The New Hot Topic in European Politics Is Air Conditioning

The New Hot Topic in European Politics Is Air Conditioning

Europeans have always been slow to accept air conditioning and ice in drinks.  They need to get over it.

In France, media outlets often warn that cooling a room to more than 15 degrees Fahrenheit below the outside temperature can cause something called “thermal shock,” resulting in nausea, loss of consciousness and even respiratory arrest.

That superstition makes as much sense as Korean’s believing that you can die if an electric fan is running in a closed room with no windows.  Being against air conditioning would be quaint if 15,000 people  didn’t die in Paris a couple of decades ago.

In 2003, a heat wave hit Europe while Parisians were on vacation.  Without air conditioning, 15,000 old folks died in the heat in one month.