I completely agree. Historically AC has not been necessary for the one to two days a year it was needed, but that world is gone now and the situation has changed and the widespread adoption of AC is now necessary.

Its going to be a huge challenge because the buildings are not designed with that in mind, many buildings are hundreds of years old making these sorts of renovations notoriously difficult and expensive, but it has to start because climate change is only going to get worse and worse.

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ericd 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Is it that hard to drill an 8cm hole to run some refrigerant pipes through the wall?

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miki123211 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Yes!

Most of Europe has a "registered building" system, where buildings above a certain age are considered historic. Renovating those buildings is an extremely difficult, expensive, and bureaucratic process. You generally need to preserve the period-appropriate look and materials. An AC unit sticking out of a wall won't pass muster.

Even newer buildings are problematic. an acquaintance of mine lives in an upper-middle-class apartment complex that was finished two or three years ago, and their architect has some claim in the contract that prevents residents from installing AC units to "preserve the building's unique look."

The US is build around privately-owned housing (and hence creature comforts) a lot more than we are, so AC is a lot easier to implement there.

	▲	Levitz an hour ago \| parent [-]
		>Most of Europe has a "registered building" system, where buildings above a certain age are considered historic. It feels weird to have to mention this, but although there are a lot of historical buildings in Europe, it's not the norm. Population grows. There was a noteworthy war not that long ago. The vast majority of buildings are not that old.

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adrianN 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

If you rent the place and your landlord doesn’t want it you’re out of luck. If you own the place and your neighbors don’t like the noise of your AC you’re out of luck too. If your building is one of the many buildings protected for historic reasons only God can help you.

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Klayy 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

That's not the only thing required to properly install an ac unit. Do you genuinely believe people die rather that drill a hole? Lile that's the blocker? What a weird take

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jatora 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

So you are saying temperature has risen enough to warrant an AC now? Due to climate change? I thought climate change was on aggregate ~1C difference but my data is a decade old the last time i looked into it

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martinpw 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Pretty easy to look this stuff up rather than depend on decade old memory. Temperature in Europe is rising much faster than the worldwide average. Here it says +2.3C by 2022 - that is significant.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_in_Europe

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adrianN 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The relevant data is number of days per year with temperature above X degrees. That number has risen quite a bit over the last decades.

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colechristensen 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The average temperature across the entire globe averaged over a year does not mean that each day is subject to the exact average added to it.

Global warming intensifies differences in weather patterns. Hotter hots, colder colds, more intense storms, etc.

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fc417fc802 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Seeing as it's so commonly misunderstood I wonder if "catastrophic climate variance" wouldn't have been a better term in hindsight.

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ajmurmann an hour ago | parent | next [-]

I'm not sure a more complicated term would prevent people who don't want to understand the issue from finding new ways to not understand it.

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miki123211 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

People don't know what variance is.

Most people have an intuitive understanding of what an average is, but "distance from the average" is mystifying to them.

	▲	fc417fc802 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Ok fine I hear you, in that case how about catastrophic climate chaos? It's even alliterative.
	▲	colechristensen 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		And if you're trying to sell the public on the numbers of what's concerning, those numbers should be able to communicate the changes they expect. "This number is small but it means BAD THINGS" isn't a very good message