RE: https://ec.social-network.europa.eu/@EUCommission/116696574148710922
I really truly despise "memes" like the one used in the quoted post because _even back in weather like in idk the 1980s in Europe_ wide-spread air conditioning would have saved thousands of lives in each heat wave.
Protection from both heat and cold should be a non-negotiable human right.
It's really a form of green-washing.
It wasn't people needing air-conditioning (which is relatively energy-efficient compared to e.g. heating), but policy failures of governments in Europe and elsewhere that have led to this point.
@thomasfuchs what is the prevailing view about heat pumps?
Edit: sorry, I'm not trying to go for a cheap gotcha. As an American, I do think we over-air condition (although a lot of that is just crude humidity control). We also have this wonderful problem of installing AC everywhere but then charging way too much for heat pumps even though they are the same thing
Also, it is a tiny jump from installing an air conditioner to installing a two-way heat pump that can be both an AC unit and can electrify Europe's heating. And Europe's gas-based heating is a MUCH bigger climate problem than AC units!
@mihamarkic no it doesn’t, the grid demand is peanuts compared to e.g. heating plus it occurs during the time of day when solar energy is abundant
The post implies AC is at fault for climate change, when it’s not. It’s blaming people when the fault lies with industry and governments.
@mihamarkic @thomasfuchs
Demand is highest during the day and especially when the sun is shining.
Which is besides the point. AC and heating both save literal lives. Saying we need to abolish ac is like saying we need to abolish vaccines (which use petroleum products throughout manufacturing). No, we don't. There are far larger and easier to deal with causes out there.
@thomasfuchs @mihamarkic I don't think that's what the post implies at all.
To me it says, if we had green cities and hadn't stripped streets and entire burbs/boroughs of greenery, they wouldn't be nearly as hot. Instead we have so much barren concrete and tarmac that heats up faster, stays hot for longer and reaches much higher max temps in the sun than if we had simple things like tree-lined streets and canopy coverage over parks etc.
Which is... True.
Doesn't mean some people wouldn't still benefit from AC. But it'd be a vastly different problem than what we have.
It's a categorical error to say "some people would still benefit from AC".
If the air temperature is 45C and doesn't matter if you have lots of trees around; it will be unsuitable (as in people will get serious problems up to and including death) for human habitation without AC.
What Europe (and other places in the world) should do is require heat-pumps for heating and cooling everywhere (if building codes require heating they should also require cooling, and it has to powered by electricity), require a migration to electric vehicles and move to exclusively emission-less sources of electricity.
And yes, also encourage other long-term changes especially to cities.
@chris what really don’t get about it is that heat pumps, by far the most efficient way to heat a building, also automatically can be used for cooling; there’s literally no reason not to use them. Can even power them from local solar etc.
It’s like we have some magical technology that actually works and would be a win for everyone but we just choose not to use it and burn gas and suffer instead
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