> Our roads are a marvel to everyone (please ignore our lack of public transit. But at least we have highways). Both the shear size and scale, not just of the roads but also of our cars.

I would say not necessarily 'marvel' in a positive sense. I've mostly only been to San Francisco (generally there once a year) but that elevated roadway through the city is a blight; it's absolutely awful. Also it seems to constantly have ridiculous traffic.

> They already have access to air conditioning, maybe not quite as much as us Americans but its not really a point of exasperation or wonder.

Yeah, this is a particularly weird internet belief about Europe. Regions where the weather historically justified it have domestic air conditioning; in regions where it rarely gets hot it's usually mostly confined to commercial use (commercial spaces have way more waste heat; 100 people in a room is ~equivalent to running a 10kW heating system constantly).

What you're seeing now is that some regions which historically almost never got hot are suddenly getting hot fairly frequently due to climate change; they're shifting from "domestic aircon would be silly, you'd run it for two days a year" to "maybe it's needed now".

Speaking of San Francisco, most homes in San Francisco don't have air conditioning; it hasn't yet come under the sort of climactic pressure which would make it necessary.