In France, we mostly don’t have Air Condition.
Neither in buses, nor hospitals, schools, public building … and of course not in houses
Also for “ecological reasons” (animals will die, forests will burn …), the Governement is against their installation, better people to suffer of the heat (above 40° in lots places for several days).
We put white chalk or survival blankets on windows to limit the heat.
And we cool down the storage for garbages in hospitals while pediatric services don’t have A/C.
So people fight when there are some portable A/C available in shops.
Meanwhile, pigs in farms have A/C in China for example.
French Logic!
(I’m so glad to leave in Greece where A/C is a basic equipment in flats ^^)
Lately, I’ve been getting bombarded from all sides with all this talk about AC in Europe. And honestly, most of it feels like reports from some parallel universe. I’m so used to AC being just a mundane, everyday thing that I completely stopped noticing the outdoor units. But I took a closer look recently, and they are literally everywhere! On mall roofs, on temporary site cabins, on apartment buildings. Even the cheapest new builds have metal enclosures built right into the facades for the outdoor AC units. They look like micro-balconies. Basically, having an AC in every apartment is baked right into the architectural design.
Every single (literally every!) public place is air-conditioned, from libraries to budget supermarkets. Sometimes you walk in from the sweltering heat outside, and it’s just freezing in there. You grab a bottle of the cheapest cola off the shelf, walk back outside, and the bottle feels cool in your hand—even though it was just sitting on the shelf. This has been the norm here for at least the last twenty years, but even before that, AC wasn’t exactly some exotic luxury. Back in Soviet times (in the 80s), a lot of offices had these single-block window units installed—the hot part stuck out the window, and the cold part was inside. Those things completely disappeared here back in the early 2000s. Then, a couple of months ago, I stumbled on a video by some American tech blogger who was talking about these exact window units as a super smart and rational solution. It totally blew my mind.
And yet, Moscow, where I am right now, gets hit by the exact same heatwaves that roll over London, Paris, Berlin, Brussels, and the rest. But they hit us about a week later and are noticeably weaker.
All I can do is sympathize with you guys, wish you patience and resilience, and hope things get back to normal ASAP.
Considering most of France’s power is nuclear 71,7%, with renewables at 21,3% and fossil fuels at 7.1% (according to Wiki) I don’t think air-conditioning is that big of an ecological problem in France, at least.
But there is this weird sentiment, “people should suffer so that they feel climate change”. As if suffering frenchmen could influence the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases:
China - 29.20%
United States - 11.11%
India - 8.22%
EU27 - 5.95%
Russia - 4.84%
(according to EDGAR - The Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research)
You can look it up the Kyoto Protocol 1997, the Paris Agreement 2016, and see how ineffective they have been, countries not hitting their targets; not only that, but USA withdrew from all of them.
If the world had taken climate change seriously 10-20 years ago, we would not have all these extreme weather events now.
If there isn’t a stronger response, things will only get worse.
“Minister of Ecological Transition and Biodiversity” in France
I will tell the things like I think … I’m horrified by everything that I hear …
I’m horrified by people who are telling me “Ah! Let’s put the A/C everywhere”, so ok, we will put A/C everywhere …
Do you think that this will avoid a forest fire?
Do you think that this would prevent one type of crops not to exist?
Do you think that this would avoid the death of animals that we see?
What do you think that this would avoid?
Nothing! Nothing! This is not adaptation.
This is a measure of emergency, maybe, that we could apply, of course people should not suffocate, but this is not adaptation to climate change!
Deployment of A/C is an adaptation to raise of the heat, limitation of emissions of greenhouse gaz has nothing to do with adaptation but with industrial production process enhancements.
No matter what, heatwaves will become more frequent and stronger.
But by ideology, yes, people should suffer.
Note that since the biggest heat wave in 2003, we work one day for free in France to collect 3 billions euros per year to … implement A/C in schools, elderly care center, hospitals …
And after 23 years (at least 69 billions €) nothing has been done
Even WHO is in favor of A/C.
High power consumption? It’s needed when it’s hot and sunny, solar panems can supply at that time.
Better to feed datacenters for AI and let people die!
Fun fact about this Minister: She declared that she owns share in Total, Airbus and weapons industry. And she use a plan during heatwave instead of the train. And lots of other funny things …
