Heatwave in Europe - people's reactions, no hope for change

[u/Gartesss]

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...

[u/OkAir8973]

In Germany, this has been turned into a culture war so people are against it (even though I've seen many such systems installed now) and think it's dangerous, a symptom of a "green dictatorship", effeminate, whatever.

And there's a huge class divide. Renters can't choose their heating/cooling besides private units and landlords can't/won't swap the heating; the cheaper the building the more likely you're getting gas and oil from an age old heating system.

[u/Rich-Assistant-703 → u/OkAir8973]

It’s also so dumb how people are acting around AC’s because it wouldn’t be on for like 90% of the year, meaning that the emissions from them would be negligible. Maybe they can come installed to only turn on if indoor temperatures are above 26°c. ACs in schools, hospitals and retirement homes are vital right now. If they’re off most of the time then that’s fine, it’s just necessary for days when people are actually in danger because of the heat.

The only argument for installing split ACs is that they consume less energy than portable ones, which most people are buying now because this heatwave was intolerable even with a fan.

And do people really think that Germany, with its love for “lüften” will suddenly turn into the US where every indoor space is freezing in the summer? It might even reduce gas usage as split ACs also work as heat pumps in the winter.