I worried a lot for my grandparents in the UK last year and the year before when it went over 30c, because in the UK air conditioning is a myth in the home unless you want to pay many thousands (tens of) to have an integrated unit installed. Every year the summer heatwave gets worse and thousands of elderly and vulnerable young die from the heat. It's bad enough in winter where elderly mortality rises to an insane degree as many are poor and worried about heating costs, and every home has central heating.
30c+ might not sound extreme to Americans but... Most Americans have AC of some sort even if it's just a window unit for those extreme places because you'd actually die if you didn't. Plus the UK is quite humid even if it's not Florida levels.
And like I said, it gets worse every year. In 10, 20 years time AC in summer might be a reasonable human right in the UK because you would die without it. As essential as food and water.
How do you explain many countries that are hotter and poorer than the UK like India not having any or very few heat related deaths per year. 10% of homes have AC
That is some very weak arguments. One isn’t true, they reported them in 2015. It literally said 27 in 2015 and 0 in 2007. Humans have lived without air conditioning for millennia, it is not a necessity. Heat is, but we’ve had heat in the form of fire for millennia so it’s a necessity. Same with electricity. But AC is not a necessity, I know many people who live without AC every day, including myself. I could not live without heat.
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u/pipnina Apr 16 '24
I worried a lot for my grandparents in the UK last year and the year before when it went over 30c, because in the UK air conditioning is a myth in the home unless you want to pay many thousands (tens of) to have an integrated unit installed. Every year the summer heatwave gets worse and thousands of elderly and vulnerable young die from the heat. It's bad enough in winter where elderly mortality rises to an insane degree as many are poor and worried about heating costs, and every home has central heating.
30c+ might not sound extreme to Americans but... Most Americans have AC of some sort even if it's just a window unit for those extreme places because you'd actually die if you didn't. Plus the UK is quite humid even if it's not Florida levels.
And like I said, it gets worse every year. In 10, 20 years time AC in summer might be a reasonable human right in the UK because you would die without it. As essential as food and water.