La guerra del aire acondicionado

Europe is experiencing one of its hottest summers on record. Last June was among the warmest ever recorded, with highs nearing 41 degrees Celsius in Paris and exceeding 37 in London. A continent baking in such temperatures should be turning to air conditioning, but Europeans have transformed a sad and unremarkable machine with a century of history into a new battleground in their culture wars. In the United States, nine out of ten homes have an air conditioner, while in Europe, barely one in five does, and in the United Kingdom, a paltry 4%. Many Americans point to this lag as proof of an impoverished and overregulated continent, but the explanation for such a difference is essentially geographical. Europe is further north than the United States. The north of the US roughly coincides with southern Europe. Thanks to the Gulf Stream, the climate of the old continent is less prone to extremes. Its winters and summers tend to be milder. Even so, the Mediterranean basin gets very hot in the summer, which is why air conditioning is so common in Italian, Spanish, and Greek cities, almost as much as in the United States. The problem is that episodes of extreme heat have become frequent in Western and Central Europe, where they are unprepared. Heat is a very serious health risk. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 200,000 deaths related to high temperatures have occurred in Europe in the last four years, mostly among elderly people living alone who could have survived with air conditioning. Heat also impoverishes people because it substantially reduces labor productivity. This is the backdrop, and from here, political activism has done the rest. A divide has been created: on one side, right-wing parties in favor of installing air conditioning, and on the other, the left and environmentalists, who view it with suspicion due to its high electricity consumption and the effect this will have on the planet. The average European remains uninvolved in the battle because sales have skyrocketed wherever it's been hottest. Therefore, there's no underlying ideological resistance, only economic resistance. Electricity in Europe is expensive, but in return, its generation is the cleanest in the world. It can be generated without emissions at a much lower price, and the problem would be solved. We'd all be cooler in the summer, and our electricity bills wouldn't skyrocket. Moreover, innovation is possible, something that's already happening in Europe itself with regard to refrigerants. Several projects are underway that, once developed, would make air conditioning a much more environmentally friendly technology. The sensible approach, however, isn't to prohibit it by moral decree, nor to rely solely on air conditioning. Urban planning needs improvement, and some daily habits need to be adapted in the summer, as the Spanish and Italians have done for ages. Air conditioning is a good complement. Turning it on isn't an ecological sin, but it's not a magic bullet either. Summers will be hotter, and we will have to adapt with technology and economic prosperity, not with absurd ideological entrenchments. In The Counter-Reply: 0:00 Introduction 3:41 The Air Conditioning War 32:18 Navigating the Straits 38:45 The Nationality of Football Players 43:01 Integration of Immigrants · Telegram Channel: https://t.me/lacontracronica · “Against Pessimism”… https://amzn.to/4m1RX2R · “Hispanics: A Brief History of Spanish-Speaking Peoples”… https://amzn.to/428js1G · “The Counter-History of Communism”… https://amzn.to/39QP2KE · “The Counter-History of Spain: Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of a Country in 28 Episodes”… https://amzn.to/3kXcZ6i · “Against the French Revolution”… https://amzn.to/4aF0LpZ • “Luther, Calvin, and Trent: The Reformation That Never Was”… https://amzn.to/3shKOlK Support La Contra on: • Patreon… https://www.patreon.com/diazvillanueva • iVoox… https://www.ivoox.com/podcast-contracronic... • Paypal… https://www.paypal.me/diazvillanueva Follow me on: • Website… https://diazvillanueva.com • Twitter… https://twitter.com/diazvillanueva • Facebook… https://www.facebook.com/fernandodiazvilla... • Instagram… https://www.instagram.com/diazvillanueva • LinkedIn… https://www.linkedin.com/in/fernando-d%C3%... • Flickr... https://www.flickr.com/photos/147276463@N0... · Pinterest... https://www.pinterest.com/fernandodiazvill... Find my books at: · Amazon... https://www.amazon.es/Fernando-Diaz-Villan... #FernandoDiazVillanueva #airconditioning #heatwave