Europe Is Hot as Hell. Why Doesn't It Want Air Conditioning?

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Europeans have long shunned air conditioning, viewing it as noisy, a blight on their architectural heritage and, above all, unnecessary, as long as the summers were mild. They feared widespread adoption of the energy-hungry technology would undermine their ambition to lead the fight against climate change. That resistance, however, is colliding with the realities of a continent where temperatures are rising faster than any other region on the planet.

Years of record-breaking heat waves have placed strains on the continent’s health systems as well as its economy. Thousands of schools across Western Europe, which are rarely air-conditioned, shut down during the latest heat wave, forcing many parents to stay home. Businesses closed; factories cut back production; rail lines were suspended. Economists at the Dutch bank ING said the heat wave “brought back memories of the pandemic lockdowns.

The fight over the future of air conditioning is now shaping political debates across the continent, pitting politicians on the right, who want a massive plan to install air conditioning, against those on the left who fear the environmental impact.

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The continent’s infrastructure is being tested more quickly than officials and scientists anticipated just a few years ago. Europe is the fastest warming continent, with temperatures that are already around 2.5 degrees Celsius warmer than in the preindustrial era, compared with around 1.4 degrees for the earth as a whole.

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Authorities across Europe have tried to avoid air conditioning on a large scale. The side effects from a big increase in air conditioning are considered to be large: The devices are costly; they are energy hungry; and they eject hot air into the street, warming cities even more. Moreover, they are a nuisance in dense urban neighborhoods, afflicting residents with the omnipresent hum of compressors.

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https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/europe-heat-wave-temperatures-air-conditioning-b7fb110d?st=myh7GD&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

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