I promised myself I wouldn’t get involved in this, but alas, here we are.
These two posts sum it up perfectly. The problem is not the heat in measured degrees, Fahrenheit or Celsius. The problem is that it is that hot in areas where neither fauna, flora or architecture are made for that type of heat, because it shouldn’t be that hot in that area.
Yes, I’ve included fauna and flora. Because yes, it affects the vegetation and our wild animals as well, and yes, they’re suffering and dying as well. They just can’t talk about it on Tumblr.
Frankly, the number of posts I’ve seen where the motivation seems to be sheer pettiness, usually along the lines of “people can’t take a little heat, haha” or “why don’t Europeans just build AC, so stupid” is silly. If you want to get back at Europeans for some real or perceived slight in the past, make it about something that isn’t a global problem for all of humanity, and, might I remind users on the website where many pride themselves on standing up for minorities and oppressed populations, disproportionally affects people in areas that are traditionally struggling with poverty:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479725034097
Very few people with common sense are not aware that it’s much hotter in other places on the planet than it is in Europe at present. I’m actually not talking about the US, thank you. Try the African continent, India or any place located around the equator for that – and guess what: these areas are also being affected by increased frequency in heat waves. They’re also struggling. Except there’s probably a much smaller percentage of them on Tumblr, where the people gleefully making fun of Europeans are hanging out. Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.
Until very recently, Europeans have not needed AC. Because the temperatures, yes, even in Spain and Greece, were rarely so high for so long that it would have made sense to plan for it. Since the industrialisation, Europe’s infrastructure has been designed to deal and handle with the range of temperatures that are normal for Europe. This includes housing, transportation, agriculture and power supplies. AC would be, as US citizens would say, “putting a bandaid on a broken bone”. It addresses the problem on a temporary basis and does not do anything to solve the problems Europe is now facing.
And that, I would like to believe, is also common sense, that if you live in a place where heat isn’t an issue, you do not design your infrastructure and houses around heat. You design them to deal with the climate that is normal for that area.
Maybe go and read some research papers on how it affects humanity globally it instead of turning it into a game of pettiness. But I guess that is too much to hope for, considering how little traction these posts have been getting as opposed to some of the other “fun” ones I’ve seen going around.
