How Europe Became the World Champion of Heat Deaths

A/C is one reason. I bought one for my condo two years ago after experiencing 35+ degrees Celsius over weeks one or two years ago.

It was the single best decision ever, it is increasing quality of life massively. It cost me roughly 2000EUR - an investment, not a hefty sum.

I feel no difference in sleepiness, mood etc. at during summers where nights show 25+ degrees.

3 month per year for 2 years and counting means such a bargain for me given this summer. Imagine moving to a hotel for 3 month with A/C - 6-9 month at a day rate of around 200EUR. Now put that into perspective with the 2k investment.

Energy costs surprised me extremely. I expected to have to pay adional 200-300EUR as a result of its usage during summer month.

And I was stunned to be reunded 6EUR instead. So it seems to save energy magically, too. ;)

PS: I rarely join any events during summer given the fact that an event with 1k to 20+k guests would not be considered heat sinks. Today a friend of mine goes to an Open Air concert which starts at 18:00. I wished her well, since the heat indicators shows 37 degrees there. I have to bite my tongue to call it a nutjob. In the Italy for example, understandably since decades Open Air events start around or after 21:00. Maybe is has to do with the sun.

I wonder when they will join the rest of us in the future.

My house is by no means modern (built by pirates in 1600s) but it's fine 99.9% of the time without AC. So once a year when there's a heatwave, after several days, it may heat up too much inside and then for 1-2 days I walk around pondering "huh, perhaps I should install AC" - heck, if there's that 2nd day I may even Google about different AC models.

But next day heat is gone and I'm like "meh, okay, maybe I will get it some other time" and then I never return to it until the next year's heat remind sme about it again.

Once hot weather in my area becomes much more frequent, I'm sure I will then be finally wiggled into buying AC.

You can already see it across Europe too. Places that had hot weather for a long time have AC: Italy, Spain etc. I have seen plenty whether staying with my Spanish friends or vacationing in Italy.

But I also see it on a local scale too: I live by the sea but my friends living in central London whi often have 5C degrees more already did have plenty of chats about different AC models years ago. They got coaxed into buying AC by frequency of the event.

There is IMO all there is to it. People will just move slow and natural human laziness does not discriminate: old people who may die in this heat will also be caught among those who think they can make due one more year without AC. The only alternative to speed this up would be governments subsidizing or forcibly installing ACs in people houses.

And sure, you can moan about some specific regulations or show some one absurd story from that or this place - but if the real inertia was there, it would happen.

A probable answer is that the data are incomplete or dubious. Saying that 61000 Europeans were killed by heat in 2022, same year when Covid was killing people left and right with every politician trying to hide it under the rug, looks debatable at least.

If we interpret the graph provided it suggests around 120.000 killed for Europe, against 240.000 killed on Asia.

But the majority of deaths by heat aren't even recorded in Asia, and Africa does not even appear. It seems that 380 millions of Hindi suffer heat risk [1]. There are estimates of 30.000 people being killed in five days of May 2026 in the biggest Indian cities.

> "Across the continent, only about a fifth of homes have air conditioning, against nearly 90 % in US"

Different countries use different standards of construction. Comparing houses in US and Europe does not have sense. Europe uses a lot of stone or concrete in places where US would run to put wood instead. Well insulated houses don't need so much A/C or don't need it at all [2]. And is also location based. Nobody will survive the Germany winter with a standard house built in Malaga.

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[1] "Aljazeera. India is being left to die in the heat. Modi has denied climate change for years. Now, as the death toll climbs uncounted, his government offers branding instead of protection" https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2026/5/22/india-is-being-...

[2] Look at the map, people in Spain was dying in the Mediterranean, but not in the center. The center is hotter. The difference is that touristic houses in the Mediterranean are cheaply insulated, but those in Castilla are built to stand heat and may not need so much A/C or no A/C at all.

It’s not that the government is denying people AC. The citizens themselves are culturally and morally against AC. It’s almost as if you he has to endure the suffering caused by climate change, as if it vindicates the climate change ideology itself.

What’s annoying is that the same people have no problem going for weekly vacations to south of France.