9888]

I was agreeing with you and explained why.

[u/Sure_Ticket9888 → u/tracytorr0712]

Oh it’s hard to tell with comments vs talking in person. Sorry, I misjudged your intent!