As Temps Rise, Europe Considers A/C. That Could Make The World Even Hotter.

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As Temps Rise, Europe Considers A/C. That Could Make The World Even Hotter.

By District Energy posted 09-18-2019 11:56

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Naomi Snyder, Huffington Post

Summary

When Alison Fullerton and her husband Jay lived in Europe for three years, it was gripped by a series of summer heatwaves. The couple ― who have since moved back to Tennessee ― bought a cute, portable air conditioner they called R2D2 because their house in Stuttgart, Germany, had no air conditioning.

“There was just an attitude that we all have to do our part to take care of mother earth,’’ Alison Fullerton said. “If we complained, they’d say, ‘It’s not bad. It’s only a couple weeks of the year.’ Americans want everything to be easy.”

Much of Europe, especially northern Europe, is notorious for its lack of air conditioning — notorious, at least, among the occasional Americans who book a trip during a summer heatwave and come to regret it.

These days, 90% of households have air conditioning in the U.S., where the high temperatures in southern areas can average over 90 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer. But with A/C, homes, office buildings, subways and shopping malls often remain icy. Meanwhile, across much of northern Europe, residents are accustomed to sweating indoors.