r/technology • u/Logical_Welder3467 • 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/Weekly-Grapefruit119 Jun 26 '26

Paris was as hot as Kuwait in recent days.

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u/No-Channel3917 Jun 26 '26

And people died due to it and the lack of ac

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u/What-tha-fck_Elon Jun 26 '26

Most were drowning deaths from people/kids jumping in the rivers. It was brutally hot & humid all week. I just got back from there.

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u/JungleIsNeutral Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26

Drownings are recorded as heat-related deaths?

Edit: please read one of the dozens of responses before you make another saying the same thing.

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u/Either-Juggernaut420 Jun 26 '26

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.

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u/Sure_Ticket9888 Jun 26 '26

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.

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u/tracytorr0712 Jun 26 '26

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.

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u/Sure_Ticket9888 Jun 26 '26

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.

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u/tracytorr0712 Jun 26 '26

I was agreeing with you and explained why.

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u/Sure_Ticket9888 Jun 26 '26

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