According to official numbers from WHO, the World Health Organization, Europe’s death toll had climbed to 1,300 heat-related deaths by mid-June from the heatwave. That number, which is mostly among the elderly, will no doubt increase into July and August before fall.
The main reason most Europeans are suffering during the heatwave is most of them don’t have air conditioning in their homes. Averaged out across the continent, only about 20 percent of homes have air conditioning, according to the International Energy Agency.
A.C. a rarity across Europe
An air conditioner is so rare in northern countries, such as the United Kingdom and Germany, that homes with a unit number in the single digits.
Farther south, in the Mediterranean region, about half the homes in Greece, Italy, and Spain keep the kitchen and the bedrooms cool with A.C.
Clay Waters, a media analyst at the Media Research Center, tells American Family News that Europe is a “sweatbox” during the current heatwave.
“People are actually dying of heat,” he says, “because Europe has been avoiding installing air conditioning universally.”
Europeans have historically shrugged off air conditioning because sweltering summer heat is so rare. Many of their homes are designed to withstand bitterly cold winters, which means the summer heat is trapped in a home designed to remain warm and snug in January.
Meanwhile, Europeans are repeatedly told by their political leaders that man-made “climate change” is the cause of record-breaking temperatures and hence their suffering.
Among the liberal news media, Waters noticed a New York Times article that praised climate-focused Europe for saying no to air conditioning.
Despite the heatwave and related deaths, the article lectured right-leaning politicians in Great Britain and in France who oppose the EU's "net-zero" plans related to dramatically reducing carbon emissions.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO’s top politician, told the BBC that Europe is “heating at twice the global average.”
Paris politician lectures Americans
That warning has created sort of a circular argument because air conditioning is blamed for the terrible heat, so hooking up a carbon-producing A.C. unit to keep your elderly parents alive is frowned upon.
An example of that common belief came from Paris, where the famous city’s deputy mayor is blaming Americans and our air conditioning for Europe’s sweltering heat and a warming planet.
“As the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions in the world, you bear a significant amount of responsibility for global warming and the consequences we, in France, are experiencing,” the deputy mayor, Audrey Pulvar, wrote online.
Pulvar, who was angered by Americans mocking Europeans for their lack of air conditioning, further stated U.S. cities should “start doing your part” to save the planet instead of mocking France and other countries.
On her own continent, however, paleoclimatologists have mapped a European history of 20 major ice age cycles, broken up by four major periods of extreme heat, going back millions of years, according to an NOAA article.
EU commission keeps the air on
In response to the heatwave, the WHO boss urged Europe’s political leaders to implement the “Heat Health Action Plan.” That is an official WHO booklet that includes an 8-step plan, such as implementing a warning system and improving communication skills, but it doesn’t include air conditioning to cool off the population.
Waters and MRC also noticed news reports that Europe’s erudite politicians are not suffering along with the sweating populace.
According to a Politico article, the 13-story European Commission's headquarters in Brussel was forced to shut off the air on most - but not all - of its floors that house the 3,000 employees. The bottom floors, 1 to 7, were going without A.C. while the top floors that include the top bosses kept the A.C. going.
“It’s like feudalism,” a Commission official, who works on a lower level, told Politico.
"It's not about climate change, or global warming, or any specific issues," Waters tells AFN. "It's about command and control, and who's maneuvering the levers of power."
