To me all these posts in X rather read as a targeted bot-based anti-Europe hit campaign. As you point out, why would American conservatives care about the health of elderly and vulnerable Europeans? These waves of anti-Europe posts come out on such a regular basis that I cannot see them as anything else than coordinated attacks. And after all, Musks algorithm pushes anything depicting Europe as this failing decrepit continent.
Anyhow, I completely agree with your arguments. Great article!
I'm with HP on this - there's a lot of strawmanning going on - I too have never met someone who is 'anti-ac'. I know many people who make a personal choice not to have it - this is usually for a range of reasons: cost, need (USA is generally hotter than Europe), aesthetics, environmental concerns. On the latter some are no doubt confused and/or hypocritical (they are fine with heating, drive a gas guzzler etc) - but this is not a rare quality - as HP points out, many of the anti-anti-ac crowd do not believe in state intervention, nor telling people how to live their lives, but....
The US is going through a particular period of self-doubt, feeling unloved, having a serious case of affluenza concurrent with declining status). Some seem to deal with this by projecting outwards - belittling those who 'say they are better', the Euro Libtards. Not a rare phenom anywhere, but American culture is perhaps a little more prone to it though - they are not used to being humble, and many are not well travelled - leaving them vulnerable to beleiving daft claims about foreigners.
I have some anecdotal evidence on the opportunity for community provided by extreme weather in the UK. The winter of 2010 was particularly brutal; airports were shut down, and thousands of people trying to leave were trapped. Instead of coming home to the US, I ended up taking one of the few trains still running to Manchester. Here's the thing, though: the train I got on wasn't my train, so I was sitting in someone else's seat. Because all the trains were packed, I just assumed that the real ticket holder would oust me, and--grateful to get out at all--I'd happily stand. Nobody asked for their seat. Instead, the train, packed with people sitting in the aisle and standing at the ends of each car, was abuzz with jovial chat. As an American, I was shocked. When I arrived in Manchester, my friends were puzzled at my surprise. They asked what people would have been doing in the US. Um, many would have been furious--at the weather and then at each other. There would have been much shouting into cell phones. And the owner of the seat I was in definitely would have told me where to go. When everything goes sideways, I'd like to be with a bunch of Brits. Also: the humor!
Nice and balanced piece, Helen! I'll happily concede the point about cultural tradition and the European "way of life" (also highlighted by Noah Smith) — something I probably underestimated in my own piece (maartenboudry.substack.…).
But even if climate anxiety isn't the main driver of resistance among individual homeowners, it very much is at the level of government regulation and elite discourse.
Governments keep discouraging it — including my own city of Ghent, which just told us in the midst of a deadly heatwave to "avoid air conditioning." Energy ratings penalise A/C regardless of aesthetics or location. Permitting is cumbersome and sometimes refused outright. In the UK, perfectly functional units are even ripped out. Silly urban myths about "cold shock" and "spreading viruses" still hold sway.
And in the media, A/C is constantly portrayed as a guilty indulgence — a last resort once you've tried everything else. Many articles on coping with heat don't even mention it, or rush to point out that it "only fights the symptoms," stressing the climate impact, exaggerating the urban heat island effect, fretting over refrigerants, and so on.
That whole framing is downstream of energy degrowth and climate anxiety — even when the person sweating at home has never heard the word "degrowth." European culture absorbs the moralising it marinates in.
Fix the grid and drop the moralism, and I think we'll quickly discover that being cool is rather nice.
Also true that most of the overheated X discourse about A/C is people yelling past each other. Hope this helps. 😉
Good post, but it glosses over the obvious. It simply isn’t as continuously hot in the UK during summer as it is in almost every American city. Most Americans don’t understand this, and most Brits don’t seem to either, so they are talking past each other. The temperature here is scorching for a lot more than 10 days a year.
Seems reasonable, thanks. As an American I do find European attitudes towards air conditioning odd, but wouldn't dream of complaining about it... are you exaggerating a twitterstorm? Regarding liberal positions, I'm not sure vaccination falls into the same laissez-faire category as other risk-related issues; I don't really know what the right answer is, but a measles vaccination is not exclusively a personal choice.
- for much/ most of Europe (the middle, North) AC is not strictly necessary; the equation is very different in the US (even the Northern States often get unbearable heat in summer, Vancouver's latitude runs through mid Europe).
- a lot of European properties/towns were designed & built to keep cool before AC units existed - shutters, high ceilings, large windows, thick stone walls, tree lined streets. American houses are often insufferable without AC as they are built with insulation for the winter high roof to floor space ratio, and become hot boxes in summer;
- Europeans, I'd wager spend a lot more time outdoors, walking, cycling - of course you can't have ac there, but also you never properly aclimatise to heat if you are constantly going in and out of ac.
- The hottest areas of Europe tend to be the poorest (at a guess, typically earning just 30% of US's GDP per capita) - affordability is a real issue for those areas.
Helen - Thank you for, once again, injecting cool logic into a (curiously) heated argument.
There are two items I'll contribute (my two cents, as it were).
One, the ubiquity of air conditioning in the US. The country covers multiple climate zones, with varying numbers of uncomfortably hot days. Yet (I just checked), you CANNOT buy a new car anywhere in America without air conditioning built in. (Yes, no matter how cheap or stripped-down the car is.) 98% of all newly completed single-family homes come equipped with central air conditioning systems from the builder. The only office buildings that do not have air conditioning are in landmark-protected buildings, and they represent an infinitesimal portion of the overall office space. So unless someone chooses to actively turn off the AC in their house and car, average Americans spend their entire lives in air-conditioned comfort. It is no longer a choice or an additional expense. It is built into every area that may be occupied by people.
Two, the perception of the European reasons for not following the US model. Few Americans realize just how drastically the European summer experience differs from the American one. While most northern and midwestern American cities, like New York and Chicago, experience around 20 days of above-90° (32°C) heat, northern and central European cities are subjected to only a handful of them (London: <5, Paris: <10). For southern cities, the difference is even greater: Rome - 30-40 days of extreme heat; Houston: 100+, Phoenix: 150+!! So, as you stated, the cost/benefit equation is highly divergent. Yet, people don't understand why the Europeans don't just install AC and quit bellyaching about the (few) hot days. And since the correct, factual understanding eludes them, they invent other motivations, far less favorable: socialism, progressive attitudes, climate hysteria, etc. Plus, (most) everyone likes to feel smug and superior, so that attitude seeps in as well.
The "you must have AC" crowd are dunking on Europoors because the are part of a social media fuelled American First movement that needs to look down on Europe as inferior. Otherwise they can't explain away things like why (for example) Americans work longer hours, take less vacation, are fatter, unhealtier and die earlier. Air conditioning is the one quality of life factor they can point to and objectively say the US is ahead. They aren't being particularly principled, they're just propping up their own rapidly decaying political project. So yes, people need to stop being so fucking weird about air conditioning.
It feels similar to most Americans not having electric kettles. We could attack America for its pathetic 120V mains electricity supply meaning kettles take longer to boil. Proper countries have 240V! Or we could just accept they have a different culture and have made different choices.
Kettles are cheaper than AC though. I might consider AC if I owned the house I live in, but I don’t. I might also invest in better insulation to keep the place warm in winter. There again, I might not. Mostly it’s neither extremely hot nor extremely cold in Britain. We have (or had) a temperate climate. Much of the US regularly experiences extreme heat and extreme cold.
The anti-AC people remind me of anti-vaxxers and the people who don't believe in using medicine. We're not scolding the Europeans for not using air conditioning, we're just shocked that these people would apparently rather die - literally - than use it.
But I’ve never actually met anyone who was anti-AC. Only people who don’t prioritise installing it over using the money to do other things to their home or have a holiday and who don’t regard being hot for a few days as a really big deal. Nobody think they’re going to die. It is elderly people who typically die so this is a reasonable cost/benefit analysis when younger and I think the emphasis should be on having it in care homes and making it freely available to the elderly.
I am one of the few younger people who could potentially die of heat. I have a neurological condition that reacts badly to it & that condition has, on three occasions, caused a stroke. Also, I am currently fat which doesn’t help. So I am sitting here next to the portable A/C I bought for that reason and not going outside. It’s a bit of a nuisance because I’ll only need it for a couple of weeks a year but I’ll put a tablecloth on it & it can be a side table for the rest of the time.
I predict that we will see greater uptake of A/C if things get hotter for longer.
To me all these posts in X rather read as a targeted bot-based anti-Europe hit campaign. As you point out, why would American conservatives care about the health of elderly and vulnerable Europeans? These waves of anti-Europe posts come out on such a regular basis that I cannot see them as anything else than coordinated attacks. And after all, Musks algorithm pushes anything depicting Europe as this failing decrepit continent.
Anyhow, I completely agree with your arguments. Great article!
They don't. They are enjoying the time-honored tradition of feeling morally superior to people they perceive as feeling morally superior to them.
I'm with HP on this - there's a lot of strawmanning going on - I too have never met someone who is 'anti-ac'. I know many people who make a personal choice not to have it - this is usually for a range of reasons: cost, need (USA is generally hotter than Europe), aesthetics, environmental concerns. On the latter some are no doubt confused and/or hypocritical (they are fine with heating, drive a gas guzzler etc) - but this is not a rare quality - as HP points out, many of the anti-anti-ac crowd do not believe in state intervention, nor telling people how to live their lives, but....
The US is going through a particular period of self-doubt, feeling unloved, having a serious case of affluenza concurrent with declining status). Some seem to deal with this by projecting outwards - belittling those who 'say they are better', the Euro Libtards. Not a rare phenom anywhere, but American culture is perhaps a little more prone to it though - they are not used to being humble, and many are not well travelled - leaving them vulnerable to beleiving daft claims about foreigners.
I have some anecdotal evidence on the opportunity for community provided by extreme weather in the UK. The winter of 2010 was particularly brutal; airports were shut down, and thousands of people trying to leave were trapped. Instead of coming home to the US, I ended up taking one of the few trains still running to Manchester. Here's the thing, though: the train I got on wasn't my train, so I was sitting in someone else's seat. Because all the trains were packed, I just assumed that the real ticket holder would oust me, and--grateful to get out at all--I'd happily stand. Nobody asked for their seat. Instead, the train, packed with people sitting in the aisle and standing at the ends of each car, was abuzz with jovial chat. As an American, I was shocked. When I arrived in Manchester, my friends were puzzled at my surprise. They asked what people would have been doing in the US. Um, many would have been furious--at the weather and then at each other. There would have been much shouting into cell phones. And the owner of the seat I was in definitely would have told me where to go. When everything goes sideways, I'd like to be with a bunch of Brits. Also: the humor!
I’m sitting here in my air-conditioned room in NYC, having my coffee and, as usual, thoroughly enjoying your calm, thoughtful writing.
Nice and balanced piece, Helen! I'll happily concede the point about cultural tradition and the European "way of life" (also highlighted by Noah Smith) — something I probably underestimated in my own piece (maartenboudry.substack.…).
But even if climate anxiety isn't the main driver of resistance among individual homeowners, it very much is at the level of government regulation and elite discourse.
Governments keep discouraging it — including my own city of Ghent, which just told us in the midst of a deadly heatwave to "avoid air conditioning." Energy ratings penalise A/C regardless of aesthetics or location. Permitting is cumbersome and sometimes refused outright. In the UK, perfectly functional units are even ripped out. Silly urban myths about "cold shock" and "spreading viruses" still hold sway.
And in the media, A/C is constantly portrayed as a guilty indulgence — a last resort once you've tried everything else. Many articles on coping with heat don't even mention it, or rush to point out that it "only fights the symptoms," stressing the climate impact, exaggerating the urban heat island effect, fretting over refrigerants, and so on.
That whole framing is downstream of energy degrowth and climate anxiety — even when the person sweating at home has never heard the word "degrowth." European culture absorbs the moralising it marinates in.
Fix the grid and drop the moralism, and I think we'll quickly discover that being cool is rather nice.
Also true that most of the overheated X discourse about A/C is people yelling past each other. Hope this helps. 😉
Good post, but it glosses over the obvious. It simply isn’t as continuously hot in the UK during summer as it is in almost every American city. Most Americans don’t understand this, and most Brits don’t seem to either, so they are talking past each other. The temperature here is scorching for a lot more than 10 days a year.
More air conditioning would consume less energy than the already proliferating data centres encouraged by AI swooning government.
@johnaziz will be surprised to hear that he is American.
https://substack.com/@johnaziz/note/p-203634644?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=7x8r1
I don’t know what you mean? I haven’t cited him at all, let alone said he is American.
Seems reasonable, thanks. As an American I do find European attitudes towards air conditioning odd, but wouldn't dream of complaining about it... are you exaggerating a twitterstorm? Regarding liberal positions, I'm not sure vaccination falls into the same laissez-faire category as other risk-related issues; I don't really know what the right answer is, but a measles vaccination is not exclusively a personal choice.
Some explanatory factors:
- for much/ most of Europe (the middle, North) AC is not strictly necessary; the equation is very different in the US (even the Northern States often get unbearable heat in summer, Vancouver's latitude runs through mid Europe).
- a lot of European properties/towns were designed & built to keep cool before AC units existed - shutters, high ceilings, large windows, thick stone walls, tree lined streets. American houses are often insufferable without AC as they are built with insulation for the winter high roof to floor space ratio, and become hot boxes in summer;
- Europeans, I'd wager spend a lot more time outdoors, walking, cycling - of course you can't have ac there, but also you never properly aclimatise to heat if you are constantly going in and out of ac.
- The hottest areas of Europe tend to be the poorest (at a guess, typically earning just 30% of US's GDP per capita) - affordability is a real issue for those areas.
Helen - Thank you for, once again, injecting cool logic into a (curiously) heated argument.
There are two items I'll contribute (my two cents, as it were).
One, the ubiquity of air conditioning in the US. The country covers multiple climate zones, with varying numbers of uncomfortably hot days. Yet (I just checked), you CANNOT buy a new car anywhere in America without air conditioning built in. (Yes, no matter how cheap or stripped-down the car is.) 98% of all newly completed single-family homes come equipped with central air conditioning systems from the builder. The only office buildings that do not have air conditioning are in landmark-protected buildings, and they represent an infinitesimal portion of the overall office space. So unless someone chooses to actively turn off the AC in their house and car, average Americans spend their entire lives in air-conditioned comfort. It is no longer a choice or an additional expense. It is built into every area that may be occupied by people.
Two, the perception of the European reasons for not following the US model. Few Americans realize just how drastically the European summer experience differs from the American one. While most northern and midwestern American cities, like New York and Chicago, experience around 20 days of above-90° (32°C) heat, northern and central European cities are subjected to only a handful of them (London: <5, Paris: <10). For southern cities, the difference is even greater: Rome - 30-40 days of extreme heat; Houston: 100+, Phoenix: 150+!! So, as you stated, the cost/benefit equation is highly divergent. Yet, people don't understand why the Europeans don't just install AC and quit bellyaching about the (few) hot days. And since the correct, factual understanding eludes them, they invent other motivations, far less favorable: socialism, progressive attitudes, climate hysteria, etc. Plus, (most) everyone likes to feel smug and superior, so that attitude seeps in as well.
What I can’t get my head around is why all the argument about aircon, when all anyone needs in this country is a fan?
The "you must have AC" crowd are dunking on Europoors because the are part of a social media fuelled American First movement that needs to look down on Europe as inferior. Otherwise they can't explain away things like why (for example) Americans work longer hours, take less vacation, are fatter, unhealtier and die earlier. Air conditioning is the one quality of life factor they can point to and objectively say the US is ahead. They aren't being particularly principled, they're just propping up their own rapidly decaying political project. So yes, people need to stop being so fucking weird about air conditioning.
It feels similar to most Americans not having electric kettles. We could attack America for its pathetic 120V mains electricity supply meaning kettles take longer to boil. Proper countries have 240V! Or we could just accept they have a different culture and have made different choices.
Kettles are cheaper than AC though. I might consider AC if I owned the house I live in, but I don’t. I might also invest in better insulation to keep the place warm in winter. There again, I might not. Mostly it’s neither extremely hot nor extremely cold in Britain. We have (or had) a temperate climate. Much of the US regularly experiences extreme heat and extreme cold.
The anti-AC people remind me of anti-vaxxers and the people who don't believe in using medicine. We're not scolding the Europeans for not using air conditioning, we're just shocked that these people would apparently rather die - literally - than use it.
But I’ve never actually met anyone who was anti-AC. Only people who don’t prioritise installing it over using the money to do other things to their home or have a holiday and who don’t regard being hot for a few days as a really big deal. Nobody think they’re going to die. It is elderly people who typically die so this is a reasonable cost/benefit analysis when younger and I think the emphasis should be on having it in care homes and making it freely available to the elderly.
I am one of the few younger people who could potentially die of heat. I have a neurological condition that reacts badly to it & that condition has, on three occasions, caused a stroke. Also, I am currently fat which doesn’t help. So I am sitting here next to the portable A/C I bought for that reason and not going outside. It’s a bit of a nuisance because I’ll only need it for a couple of weeks a year but I’ll put a tablecloth on it & it can be a side table for the rest of the time.
I predict that we will see greater uptake of A/C if things get hotter for longer.
Well, I think I included enough evidence of the attitude I’m talking about for you to see that it does exist.