I'm an American living in Europe during the Great AC Wars... - Revolver News

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I’m an American living in Europe during the AC Wars.

I’ve been living in Florence, Italy, for the past two years, and this is actually my third summer here. Right now, thanks to the massive heatwave hitting Europe, we’re all dealing with what has lovingly become known as the “AC Wars.”

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It’s become one of those internet debates that exploded into a full-blown culture war. Many Europeans who’ve spent years mocking Americans for how much AC we use have suddenly found themselves experiencing American summers firsthand, thanks to the World Cup, and let’s just say… many are singing a different tune and absolutely love the AC. Imagine that.

I spent a decade living in Las Vegas, where 117-degree summer days were normal. It was brutally hot outside, but honestly, it never bothered me all that much because the second you walked into a grocery store, Home Depot, a casino, a restaurant, or just about any strip mall shop in the city, that glorious blast of cold air immediately brought your body temperature back down. That’s just life in America. It doesn’t matter if it’s central air, mini-splits, or window units, Americans, for the most part, like to be comfortable. When it’s blazing hot outside, we expect relief when we walk indoors and a glass full of ice when we sit down in our temperature-controlled restaurant booth.

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Most Americans aren’t interested in “sweating it out” for the climate, and honestly, you can’t blame people when they’re constantly being lectured by global elites who fly around the world on private jets and vacation on massive yachts while wagging their finger at everyone else’s thermostat. Nobody with an ounce of intelligence is taking those lectures seriously. The peasants have a right to be comfortable, too.

My European friends have different takes on the AC debate. Many Italians have told me flat-out that they think air conditioning isn’t healthy. They believe the cold air makes people sick, and they’d much rather open a window or turn on a fan. Is there some truth to it? Sure. Poorly maintained AC systems can circulate mold and dust, sudden temperature swings can bother people, and dry air can irritate your throat. But that’s very different from saying air conditioning itself is unhealthy. Still, it’s a very deeply held belief here, and after hearing it over and over again, you realize it’s part of their culture.

Then there’s my Dutch friends, and this is where things change a lot. Their concern is always the climate. They’re very against heavy AC use because they see it as bad for the environment, and they have no problem telling you that. What always makes me roll my eyes is how much energy gets spent talking about my thermostat while countries like China and India are never mentioned.

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But the United States isn’t over-the-top with air conditioning because Americans are spoiled. We’re a huge country with deserts, humid southern states, and everything in between. It’s hot. Really hot. So when Americans come to Europe, one of the first things we notice isn’t architecture or food, but it’s the lack of consistent air conditioning.

Sorry, it’s part of who we are…

But, before my European friends start sharpening their pitchforks, let me say this. Europe absolutely has air conditioning. Some of it’s fantastic. The difference is that it’s not everywhere, and it isn’t that Arctic blast most Americans are used to, where it’s 110 degrees outside and you’re suddenly looking for a hoodie because Costco feels like a meat locker. We like that, but you won’t find that in Europe, so don’t pack an extra hoodie.

What is ridiculous is that IKEA has AC, but some hospitals don’t.

Imagine being sick and having to be wheeled to the waiting room in order to get some air conditioning. That’s a health issue and shouldn’t happen. If IKEA can have cool air, hospitals, schools, and factories should as well.

Reuters:

In a private ​hospital just south of Paris, the most popular place these days is the waiting room. It has books, ‌table football and a TV showing the soccer World Cup – but what staff and patients really appreciate is the air conditioning.

As France suffers its highest temperatures on record, the realisation is spreading that many hospitals, schools, factories and homes are not equipped to face climate change.

More Europeans die as a result of the heat than all the US gun deaths, combined.

Recent studies estimate tens of thousands of Europeans die from heat-related causes each year.

Nature: 

Here we quantified the heat-related mortality burden during the summers of 2022–2024, and assessed the forecast skill of a new generation of continental-wide, impact-based early warning systems during health emergencies. We fitted epidemiological models with the newly created, format-homogeneous daily mortality database of the EARLY-ADAPT project, covering 654 contiguous regions across 32 European countries, which represents the entire urban and rural population of 539 million people. We estimated 62,775 (95% confidence interval = 36,765–84,379) heat-related deaths in 2024, largely exceeding the burden in 2023 (50,798; 29,442–68,610), but somewhat smaller than that of 2022 (67,873; 38,465–92,455). We demonstrated that health emergencies can be forecast with high confidence at least 1 week in advance, even for highly vulnerable regions and population subgroups. These findings have implications for public health agencies and end users, given that the adoption of the system would enable reliable heat-health emergency alerts within the time window that is relevant for stakeholders to take effective actions to reduce preventable deaths.

On the flip side, the US recorded about 44,447 firearm deaths in 2024 (including suicides, homicides, accidents, etc.).

Take a look:

So, clearly, there’s a serious health issue here. Not with the weather itself, but with the infrastructure that’s needed to handle these longer periods of extreme heat… also, there’s those cultural attitudes about summer and air conditioning that impact all of this, too. Fresh air is best, AC air makes you sick, bla bla bla.

AP:

France saw around 1,000 additional deaths last week at the height of its record-smashing heat wave, the country’s public health agency said Sunday, as the head of the World Health Organization warned that Europe is now the fastest-warming continent and needs to do more to protect its citizens.

Temperature records were toppled in several countries on the weekend, wildfires were sparked in Germany and Berlin police used water cannons to cool down the crowds.

Meanwhile, the heat wave slowly moved toward eastern parts of the continent.

Germany marked a new record for the third day in a row with 41.7 degrees Celsius (107 degrees Fahrenheit) in Neißemünde, near the border with Poland, which baked under its new all-time high of 40.5 C (104.9 F). The Czech Republic also experienced its hottest day ever with 41.9 C (107.4 F), up from the previous record of 40.9 degrees Celsius (105.6 F) on Saturday.

When I first arrived in Italy, it was July, and we were right in the middle of a record heatwave. Every summer, Europe gets these African heatwaves that push scorching air north from Africa, and when they hit Florence, the city can feel absolutely brutal. And honestly, the heat here feels worse to me than it ever did in Las Vegas, and there are a few reasons for that.

First, you never really get a break from it. Florence sits in a valley, and on those really hot days it feels like the heat just hangs over the city like a heavy wool blanket. You’re walking on stone streets, next to giant iron gates and centuries-old buildings that radiate heat back on you. Honestly, there are days when it feels like you’re slowly baking inside a giant pizza oven.

Then you finally find a little café, order a cold spritz, and realize the air conditioning is technically on… but the front door is wide open. Many business owners keep the doors wide open because they think a closed door makes customers assume they’re closed. The result is obvious: cold air goes outside while the hot air comes in.

A lot of businesses here rely on mini splits instead of the kind of forced-air systems Americans use. Mini splits work great in apartments, and honestly, mine works really well at home. But when you’ve got a small café packed with people, a wide-open front door, and 100-degree weather outside, they can only do so much.

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That doesn’t mean you can’t find places that feel like America. You absolutely can. Walk into Sephora, Zara, Guess, Ray-Ban, or any major retailer, and you’ll probably get that familiar blast of cold air. It’s mostly the smaller, more family-owned businesses that are perfectly happy with one little mini split and a couple of fans. The local people inside seem completely comfortable because that’s simply the lifestyle they’ve always known.

However, it’s fair to note the second summer I spent here was delightful. It was mild and very comfortable. That’s weather. It ebbs and flows.

The more time I’ve spent here, the more I’ve realized this isn’t just about air conditioning or climate for the average guy on the street. It’s the elites, who will never give up their private jets or yachts, or their AC, who want the peasants to suffer it out.

If you want a perfect example of how the elites think about you, climate change, and their own comfort, take a look at this.

Pieter Cleppe:

The EU Commission in Brussels has shut off airco, but only for the lower floors, where the lower ranks work:

“It’s like feudalism,” a Commission official working on a lower level of the Berlaymont, granted anonymity to speak freely, told POLITICO on Friday, referring to the fact that upper floors housing commissioners got to keep their AC on. A second official agreed it was a “disgrace.”

Here’s a closeup of the image:

Image

Meanwhile, the global elites are ordering their citizens to remove AC from their homes, thanks to their “net zero” climate goals.

GB News:

Britons have been ordered to remove air conditioning from their homes – despite the country baking in up to 40C heat this week – under a fresh Net Zero crackdown.

Planning officials at councils have told residents to take down their cooling units over concerns about carbon dioxide emissions.

They say AC, despite the heat, should serve only as a “last resort”.

The crackdown comes from building regulations which demand “active cooling” is used only after all “passive cooling” methods, like opening windows or running fans, have been exhausted.

The Tories have accused the Government of leaving Britain “in the dark ages” through Net Zero policies which prevent citizens from accessing “modern conveniences that are completely normal in other countries”.

Standard guidance says planning consent is not needed for air conditioning in most circumstances.

But permission becomes mandatory in specific scenarios, including properties in conservation areas – with separate regulations applying to flats, leasehold properties, and shared buildings.

You can bet these elites aren’t sweating it out in their homes. Their AC is likely humming along just fine, while the peasants drop like over-baked flies.

The memes online are over the top.

Image

The truth is, this debate should never be about climate change. It has nothing to do with “global warming,” but everything to do with control and power. What’s really going on is about culture, infrastructure, cost, old buildings, power over the people, and different ways of looking at comfort. And after living here for two years, I honestly understand a lot of it in ways I never could have before.

I think this post sums it up nicely.

S

BB5:

I think Americans misunderstand why AC is less common in Europe.

For a lot of Europeans, comfort is not always about controlling everything artificially. It is also about opening the windows, letting air circulate, using shutters, living with the seasons, and keeping life simple.

It is not necessarily backward. It is just a different relationship with comfort, energy, and everyday life.

Honestly, Europe wasn’t built to handle long stretches of African heatwaves. America was. But none of these screeching hot temps are new. They’ve been around forever. But they’re just amplified now because of social media and climate change nutbags who want to push their message of doom and gloom.

Just look how Time Magazine frames the “unprecedented heatwave.”

Once extreme heat is becoming the new normal. The heat waves across the continent have been super charged by climate change. Europe is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world—it’s the fastest warming continent in the world and the second fastest region after the Arctic. While southern Europe has always seen heat waves, much of Europe and the U.K. has historically had a cooler climate—and its infrastructure was built in that context. Combined with the rapid warming, this has left countries underprepared for the unprecedented and multiple heat waves being experienced each summer—and it’s placing people’s lives at risk.

But here’s the truth: extreme heat in Europe has been going on since the beginning of time. It’s nothing new here, or anywhere in the world. Europe has dealt with brutal summer heat for a very long time.

The famous 2003 heatwave happened more than twenty years ago, and devastating heatwaves occurred long before that. What’s changing isn’t just the weather, it’s that Europe is having a much more public conversation about how well its cities, buildings, electrical grids, and cooling infrastructure are prepared when extreme heat arrives.

Also, climate change zealots are taking advantage to push their agendas.

So, who’s right in the great AC Wars? Honestly, everybody is… at least a little. Americans and Europeans have different climates, different infrastructure, different cultures, and different ideas about what “comfortable” means. Me? I’ll keep enjoying my Italian life, my Florentine summers, and my apartment set to a glorious 71 degrees.

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Some habits are just too American to give up…

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