By Zaldy Dandan – Variety Editor
WE who live on tropical islands have to wonder. Why is it that many people in prosperous European nations are dying of summer heat? Writing for The Spectator (the world’s oldest magazine), Gavin Mortimer noted recently that in Aug. 2003, “a 16-day heatwave swept across France, causing more than 15,000 deaths.” How can it be, he asked, that nearly a quarter of a century later France is still incapable of protecting its people in a heatwave?
In an article posted by Quillette, an Australian-based online magazine, author Maarten Boudry explained how Europe “became the world champion of heat deaths.” Europe, he said, is the continent that suffers the most heat-related deaths per capita. In the summer of 2022 alone, he added, more than 61,000 Europeans died as a result of the heat.
“In case you feel geographically confused: no, the equator does not run through Brussels. Thanks to its northern latitude, Europe in fact endures fewer heat days than almost any other inhabited region on Earth,” Boudry wrote.
So what gives?
Mortimer and Boudry gave the same answer: it is ideological — specifically, the ideology that views air-conditioning as “bad for the environment.”
Citing the economist Alan Barreca, Boudry said the risk of death on extremely hot days in the U.S. fell by roughly 75% over the 20th century — “a decline that happened in lockstep with the mass adoption of air conditioning after 1960.” In Texas, Boudry added, “where summer temperatures routinely climb past 40°C (104°F), your odds of dying from extreme heat are barely higher than on any ordinary day. In Paris or Amsterdam, by contrast, where the authorities declare heat emergencies at a balmy 27°C (81°F), they are far higher.”
You mention that fact to a European official, like the current French minister of ecological transition (yes, such a cabinet position exists), and you’ll get the following “horrified” reaction: “And do you think [that air conditioning is] going to prevent a forest fire? Do you think that’s going to prevent a crop from being destroyed?… You think it will prevent what? Nothing. Nothing.”
What about French citizens who are dying of heat?
According to Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the far-left La France Insoumise (France Unbowed), “Installing air conditioning everywhere just means making the damage worse. You mustn’t do that under any circumstances.”
Worse than preventing people from dying?
In France and among the climate ideologues, the solution to the suffering of Europeans is to get other people — specifically those in the U.S. — to stop using air conditioning.
For the ideologues, the heat wave is caused by global warming for which the U.S. and capitalism (i.e., economic freedom) are the main culprits.
Not surprisingly, the ideologues are willing to inflict harm on humanity to prevent hypothetical and arguable damage to the environment if not the planet itself.
Ideology is intoxicating; it gives you purpose and certainty. Hence, ideologues don’t seek consensus; they demand conversion. They propose measures that will result in widespread inconvenience, higher costs and economic inefficiencies now, today, in return for a “better tomorrow,” which somehow never comes. If you disagree, they’ll consider you a “denier of science” — a Nazi.
Sensing a winning campaign pitch, French politician Marine Le Pen of the right-wing National Rally — which is, of course, considered Nazi by the left — has promised to implement a “massive air conditioning plan” if her party wins next year’s election. Her plan includes government-backed interest-free loans worth over $22 billion so that 30 to 40 million householders could install air conditioning units.
Mortimer said businesses should be included. A recent report, he added, “laid bare the economic damage caused to French industry by the heatwave; many offices and factories closed temporarily last week and workers also called in sick because they were unable to sleep at night. If heatwaves become an annual occurrence in Europe, the report stated, the cumulative implied GDP losses for 2026-2030 could reach $147 billion for Italy, $131 billion for Germany, $120 billion for Spain, and $240 billion for France.”
Boudry said that for every degree above 25°C (77°F), “our cognitive performance declines by around two percent. And if synapses suffer, so does economic activity. Lee Kuan Yew, the architect of modern Singapore, was once asked to name the secret of his tropical city-state’s economic miracle. His answer consisted of the same two letters, A/C, which he hailed as one of the signal inventions of history. By keeping the heat outside, Singapore could stay productive all year round.”
HBO’s Bill Maher, commenting on the positive impressions of European soccer fans visiting the U.S. for the World Cup, asked his audience, “Have you seen Europeans reacting to air conditioning? Like at some exotic experimental technology? Every summer they’re sitting in a 400-year-old stone building sweating through their Speedo underwear, as opposed to America, where we ask the question, what if my living room didn’t cause heat stroke?”
This reminds me of the following “joke” I first heard many years ago:
What’s the best part about living on a tropical island?
Air conditioning.
It’s only funny because it’s true.
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Zaldy Dandan is the recipient of the NMI Society of Professional Journalists’ Best in Editorial Writing Award and the NMI Humanities Award for Outstanding Contributions to Journalism. His four books are available on amazon.com/.
