> they simply haven’t needed it until the last few years

Correct, and that's all there is to it. And once there's a general acceptance on the continent that global warming has permanently pushed summer temperatures into the danger zone, people will start installing aircon. It's a shame, but it's a direct consequence of the damage that humanity has done to our planet.

I'm very glad that I live somewhere where even now, it almost never gets hotter than 25°C.

It’s the same here in San Francisco. Most homes don’t have air conditioning because it’s so rarely necessary. Things get pretty uncomfortable for a week or two if we have a heatwave and I think about buying a window unit then it’s over and I forget for another year.

It’s just a completely different climate to the eastern US where humidity makes even moderate heat unbearable for much of the year.

Europeans have AC in every car and many hotels. We know what it is and that it can be nice in summer. Sure I don't have one at home but I'm not going to go wild over a normal household appliance.

> Massive museums in Munich don’t have air conditioning.

Are you sure it wasn't just broken? Large commercial spaces do tend to have it, because lots of people produce lots of heat. 100 people in a room is ~equivalent to running a 10kW heater constantly. Unless the temperature outside is _reliably_ under about 20 degrees (in which case you can maybe get by on active ventilation) you're going to need it, really.

> We were in Germany and Italy during a heatwave this summer. In Munich I managed to find a hotel with aircon, in Italy I didn’t.

Okay, I'm sorry, if you couldn't find a hotel with aircon in Italy you weren't looking too hard. I just went on Google Maps, searched hotels in Rome, took a random 70 euro/night hotel (an Ibis Budget), has aircon. I'm pretty certain just about any of the budget chains will have it, never mind the higher end ones.

Germany used to have cloudy, rainy 68-77F summers. I remember being actually cold at night and wearing a light coat when camping in Germany, and needing wellington boots. Most Central European places simply didn't need AC, neither did UK, which never had really hot summers. We will see if this summer was a once off, or will we need AC going forward.

You know why the AC is not common in residential buildings? Because they are build with stones and concrete and can handle a few days of heat during the summer. Close the windows and curtains during the day and let fresh air at night and you'll be fine during the summer in Germany.

Yeah, like the Philippines.

AC is common enough for everyone to have seen and felt AC. Especially at malls, busses or other public places. USA has more AC but that's not really going to wow anyone.

Even in the Philippines, there's plenty of hotels with AC if the locals want to spend extra money on a vacation. But more realistically, Filipinos will get large amounts of AC at movie theaters or malls. Even if its not something Filipinos can afford in their individual homes, its something that they'd have come across in their daily lives, and it wouldn't be something that they get "wow'd" by.

Fewer than 25% of homes in the Philippines have AC, and I promise you that the climate in the Philippines is much much worse than even USA. Far more humidity and heat. Europe has milder temperatures than USA so they don't need AC (but they have enough money / luxuries that they can afford AC in public places like malls or busses).

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But seriously, have you met anyone who is used to living without AC as they enter the USA and all of our AC? They actually and actively complain about things being too cold all the time. Its a point of discomfort, not a thing to make a Youtube video and brag about.