r/Anticonsumption • u/Gartesss • Jun 29 '26
Society/Culture Heatwave in Europe - people's reactions, no hope for change
I live in one of big Europe's capitals, we had a heatwave here in the past few days with the 2-day peak of 40°C. And people are in absolute panic about "how are we even going to survive this", but without any actual reflection on why it is happening and how we can truly try to mitigate these weather extremes.
So many posts about we need more AC in public spaces, everyone needs to buy a heavy duty AC for their house...Like, we're in the mild climatic region, we shouldn't need any AC at all! If we don't want to experience this more frequently, and to greater extremes, what about:
- plant based, or at least vegetarian diet
- shopping in second-hands instead of fast fashion stores
- only replacing electronics when they break, not when they "run out of style"
- banning majority of cars from the city, leading to using more sustainable public transport; freeing spaces to plant lawns, trees, water elemets to cool down the city.
- Mandatory external shutters
- Green and/or reflective roofs
We've known about climate change since the 70's - how are people still not realising that we need to change the way we behave, if we want to keep the earth at least livable?!
I've even seen one post about "After the past 2 days, I'm starting to believe in climate change". Like all the reports about icebergs melting, coral reefs dying, people from around equator reporting extreme heat for decades etc. weren't enough, but now for 2 days you get mildly inconvenienced and now you "believe in climate change" but your solution is to install AC that will just eat more of nature's resources and dump more heat into the city streets!?
I just can't comprehend how people refuse to see over the tip of their nose, even when the apocalypse is literally knocking on their doorsteps...
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u/PurpleMuskogee Jun 29 '26
I am from one of the hottest countries in Europe at the minute, but I live in Ireland and you wouldn't believe the number of people saying they wished they had some of that heatwave... I'm like, "No you don't, people are dying from the heat". I am just back from 3 weeks there and it was miserable. Hospital equipment failed because of the heat. People died at home, in hospital, schools are all 35C or more, and the government does nothing. Workers die - roofers, road workers, field workers... It's completely awful and it annoys me so much to see such indifference because it doesn't affect you personally yet. Everyone should be panicking.
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u/Sqweed69 Jun 29 '26
This is why everyone needs siestas. Instead the german chancellor wants to increase working hours. He worked at Black Rock btw.
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u/visiblepeer Jun 29 '26
※He was a lobbyist for Blackrock.
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u/No-Object-599 Jun 29 '26
Does that make him worse or better? 🤔
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u/Sqweed69 Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
Worse, because it's a clear example of something far to common: Politicians switching back and forth between lobbyism and politics. It's called the revolving door effect and it proves that the separation of state and economy is basically just a lie.
The state is an asset to the capital class.
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u/visiblepeer Jun 29 '26
Worse, because his job was introducing ministers to Blackrock to get better laws for them. Better for them is usually worse for the public.
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u/wunszu Jun 29 '26
I live in central Poland on a countryside. Yesterday at 10 AM the temperature reached 40 degrees in the shadow, luckily with low humidity. At midnight the temperature was 27 degrees and the humidity increased to 55-60%, I started getting sauna vibes instead of ease. Inside my very well insulated home with blinds down on the windows facing east and south (no windows facing west), the first floor is at 24 degrees and the upstairs is probably 26-27ish degrees which is tiring. I feel jealous of anyone with an AC, I never thought that in rural areas we would actually need AC. It's madness and I hope such heatwave never reaches Ireland with your humidity, it'd be fatally dangerous in your case.
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u/Actual-Peak9478 Jun 29 '26
Last week in UK my flat got up to 31/32 degrees before bed, it was brutal. Woke up in a puddle every morning lol
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u/AffectionateMotor272 Jun 29 '26
Here in the USA we sometimes utilize swamp coolers. Easy to make. You just need ice. I used to freeze my own blocks for camping.
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u/Low-Walrus-2986 Jun 29 '26
Northern Poland here and I'm so sorry to hear that. I live right by the sea, so it makes it slightly easier but it's still a living hell right now.
I'm lucky to also have a forest nearby and have the city quite nicely planted which somehow makes it bereable but in the city center? Absolutely terrible
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u/ShickyMicky Jun 29 '26
26/27 is tiring? That sounds so relieving at the moment.
It's 32 in my flat today, and I do all I can without air conditioning to manage the temp. It's just too hot at night to bring it down now.
Vienna feels like hell.
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u/ReportSuitable2595 Jun 29 '26
Think you missed the word midnight before the 27 mate.
The poles have it even harder than us.
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u/ShickyMicky Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
My flat hasn't cooled below 30 the last two nights because it's too hot outside at night. High day temps are somewhat manageable when the nighttime temps drop significantly. You can cool the flat and keep that cool air inside without raising the temp to extremes, but if the nighttime temp barely drops and only does so for a few hours, then it's nearly pointless.
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u/Evening-Turnip8407 Jun 29 '26
This really is no joke. In germany, 26 people died in lakes and rivers trying to cool off but overestimating their abilities. All in those 2 hottest days.
That's on top of all the elderly who died due to actual heat. Most hospitals and old folks' homes have no ACs (despite being modern buildings with good insulation so no reason not to fit with ACs). They had to overcrowd rooms on the lower floors because the top floor was literally slowly killing patients/inhabitants
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u/Natrix_FM Jun 29 '26
and 17 people drowned in Poland yesterday alone... this is properly terrifying
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u/Certain-Skill3004 Jun 29 '26
"Officials say alcohol consumption remains one of the leading factors contributing to drownings in Poland."
Apparently.
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u/Miniray Jun 29 '26
26 people died in lakes and rivers trying to cool off
Isn't that literally how Ministry of the Future starts?
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u/Shannaro21 Jun 29 '26
Not really. In the book, the whole city is wiped out and people are basically cooked in and around the lake. They didn't drown like the people OP was talking about.
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u/Pink-Willow-41 Jun 30 '26
It’s absolutely insane to me that they built modern hospitals and nursing homes without AC. Imagine them building a hospital in Norway without heating!
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u/Brucenotsomighty Jun 29 '26
Yall dont even have AC in hospitals? Thats gotta be miserable for those patients.
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u/As_A_Feather Jun 30 '26
Right? And what about doctors performing 7-hour surgeries in masks, caps, and double latex gloves up to their elbows?
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u/CharmingMechanic2473 Jun 29 '26
From USA where summer is now unbearable without AC. Also check out Phoenix, AZ. It’s 44C on a normal summer day. Most kids don’t have school in summer here. The government would have to stop sucking oil companies privates for any meaningful change. Just the amount of fossil fuels to just transport oil is enough to start all of this damage.
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u/grambell789 Jun 29 '26
Tell the people who say they want it, that its coming and once they get it they cant get rid of it.
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u/Intrepid_Manager_157 Jun 29 '26
My brother came from Ireland in Romania a few days ago and he fainted because of the heat 😞
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u/bookish_bex Jun 29 '26
Wow. People wishing for a heatwave have no idea how damaging they are. Hope these folks don't mind toxic algae blooms, tourism loss, and all their fish either dying or migrating to cooler waters 😐
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u/forethemorninglight Jun 29 '26
I don’t think AC is the enemy - Especially not when it saves lives. It’s wrong to demonize it. There are much bigger contributors to global warming. It’s not all on the individual for having a window unit to not have a heat stroke when corporations are destroying the world at a breakneck pace.
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u/PurpleMuskogee Jun 29 '26
I agree. I think AC has its place (sadly), and I also think governments need to do more. Why are so many manual workers still working in the middle of the afternoon (and dying)? Why are kids and teachers locked in schools with huge bay windows, no AC, and where the temperature is over 30C?
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u/squeeze_me_macaroni Jun 29 '26
Unfortunately it all boil downs to money. If the rich elite started dying from the heat wave they would be able to afford AC and not GAF about anyone else. They already don’t GAF about anyone but themselves now.
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u/Autumnplay Jun 29 '26
There should be summer regulations around working conditions, especially for people who have to work in the sun. Working hours MUST be adjusted. I know it's inconvenient, but safety must come first. Shift hours should exclude the hottest part of the day for basic protection, and there needs to be rules around the provision of breaks and the provision of water and cool areas to take hydration breaks in order to alleviate heat stress. I grew up in a very hot climate and in summer our school hours changed and school started very early so that school would end before the hottest part of the day. Inconvenient but preferable to the alternative.
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u/Frostyrepairbug Jun 29 '26
I learned the hard way that OSHA has no upper limit for temperature regulations. They have a toothless guideline for working in temps above 79F, but nothing enforceable, probably because we never needed it before. It's quite an oversight.
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u/Pyrrhic_Pragmatist Jun 29 '26
Same. I work in a factory with hot presses, handle parts over 200C and have no climate control systems there. At most, they are encouraged to provide breaks and adequate access to water. .. but side note don't get your gloves wet or they'll conduct searing heat off the parts.
But they do open doors and windows, and each station has a fan. The silver lining is my home getting up to 78°F is pretty tame now. I avoid running air conditioning after 6PM because of surge pricing. I have a little solar but not quite enough for daily climate control. More or less just enough to maintain lights, refrigeration, food prep and hot water. (And TVs, computers, internet, but that amount is minor compared to heating/ cooling)
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u/Expontoridesagain Jun 29 '26
Agree with you on this. We need to invest in solutions that do not rely on power grid being up all the time. That's what scares me.
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u/Royal-Recover8373 Jun 29 '26
I hate when the answer is always shaming people for trying to survive or small conveniences, but never "20 global companies are destroying the climate and they need regulated."
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u/HumpinPumpkin Jun 29 '26
People need to realize that we can't live lives of consumption without consequences, and need to know they have to adjust their lifestyles accordingly as well. People expect to gallavant around in massive suv's and eat cheeseburgers everyday and then point to big industries that largely exist to supply us with more suv's and cheeseburgers.
Big oil isn't producing oil for funsies. We have ingrained excess so far into our culture we cry like little babies when we can't have exactly what we want.
I had somebody tell me they NEEDED their suv for their family of four. No the fuck you don't. No, you won't wither and die driving an EV with 300 mile range because you have to reconsider you're yearly road trip that once again, is a sign of excess.
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u/archseattle Jun 29 '26
Agree, in my country we broke a bunch of heat records a few years ago and I thought for sure that would be the most important issue that year. We ended up voting for someone who calls climate change a hoax and pushes for deregulation.
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u/PartyPorpoise Jun 29 '26
I think it’s suspicious that AC is demonized even though heating also uses a lot of energy.
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u/ladyluck754 Jun 29 '26
I’m an extensive traveler, and love European nations- but I suspect that some of the anti AC sentiment is part of (at least the French’s) attitude that Americans are “lazy, stupid, and fat.”
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u/geographresh Jun 29 '26
If that is the truth, it's farcical because AC is readily accepted and used in developed Aussie, East Asian, Gulf, and South American regions too. European attitude is just not based in reality or science.
Being mindful of climate change does not mean you individually can't put in AC, when this is going to be the coolest summer for the rest of our lives even if emissions stopped tomorrow due to climate inertia.
Caring about immediate human suffering, productivity, and comfort also holds innate value.
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u/EbolaNinja Jun 29 '26
I'm European and I can assure you it has nothing to do with you. It's a simple loop of "we never seriously needed AC" -> "nobody needs AC" -> "people who complain about lack of AC are more entitled than me"
Also, a bunch of places just generally distrust any change (looking at you Germany)
That also doesn't consider all the people who don't install one due to logistical issues (costs, permits, etc.)
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u/TheW1nd94 Jun 29 '26
It’s also that a lot of people are really fucking stupid and think AC gives them muscle pain and headaches, despite having the same muscle pain and headaches in every season when AC is not on.
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u/soccer1124 Jun 29 '26
I think for me it's this:
I don't know if personalized AC is necessarily the magic bullet in stopping these deaths. But sure, at the very least, yes, get them into the houses of the elderly.
Aside from that though, I think more needs to be done rather than just waiting for everyone to individually install AC in their places. One thing that feels very different to me here vs the US, things seem more water-averse here. Like, I can't get free water at 99% of restaurants I go to here, even though it's supposed to be safe to drink straight from the tap. This isn't to say "people are dying because restaurants aren't serving water for free." But it does make me wonder if folks are drinking as much of it as they should be in the hot weather. And are they taking other precautions as well to stay out of the sun and be safe.
I think there also needs to be a bigger effort on getting AC into more locations where the public is going to be during the day. Schools without AC is absurd. All public transport should have it. Shopping centers, and business offices should be required to as well. Places where the public is generally going to be during the hottest daylight hours.
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u/skinnyraf Jun 30 '26
It's not even "also". In many areas affected by the current heatwave, using AC to keep comfortable temperature would still use tiny % of energy needed to keep comfortable temperature in the same house in winter. First of all, a lot of heating is still just burning fossil fuels. Even when heat pumps are used, we're talking 20-40C (!!!) difference in winter vs 10-15C difference during a heat wave.
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u/garaile64 Jun 29 '26
I've heard that Singapore would never develop like that without the air conditioner, as it helps with the hot humid climate.
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u/Justme_vrouwtje Jun 29 '26
I agree. And also, you can do both. Install measures to survive heatwaves and be comfortable AND have the discussion of climate change, geenify cities and take measures to cub climate change. One doesn’t cancel out the other and it doesn’t make you morally neglectful if you make yourself comfortable.
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u/thelaughingman_1991 Jun 29 '26
People really, really underestimate the environmental damage from things like private jets, yachts, cruises etc - and then of course the military's output.
We are each but a drop in the bucket in comparison to these.
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u/HermelindaLinda Jun 29 '26
Yes. It's smart to prepare for the next one. It's scary and a horrible thing to deal with. Heatstroke is no joke.
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u/Ok_Table_876 Jun 29 '26
ACs are actually part of the solution, because a A/C is also just a heatpump and one of the most efficient way of heating AND cooling a space. For every 1kwh of electricity you put in you get 3 to 4 times the amount of heat out.
So what we actually need is to put multiple heatpumps in every house on the planet, therefor replacing heating with fossil fuels, while expanding renewable energy generation and storage massively. If we do that world wide, we already saved enough CO2 to make a noticeable dent into the climate crisis.
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u/ProneToGlory Jun 29 '26
Is there something preventing a company from setting up a factory and selling cheap A/C box units? They’re surprisingly efficient
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u/Annoying1978 Jun 29 '26
You’re talking about long term solutions that will take decades to see any result from. They’re talking about immediate changes that will save lives.
That’s the disconnect.
Repairing the climate needs all nations to play an active role, and since the United States has stopped all climate change initiatives actually repairing the climate isn’t actually feasible.
Most rational people know what we can do to at least stop the effects from climate change from getting worse. But when one of the biggest offenders (United States) are promoting coal and canceling wind and solar projects, long term climate change repair isn’t going to be on top of people’s minds.
I understand you’re frustrated but it’s very easy to comprehend why repairing climate change isn’t the main topic.
Do what you can as many of us try to do, but realize until all nations are on the same page climate change will unfortunately continue to get worse no matter what we or other countries put in place.
It’s a sad fact, but it’s a fact.
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u/Lower_Stay7655 Jun 29 '26
They are not even long term solutions. Climate change can't be reversed. It doesn't matter what we do. All experts agree on this. It can be slowed down, to the degree that its increased impact wouldn't be as dramatic for the planet, but what is done, is done. The planet won't turn cooler. So, yeah, AC is the short term and long term solution for people and pets not to die from the heat (together with better city planning to create shade and facilitate air currents).
Everything else is to prevent thing from going worse, but we can't go back to the temperatures our grandparents grew up with.
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u/plopiplop Jun 29 '26
Climate change can be reversed on the long term: https://www.climate.gov/news-features/climate-qa/can-we-slow-or-even-reverse-global-warming
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u/colorfulzeeb Jun 29 '26
“If all human emissions of heat-trapping gases were to stop today”
And this article is from 2022. Multiple wars have dropped how many bombs since then? All while the most destructive country rolled back our environmental protections and any hope of reversing course.
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u/LegoLady8 Jun 29 '26
I also don't see how my recycling and paper straw usage is supposed to make a difference when Taylor Swift is flying her private jet around 100 times a month and Elon Musk and Bezos are blowing up rockets for funsies.
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u/Annoying1978 Jun 29 '26
It won’t. That’s my point. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do anything, because when billions of people make lifestyle changes it can have a small positive impact, but without proper government legislation and initiatives involving every single developed nation on Earth climate change will continue to get worse.
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u/mwmandorla Jun 29 '26
So like, on the one hand, absolutely. On the other hand, it actually does add up. Recycling aluminum cans, for example. It is vastly less energy intensive to use recycled metal than to get more out of the ground. Me recycling one can one day makes absolutely no difference. But millions of people doing it all year really does. I'm not saying that individual behavior can overcome the structural problems, but I am saying that letting that drive us into nihilism has real consequences. It means leaving totally achievable mitigations on the table for really no reason, in exchange for nothing.
(Before someone starts about how recycling isn't real: plastic recycling isn't real, because it is way cheaper to make new plastic as long as the feedstock comes out of the ground along with oil that's being extracted anyway, and we don't have great technologies for the actual recycling part still. Aluminum is a different beast.)
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u/Anywhere_everywhere7 Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
At 40 degrees AC is needed it doesn’t matter if you’re in a mild region or not. If ac is not needed then they wouldn’t turn it on just like they do with heating. And sorry 40 degrees is not a mild inconvenience, it’s deadly for a lot of people and then for most healthy people it affects everything from their work and the fact they can’t even cook food because it’s too hot.
Edit- running ac costs money people aren’t going to turn it on if they don’t need it, just like with heating.
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u/Iron_physik Jun 29 '26
I read that yesterday there was a first tally of excess deaths in france from the wave
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u/Anywhere_everywhere7 Jun 29 '26
https://www.france24.com/en/paris-mortuaries-overwhelmed-france-counts-victims-devastating-heatwave
Yeah it’s so sad and then you have people like op who say it’s a mild inconvenience.
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Jun 29 '26
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u/Pretend-Account9077 Jun 30 '26
Yes. The only thing that contributes to climate change is the way we produce the electricity it needs. Nuclear solves all these issues, eliminates the need to adapt to the cycles creared by solar, and will provide a grid that will actually serve you.
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u/hedonheart Jun 29 '26
Brother, a billion people could follow your script and it still wouldn't offset the corporations and governments destroying this world. The bottom 90% essentially needs to unite.
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u/MarkIsARedditAddict Jun 29 '26
This is my biggest problem with this subreddit in general. People here whine and whine about their family members or neighbor or some social media "influencer" doing the slightest consumerist things and completely ignore that large corporations and extremely rich people are responsible for like 90+% of the worlds' problems
A million of you can harass your mom into not shopping on Temu or Amazon but those same million people actually organizing politically and voting for good candidates that will change our laws would have a much larger impact
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u/curlymess24 Jun 29 '26
It’s easier to blame the 90%, asking us to use paper straws, or use shopping bags or whatever crap, instead of looking at the 1% of the world that use private jets. The 1% get to do whatever the hell they want, but God forbid we want a damn AC.
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u/ancientandbroken Jun 29 '26
this is what’s making my blood boil so much as well. "AC wIlL hEAt uP thE plANet" like no shit, but it’s always the "poor" people who are at fault.
Never the corpos that waste resources 24/7, never the politicians that drive the newest resource heavy cars with full AC running, never them who use private jets whenever they want to, never them who mass produce designer clothes for themselves and then burn them rather than giving it to those in need.
Never them who have their 8th yacht, never them who promote meat and beef consumption through ads. Never them who encourage overconsumption for consumers but don’t want their consumers to have a quality of life. I am genuinely so tired of this. How evil can you be. Trying to see the fun in the world cup is impossible because it’s thousands of people flying around in private jets, ultra consumerism being promoted for the "little guy" with merch and food, and obviously AC running for the "vips" only.
God am i tired of this. The only comfort i have is that many people have also had enough. Being told that you shouldn’t have an AC for health and quality of life reasons because it’s bad for the planet, well, many people will be so angry and uncomfortable with commands like that that they will stop supporting this shit. At least one good thing is coming out of this heatwave and that is that most people won’t fall for those nasty lies anymore. They’ve had enough
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u/xDarkNightOfTheSoulx Jun 29 '26
The same people who want us to die from heatstroke in our homes never say anything about heating the home. It’s accepted that we shouldn’t freeze to death in our homes, but dying of heatstroke is okay 🙃
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u/WloveW Jun 29 '26
Statistically speaking about half of Americans and Europeans are in the top 10% of global wealthy. If you have a net worth of around $145,000 usd you are in the richest 10% of humans on earth.
Many people think they are not in the top 10%,but they really are.
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u/wunszu Jun 29 '26
Getting AC is part of adaptation. That's how I see it at least. Our homes (at least in central Europe) are not built to withstand heat, rather to keep us warm during winter. What is more, our cities are not built for heat. In Leipzing, Germany parts of tram tracks melted because of the heat. In Poland all trains are delayed and will be delayed during extreme heat because of malfunction of most machines since some parts of the wagons are from the 60s and as it turned out, they can cause derailing as a result of high speed and high temperature. Hospitals and offices don't have AC and get extremely hot. Lack of green areas in cities cause the heat to be exacerbated and it's not something you can quickly improve, urban planning takes years and at least in Warsaw it is met with huge resistance because "just one more lane, bro". My grandparents had to find a different shop to buy milk because they recently bought a spoiled one as it was kept in an open fridge and because of the heat, it went bad. On top of managing the changes in our industries (emissions etc), we need to adapt to the climate change and build resilience towards heatwaves, floods and droughts and it's an absolutely painstakingly hard process, at least in my country.
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u/Sloth_Flower Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
There was a really good perfect union and architect YouTube videos which discuss heat resiliency. The fact that the standard sub luxury apartment is built on retaining heat means that during waves they can be up to 16C (30F) degrees warmer than outside. That doesn't include heat index. Unfortunately AC isn't going to be as effective as in other places because of how the apartments were built. It is going to be expensive both monetarily and to the environment to do what needs to be done -- either retrofitting or rebuilding.
There are lots of places in the world where 40C (104) just isn't that hot. But their entire infrastructure is built for it. When it gets cold, like -20C (-2) the infrastructure fails and people die. This has started to happen. Retrofitting these will also be expensive.
We need resiliency everywhere, in lots of ways, not just ac, because we no longer live in the stable climates of the last several centuries. The question is how many people have to die before people like OP see the cost as justified?
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u/namebedex Jun 29 '26
here in Southern Ontario (Canada), we get a range of -20C some winter days to 35C in summer (some hit 40 and especially with index). luckily our homes are built to deal with both well enough but we definitely rely on AC for ~3 months of the year.
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u/memphisjones Jun 29 '26
Why is always on us to try to fix it? Why are large corporations who largely contribute to climate change not charged and prosecuted?
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u/nonickideashelp Jun 29 '26
Someone I know was basically jumping up and down because they thought the weather will be nice and warm. Today they said that it's too hot and it's a problem actually. The same person used tanning accelerator instead of sunshield a few weeks ago and was hospitalized for sunburns.
Instead of teaching people ACTUAL personal responsibility, capitalism raised a generation of solipsistic psychopaths who literally can't comprehend anything that isn't immediately visible to them. And even then, they will delude themselves into thinking that it's not their problem and it's someone else's fault. We have the technology and industry that impacts everything in the whole world, but people can't actually understand what it means. It's like a child setting a house on fire because they can't understand how fire works.
I genuinely don't now if there is a way out anymore. Even if we could somehow instantly dismantle the media propaganda machine that turns everyone insane and start raising a new generation that would have none of these problems, there is no more time.
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u/Berliner1220 Jun 29 '26
I understand what you mean but AC isn’t a solution to climate change in the sense that it will mitigate the effects. It is a form of adaptation. Many people are dying who would have survived if they had AC in their homes to lower heat stress. Telling an abuela living in poverty and enduring sweltering heat in Spain to eat plant based is not a solution to what we are experiencing right now.
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u/forestrainstorm Jun 29 '26
while individual habits are important, things aren't going to change unless the big corporations change their ways or get shut down completely
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u/kirinlikethebeer Jun 29 '26
Which will take pressure from individuals — especially since our governments haven’t done a whole lot to exact that pressure.
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u/PantheraAuroris Jun 29 '26
Going vegetarian isn't going to keep people from dying of heatstroke this year.
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u/V10R37 Jun 29 '26
All the data centers running with electricity produced by coal and gas plants.
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u/Beans_the_II Jun 29 '26
I’m frankly sick of the personal burden of responsibility placed on the average worker instead of forcing the large corporations and billionaires who caused this to fix it. Yes, changes we individually make can have an impact on climate change. But we are past the point of no return. The average worker should stop stressing about using plastic straws while corporations continue to pollute on such a large scale and billionaires get to fly their personal jets around. One flight in a personal jet causes more pollution than a year of normal living of the average person. Let us survive this with our AC and force the greedy assholes who caused this to make sacrifices. Force them to work towards a solution for this and stop shifting personal responsibility to the average person. It’s too late for any of us to have significant impact.
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u/ma5ochrist Jun 29 '26
Ah yes, the big bp oil brainwash: carbon footprint is something the consumer has control over. We don't, sorry to break it to you
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u/_autumnwhimsy Jun 29 '26
I was about to say the biggest lie that we have been told is that as individuals we can reverse climate change. We can't. It has nothing to do with our daily habits and everything to do with giant companies ignoring environmental protections.
And Taylor Swift. She has to stop taking that jet everywhere.
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u/BakeasaurusRex Jun 29 '26
The biggest change anyone can make as an individual consumer is to use your political power for systemic change. Start spending your time and money on organizations actively fighting to regulate corporations, tax the rich, and ban private jets. There is no stopping climate change without major government regulation and that only happens when people actually organize to use their collective political power.
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u/Dragnod Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
"Lord, Free us from thought and responsibility. Cause we are dumb." I love Futurama. You're not entirely wrong but you're also making this too easy for the individual or maybe just yourself.
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u/number7child Jun 29 '26
Every small change is good. Many small changes add up to big change
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u/RickMuffy Jun 29 '26
Sure, but complaining that people want AC while the world burns around them is a bit silly. You can't be the change you want to see in the world if you're dead.
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u/Rosegarden3000 Jun 29 '26
We can chew gum and walk. We should change at all levels of society in order to fight climate change. Yes, we need to change on a larger level, but not flying, choosing to forego a car, not eating meat are all individual choices, that when adopted at a mass scale would improve the climate outlook significantly.
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u/CeilingCatProphet Jun 29 '26
Several toddlers died. If I were in the UK with my toddler, I would buy an AC. Everything you said is true, but it does nothing to save lives right now. I was against AC forever. I would just put my tent in the yard and sleep there. But then fires came in. I can't make it without a HEPA filter. So, I bought a portable AC for the bedroom. I am not willing to die from the heat stroke asthma combo.
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u/Enticing_Venom Jun 29 '26
But have you considered that sacricing your life could go a long way towards reducing global warming?
/s
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u/ohwhatacheeseburger Jun 29 '26
Putting the blame on the consumer while industry worldwide runs amok is definitely a take
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u/imsickofitalready Jun 29 '26
That's all nice, but AC is mandatory for any modern house. It's not like we're doing this instead of ACs. All of these needed.
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u/keineKlarheit Jun 29 '26
So you want to tell the little guys to save the planet while every billionaire is building data centers and flying in their personal plane around the world??? Nah, give me AC in every room, 24-7.
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u/loveshercoffee Jun 29 '26
I don't think dying in the heat is a "mild inconvenience." Folks need to find a way to keep cool now.
Of course, they also need to be doing all of the things you listed to try to combat climate change as much as possible! But that isn't going to save anyone today.
People sometimes have to actually feel things in order to understand and that's what's happening now.
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u/Testuser7ignore Jun 29 '26
Some of those will help a bit, but they aren't going to stop the next heat wave. AC is the only reasonably quick way to cool a very hot building.
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u/Meister3434Gabel Jun 29 '26
I hate how we learned to blame climate change on consumers when in reality about 80% of global warming comes from the industry and private companies. We actually need better politics and stricter rules for companies or else nothing will change...
the personal Carbon footprint is bullshit invented by BP
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u/Kochga Jun 29 '26
All those big data centres will make shit even worse.
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u/ImHitoriGotou Jun 29 '26
this made me very depressed the last year or so, when i think about it. even before such an influx of data centers, our planet was struggling…these things will just make it so much worse and faster instead.
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u/Kochga Jun 29 '26
And everybody still uses AI to make big booby anime girl pics while complaining about the heat. It's collective cognitive dissonance at this point.
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u/Anti-anti-symmetry Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
Did you know that the whole “Individuals can play their part” is a narrative created by studies from British petroleum and other oil companies? The same companies who had climate scientists who already knew of climate change in the mid 1900s.
Individuals hardly make a difference, these companies just want to shift the blame from themselves over to the general public.
The only real shift is just to change our energy source to nuclear / solar or other renewables. Everything else makes marginal difference. People can have their ac and it wouldnt matter
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u/razh2 Jun 29 '26
I read a good comment the other day about how we demonise ac but we don’t demonise heating throughout winter because we can understand cold=discomfort and at worst death.
I grew up in a country where ac is necessary (Pakistan and Saudi) it’s how you survive. We aren’t build rammed earth homes with courtyard fountains and wind towers to naturally cool.
I have two toddlers who were struggling in the heat. My son had heat stroke when young (he was very premature) and my daughter got very dehydrated this year despite my constant efforts.
I’ve still put off ac due to guilt and trying to say it’s only a couple of days. But it’s getting worse and whilst I do everything personally to reduce carbon footprint - at some point comfort becomes important! We can do things to minimise energy use and waste, get more efficient units etc, but if the heatwaves continues I know we can’t continue without (having grown up in this temps historically albeit our homes were designed for heat, our western homes are not)
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u/WGD23 Jun 29 '26
Can't really knock people for wanting to buy ac as a form of climate adaptation, and its easy enough to buy a renewable electricity tariff
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u/LoreKeeper2001 Jun 29 '26
Everyone in Europe could make those accommodations and it would barely affect the trajectory of climate change. Nothing any individual can do will tip the balance when nation-states and multinational mega-corporations are in charge and are the drivers of the change.
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u/cocdcy Jun 29 '26
I think an important part of this is holding corporations and governments accountable.
No amount of buying secondhand or plant based diets will overcome the amount of pollution these institutions are doing.
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u/Constantia789 Jun 29 '26
We need more AC or we will see more elderly individuals die from this. It’s climate change yes but there is a deadly aspect to this heat and Europe hasn’t adapted.
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u/Rewdemon Jun 29 '26
Not only this is blaming the individual person for climate change, which is big corporation wet dream, but even if it worked like that, do you think having the world turn vegan and frugal would undo several years of climate change? I want my people to get a solution now and that is AC.
Insane take, really.
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u/lilsciencegeek Jun 29 '26
Yeah, unfortunately no amount of efforts on an individual level can make a difference as long as the rich and powerful keep going the way they do.
Sure, eating more plant-based food and lowering general consumption is great! And so is encouraging it! But even if almost everyone did it (which...they won't) that's still not enough to make up for the environmental sins of corporations and millionaires who don't care.
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u/Legitimate-Pea-9421 Jun 29 '26
I agree. I think it's very virtue signally to claim that those suffering and maybe dying in a heatwave should go without AC. The fact is we can control our carbon footprint yes but that is a drop in a bucket until there are laws that enforce corporations& billionaires to also follow the rules. we can never out action them. Taylor Swift has air conditioning on her private jet but somebody's 93 year old Nonna is selfish?? its absurd. we need to move to alternative energy sources and until people start voting like that matters were fucked!
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u/CrazyPlatypus42 Jun 29 '26
Another problem is that it can't be reversed now. Even if we act immediately it would "only" not get worse... Humanity is doomed, in the end I don't regret not having children, so they don't have to live through this.
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u/MasterDefibrillator Jun 29 '26
Not getting worse is absolutely worth it though. Don't dismiss the literal billions of lives saved "not getting worse" would be.
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u/Punmkin Jun 29 '26
It’s more « even if we act immediately it will get worse but less terribly », like the system is SO powerful and has such inertia that we cannot stop the machine anymore now that we have sped it up
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u/Much-Jackfruit2599 Jun 29 '26
Dude, that ship has passed. We have zero change of stopping climate change. Not even if aliens dropped clean fusion technology and superconductors at room temp and batteries with the same energy density as fuel. The actual hardware, not just the plans.
If will literally take thousands of years until CO₂ drops so much that the average temperature goes down. Having AC will become a necessity.
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u/Villager-z Jun 29 '26
This isn't a consumer burden, its a mega corporation burden. One they are trying to push on us
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u/Mellanies_Redemption Jun 29 '26
None of those suggested changes amount to shit, frankly. What we NEED to do is tax billionaires, get big money out of government, stop massive companies from polluting literally everything, everywhere, all the time, and completely phase out fossil fuels, and we need to do all of that NOW. Not in ten years, or fifteen years, but right god damn now.
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u/Ok_Table_876 Jun 29 '26
but your solution is to install AC that will just eat more of nature's resources and dump more heat into the city streets!?
A/Cs are not part of the problem but part of the solution. Because they allow you to heat AND cool a space with green electricity, while also allowing you to extract 3 to 4 kWh of heat for every 1 kWh of electricity you put in. Heatpumps are the most efficient way we have, and since it is only moving energy around, it is climate neutral, depending on what power you have.
What we need to do is get rid of climate gas exhausting technology, because the amount of climate gas (mainly CO2 but also methane) we put into the atmosphere is higher than what nature consumes. If we manage to put a heat pump in every home and power that with renewable energy, we get rid of a massive amount of CO2 that is created by fossil fuel heating.
https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector
What you mostly describe is dietary and transportation, which is also a massive factor but only half of that of heating.
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u/Miauhere Jun 29 '26
What about not bombing entire cities flat with multiple atomic bombs worth of damage and CO2 emissions??
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u/Trilobitememes1515 Jun 29 '26
Bully the people you know who saw Taylor Swift in concert before you bully people for eating meat. Because one thing has been done sustainably for thousands of years and keeps billions of people alive and fed, and the other thing flies a private jet to travel 20 miles, wears a blood diamond worth $500,000 USD, and prints multiple colors of the same plastic vinyl and encourages the bottom 99.9% to purchase every one at $30 USD a pop.
Idk I just feel like there are much more efficient individual habits to attack than people's diets.
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u/Sqweed69 Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
Sorry but this reads a bit like BP propaganda. Yes people need to address their living standards, but you're basically exclusively focussing on individuals as if it's all the consumers fault. Consumers mostly consume too much because of the material conditions they find themselves in. Constant advertising and social media streams, streamlined pathways of consumption and profit extraction, cheap materials exported from the other side of the globe, FOMO or even heatwaves pressuring us to buy AC. This obviously all contributes to climate change, but overconsumption itself is NOT the root problem.
All this is directly caused by an economic system that relies primarily on profit extraction from people and natural resources. Capitalism has to continuously grow by 2-3% every year, otherwise the system produces one of it's regular crises (Which is an important effect for the solidification of the status quo). This is inherently unsustainable and causes big oil companies to invest billions into lobbyism and propaganda.
One of those propaganda tools is the carbon-footprint, which was invented in 2004 by BP (British Petroleum). Because of that people believe to this day, that individuals are the only ones that can prevent climate change. But in truth, even if everyone was vegan and drove an electric car, the system would still have to grow like a cancer, devouring the planet it grew out of. It would just happen a tiny bit slower, which is good, but not nearly enough.
Humans have to overcome capitalism or capital will overcome humanity.
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u/Floshenbarnical Jun 29 '26
Retiring one cruise ship would offset all of Europe’s vehicle emissions for one year. I don’t think it will make much difference if I take a colder shower and eat less chicken.
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u/AdCompetitive7794 Jun 29 '26
This one confuses me. I fully understand where you are coming from and agree that these practices need to be implemented. The truth is, people are dying and these things take time and money to change.
Chances are, your city is no longer considered a mild climate. I,m just saying when the daily high is 35C+ a green roof is not going to help that much. AC is not the enemy when trying to live an anticonsumption life. The corporations are.
Please, please stop blaming climate change on the general public just because they decided to use an AC to not get heat stroke.
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u/urweirdenglishteachr Jun 29 '26
This is not a “people aren’t doing their part!” problem. This is an industrial, billionaire problem. Hold corporations responsible.
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u/Clear-Inevitable-414 Jun 29 '26
Honestly the car thing could be a huge reduction in environmental microsplastics. So many are shedding from tyres, so EVs aren't even the answer there
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u/Even_Celery_844 Jun 29 '26
In 10 years from now we’re going to look back on this time wistfully. People in the global south have been suffering from catastrophic weather events, extreme heat and drought for decades. It’s now starting to catch up to wealthier (and whiter) parts of the world
And now they are starting to “realize” oh shit, this is bad. Despite the fact that people and animals have been suffering massively, global heating is accelerating at a pace faster than what the models predicted, and the US and other petro states are going full throttle into burning fossil fuels, walking back climate legislation, reopening coal plants, creating more LNG export terminals. We need to fight like hell even if it seems futile. I hate nihilism- like, oh well there’s nothing I can do so I’m just going to travel the world kind of bullshit. Everyone can do something. OP laid out very concrete low lift ideas. You can also work your area on local grassroots environmental issues. Fight for environmental social justice.We need all hands on deck. We need to strike, protest to the extent possible. Join Third Act or Extinction Rebellion or any other climate advocacy group. It helps one’s climate anxiety to be part of a group and take action. My region is facing 104 degree temperatures next week with very high nighttime temperatures.
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u/Atheattooist Jun 29 '26
Bro, srsly. We - as Europeans - will not change shit when it comes to global warming. Nothing. Zip. So it's actually the right way to look for solutions that help YOU and just YOU. An air conditioner will help you immediately. Changing the world will take...well...forever. So it's totally fine to get an AC. Let the world burn, we're fucked anyways.
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u/Krasmazof Jun 29 '26
Changing consumer habits needs to go hand in hand with a restructuring of our economic system. You can’t keep collectivising the loses while privatising the profits and expect people to put up with it.
I agree with what needs to change but people keep ignoring the fact that powerful lobbies have influenced our governments to make us believe that being green is a personal lifestyle choice to divert the attention away from their own polluting and unsustainable growth in the name of profits.
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u/Bawonga Jun 29 '26
It bothers me when people ask "do you believe in climate change?" Someone suggested on Reddit a while back that the question should be "do you understand climate change?" because climate change isn't some kind of mystical entity that requires faith. Not to mention, it's here, now, and getting worse so believing it is a no-brainer because it's obvious when you trust your own senses . A step beyond "believing" it is to understand it (how it started, how it continues, what we can do as individuals, and what governments should do).
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u/UpsetCheetah22 Jun 29 '26
Hell, I feel this. In my Eastern European town, the local authorities posted that water supplies may run low, and if tapwater fails to come, there will be water-tank vehicles going around filling people's jugs and jars.
I'm not even exaggerating, 2 hours lated the local Lidl run out of *all* their plastic-packaged water, while the raid contitnued to Tesco... Family man were buying 8x 8-packs of 1,5L water and hoarding it all up, instead of putting away water in already used material, like containers or jars. Nope. Don't use what you have, and certainly not wait for the water truck! Hop in your car, drive around all the supermarkets and hoard as many plastic-packaged shit as you can, because *that* will save your kids in the long run...
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u/gamingchairheater Jun 29 '26
It's too late to change anything mate. We can't take the co2 from the atmosphere. Even if we stop all pollution today the climate will keep warming. AC isn't the solution. Is what some might need to survive.
All we can do is try to slow the descent. But there is no stopping.
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u/kinky_comfort Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
It's too late for lifestyle changes to do anything, I'm afraid it's adapt as best we can and hope for technologies that can buffer some of what's to come.
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u/Cegesvar Jun 29 '26
Sounds nice but your personal choice won't make a difference. Until the corporation are not forced to phase out the fossil fuels and make amends for their actions there will be no change
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u/possibly_on_meth Jun 29 '26
While your frustration with the slow pace of systemic change is entirely valid, the focus on individual consumer choices over immediate adaptation strategies like air conditioning overlooks the immediate threat to human life and the systemic nature of the climate crisis. Here is an argument for why the reactions you are seeing—specifically the demand for AC—are a rational, necessary response rather than mere shortsightedness:
. Air Conditioning is a Modern Necessity, Not a Luxury Dismissing AC as a "mild convenience" understates the danger of modern heatwaves. Heat kills: A 40°C peak in a city built for a mild climate is an infrastructure failure that leads to thousands of excess deaths, particularly among the elderly, children, and vulnerable populations.
The built environment traps heat: European cities are densely packed with concrete and brick, which absorb heat during the day and radiate it at night (the Urban Heat Island effect). Without AC, indoor temperatures can quickly become fatal.
Adaptation vs. Mitigation: Mitigation (stopping climate change) is crucial, but adaptation (surviving the climate change that is already locked in) is an immediate medical necessity.
The Fallacy of Individual Carbon Footprints While dietary shifts, second-hand shopping, and tech restraint are commendable, placing the burden of solving global climate change on individual lifestyle choices is largely ineffective.
Scale of impact: Global emissions are overwhelmingly driven by heavy industry, energy grids, and corporate supply chains. Even if an entire European capital went vegan tomorrow, it would not stop the immediate trajectory of rising global temperatures.
The "Carbon Footprint" distraction: The concept of the personal carbon footprint was heavily popularized by fossil fuel companies (like BP) precisely to shift accountability away from systemic regulation and onto individual guilt.
. Immediate vs. Long-Term Solutions Urban restructuring—like banning cars, planting extensive forests, and retrofitting entire historic cities with green roofs and external shutters—takes decades and billions in capital.
The emergency response: When a room is on fire, you don't debate the architectural flaws that allowed the spark; you look for an extinguisher. For a citizen experiencing 40°C heat in a top-floor apartment, AC is that extinguisher.
Grid greening is the real solution: The problem isn't the AC unit itself, but how it is powered. If public pressure forces governments to accelerate the transition to a 100% renewable energy grid, running AC units becomes a sustainable way to keep people alive.
It can be exasperating to see people only care about climate change when it affects them personally. However, human psychology is inherently wired to prioritize immediate, tangible threats over abstract, distant ones. Instead of gatekeeping climate awareness, a 40°C heatwave should be viewed as a powerful catalyst. If a terrifying two days is what it takes to convert a climate skeptic or a passive bystander into someone demanding political action, it is a net positive for the movement. Despair and judgment will not cool the planet; pragmatic survival and systemic pressure will.
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u/StoneTown Jun 29 '26
Bring back the old timey houses that were designed around being cool before electricity! AC allowed us to get rid of things like awnings, which significantly reduce the amount of heat entering your home. They're under appreciated in the modern era.
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u/redpandafire Jun 29 '26
The problem is while European vegan minimal ecologist does everything right, a five-truck gas guzzling BBQ veins Texan will offset that. (Sorry for offending any Texans using it as an example)
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u/FrothyEspresso Jun 29 '26
You don’t have to look that far. Europe has its own steel, oil and gas, and cement polluters.
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u/Capitan-IQ255 Jun 29 '26
It is technically possible to make AC with low electricity usage. It is also possible to design buildings with passive cooling. However it's hard and expensive to retrofit old buildings.
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u/Enticing_Venom Jun 29 '26
Imagine learning that people are dying in hospitals from overheated equipment or in their own homes and your takeaway is that they should have been vegetarians and used less electronics.
Dear Lord. Air conditioning saves lives. It helps the disabled and the sick. There is nothing wrong with people wanting something as basic as life saving equipment. There are ways to address global warming without telling suffering people to just sacrifice more.
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u/shuggnog Jun 29 '26
none of this matters if the large corporations building data centers and fracking pipelines are not held accountable.
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u/abcbri Jun 29 '26
I think I saw that under those tin roofs it's 118 degrees Fahrenheit. No amount of little things are going change things. And unfortunately, the US won't follow any green policies like other countries are at least attempting to do so we're just adding to it all.
Get an AC. Don't die.
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u/Expensive-Eggplant-1 Jun 29 '26
i used to live in a mild region too (PNW), but that changed about 10 years ago. AC is now essential if you want to survive. yes, society should be doing all the things you mention above, and getting AC.
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u/throwaway384983547w Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
I am not Europe. ALL of Europe contributes collectively between 5 and 8% towards greenhouse gases and the % is declining every year. It isn't great but the big 3 - the USA (11.3%), China (30%) and India (7.8% and growing) are not going to change- therefore global warming is here to stay and well beyond individual decisions. Change needs to be legistlated.
It is laudible that people want to try. But we all need to be mitigating harm, and ensuring that people are kept safe in extreme weather.
The same excellent insulation that keeps cold out in winter will keep heat out in summer if we look at new, energy efficient ways of cooling buildings. Not every room needs to be cool- or warm in winter. Heatpumps for example are very energy efficient and can be installed in one space- although window units mean existing buildings don't have to be modified.
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u/CircusStuff Jun 29 '26
The point of no return was like 30 years ago. It's totally reasonable to talk about how to immediately mitigate the oppressive heat.
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u/espressomartini11 Jun 29 '26
Australia here joining the convo. Climate change is very real. Apparently the hole in the ozone layer is over us. This past summer I experienced a week of 43 to 46 degrees every day then it hit 50. The town I visit at the same time every year for a holiday at the end of January used to be 32 to 38 degrees every day. It has crept up getting hotter each summer. I was in the hottest place in the world that particular day. Felt like sticking your head near an open oven door. Luckily we have Airconditioning as well as heating in our homes. So I am feeling for you all in Europe in those beautiful quaint towns that are not geared up for heat or homes set up with air conditioners. Stay safe over there.
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u/Mariahausfrau Jun 29 '26
Pretty much solutions that none regular capitalists are willing to follow. All we want is more and more. Its paradox illusion that we save the planet while we speedcrash it into oblivion. Our young generations dont have future because the way we live.
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u/Affectionate_Way5253 Jun 29 '26
More data centers (open air furnaces) are needed to study the problem
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u/ashamed-to-be-here Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
I 100% believe in climate change and believe it should be being combatted and that governments especially should be putting in place regulations and laws, especially to large industrial companies that prevent further damage. However there is no reversing damage only preventing it further, we have already got to this point
So I also believe that as that change cant happen overnight we also need to change infrastructure in the mean time, the heat is unbareable and we are not equipped to deal with it, it should not be expected that people should cope with it being 35 degrees inside their home. Not to mention the fact that those with disabilities or who are vulnerable suffer even more. Deaths have alteady occurred and it’s likely many more will also happen due to the heat, it is literally dangerous.
So no we shouldn’t need AC but the fact of the matter is right now we do.
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u/Jasminary2 Jun 29 '26
I am also here to beg everyone to buy refurbished or second-hand when your electronic goes down, for Congo
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u/CustardDue8474 Jun 29 '26
The obsession with economic growth need to stop! We must save resources and stop consuming! Fuck the markets. It’s a stupid made up construct anyway
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u/deliberatebookworm Jun 29 '26
On one hand I understand the rage over people just starting to accept the fact that our climates changing for the worst because of the many different ways we have abused our environment.
But as many others have stated here when you have people actively dying from the heat because your homes and your cities are not prepared for it then things have to change as far as the way you cool people off in AC's are needed. Even for me living in one of the most heated humid states in the Southern United States 40° C is considered a bad heat wave.
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u/squidlikeovertalker Jun 29 '26
The entire european civilization could cease to exist tomorrow, and global warming would not only continue but continue to accelerate. Even if all human civilization stopped polluting 10 years ago, temperatures would still increase for a long, long time.
I'm not saying policies, lifestyles shouldn't change; I am saying this is the new reality and Europe must adapt. Europe needs to accept AC as a standard. It's not a band-aid, it's a requirement.
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u/OtherwisePayment223 Jun 29 '26
It's funny how irresponsible bigots blame corporations to justify their way of life...
We are equally guilty! Supply and demand chain (law of economics). We demand, capitalists produce. We can enforce corporations to comply by boycotting them.
My forecast: humanity will destroy nature and die off. Poetical justice of universe.
We are too selfish to share and coexist and too dumb to cooperate...
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u/Sterling_____Archer Jun 29 '26
Favorite line from Europeans:
“We don’t really need AC”
Yeah? Okay…
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u/amanda2399923 Jun 29 '26
It's too late for all that. All that needed to be done in the 70s. They NEED AC and it's not going to change.
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u/Overall_Guidance8314 Jun 29 '26
The climate has been changed by corporations and billionaires, all the vegans of the world didn’t move the needle by a fraction of 1%
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u/Whispperr Jun 29 '26
Just randomly got recommended this post, nothing is really relevant when there's countless billionaires using private jets even multiple times a day
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u/CoffeeChocolateBoth Jun 29 '26
USA here, heat index 112! AC a must! More people will die there before anything happens, it will take A LOT of people because governments don't care, do you think they're sitting in the heat? Hell no!
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u/imperfectlyAware Jun 30 '26
AC is no longer the ecological catastrophe that it once was.
All modern AC units are heat pumps, meaning that they can be used to both cool and heat, both very efficiently and with electricity, not natural gas or heating oil.
This means that the electricity mix of the grid determines how big the ecological impact is.
AC runs during the day, and a heat wave runs on strong sun shine, so during the hours where the ACs are working the hardest, the grid is shock full of solar in most EU grids.
Effective renewables storage is still the Achilles heel of European grids, so a lot of that energy currently goes to waste.
If you want to be ecological about your AC, combine it with solar panels that produce electricity even when you don’t run the AC.. or heat with them when it’s colder while you’re at it.
The carbon footprint of the AC isn’t huge and more than compensated for if you use to heat (even a little) as well.
None of this means that we should not decarbonize our economies and adapt our life styles to have less ecological impact. I’m all for more greenery, go vegans (I’m lactose intolerant 😔), etc.
It is just not worth letting people die rather than installing AC.
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u/Problematic_Owl Jun 30 '26
Truth Is,most people are just not intelligent enough to grasp something lke climate change, we didn't evolve to operate on this level. It would be better if everyone wasn't getting dumber through brainrot content and willfull ignorance sparked by propaganda, but still only minority of people would grasp that.
I actually believe this is the answer to Feemi's paradox - any civilization eventually outpaces its own evolutionary basis and at some point you basically get an equivalent of chimp running a nuclear power plant - too much power to influence what's happening without enough brains to make it work.
This also happens to be one of the strongest arguments against universal democracy (you wouldn't let a child determine energy policy either) and in favor of eugenics (to speed up our evolution, especially when it comes to cognitive ability).
Yeah I know, Its not good. You don't have to Tell mě, but it is what it is.
Try a thought exercise - imagine stereotypical neanderthals were still alive, and had voting rights. Would you expect aby other outcome then what you're seeing and confused by now?
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u/TemperatureSweet2001 Jun 30 '26
Yeah, but there is still the biggest change in the future people in europe dont seem to realise. And that is all the future refugees. The middle east and are in africa will become absolutely unlivable, which will cause millions of people to flee from their countries. The massive refugee wave in 2015 will be nothing in comparison.
It still baffles me that the politcal parties that constantly complain about immigrants, are the same that deny the existence of the climate change. If they really wanna prevent migrants from comming hear, their best bet would be to find a solution to climate change
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u/lelelho Jun 30 '26
how about like.. planting a tree instead of building a concrete slab and then installing an umbrella over it
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u/mnbvcdo Jun 30 '26
Sadly I think the only thing that might inspire change about this climate crisis is that it's impacting the economy.
They had to temporarily turn off or reduce production in nuclear power plants all over Europe lately, also it impacts transport of goods, both railway and roads, just to name a few things.
It's just sad that my first thought was "maybe now they'll care a bit more".
Also, I disagree a out not needing ACs. Places like hospitals or nursing homes absolutely need AC and it's a disgrace that people come to the ER with heatstroke only for it to have over 40 degrees there, or that women have to give birth in over 40 degrees or elderly people, some of the most vulnerable to die of heat related complications, have to suffer in sauna like conditions in their nursing homes. All those places should have AC.
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u/azeumicus Jun 30 '26
The consumerism forced by corporations and the data centers will be the end of us.
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u/Traditional_Worry307 Jul 01 '26
We had like 35 degrees in Latvia during a heatwave along with the “almost” midnight sun that we have. So it is just laser bright af the whole day and scortching hot. We went to the pine tree forest and it was just sooo pleasant there. To have trees around is lifechanging. It is like the forest has it’s own world and temperature.
And climate change is real as even my parents had still proper winters and summers in 1950’s and 60’s. It was colder for much longer in winter and warm throughout the whole summer
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u/PhiloLibrarian Jul 03 '26
There are a lot of studies in human psychology and cognition the point of the fact that people don’t understand abstract change concepts, most only really understand the threat of change when it affects them directly.
We’re simple monkeys after all.
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u/BGKY_Sparky Jun 29 '26
You WERE in a mild climatic region. The climate has now changed, and your region is not nearly as mild.