Incredible fact from NYT: more excess deaths from a hot summer week in Belgium - at the temperate New York and Chicago see most summers, not Dubai - than any week during COVID. All fully preventable.
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nytimes.com/2026/08/15/wor ; note that in the US and Japan, as a/c became nearly universal, 30-35C days no longer cause excess death spikes.
A result from the research on this is that the lower the mean annual temperature, the lower the minimum mortality temperature (the point at which temperature-driven mortality is the lowest). Hence 35C in a warm place are less deadly than the same temperature in a cold place.
Chicago has a lower mean annual temp than Brussels. NYC is roughly identical.
kind of wild that during covid we were willing to accept enormous economic damage to prevent fewer deaths than this, but a whole summer of extreme heat kills this many people and basically nothing changes on climate policy
Anti-airconditioning folks are regressive, backwards, and causing unnecessary deaths
The dirty little secret is that these heat waves kill mostly old people that the European governments really don’t mind losing.
I want to know how many excess deaths there were in North Dakota / Montana during the 110+ heat wave this year.
Quite stupid statistic comparing Belgian heat death numbers to US numbers that are completely different. Belgian numbered attribute heat as a factor as soon as it exceeds the average of the last few years for particular date range. The US counts only the number of death -->
Note that the people who died likely couldn't AFFORD airconditioning (the elderly in old houses).
Also note that life expectancy in Belgium is 82.59 and in the US 79.76 years. In other words: the US has something to learn in the preventable death department.
There’s a fun walking-venn diagram of someone that denies either happened
Economist who doesn't know that Americans count heat death statistics in a completely different way than Europeans which causes a massive undercount.
Anyone who works in econ & statistics of all people should know better.
The media could not be played.
Lack of AC is clearly a factor, but I also wonder about hydration — Euros love to mock the US for carrying water bottles, size of drinks, refills at restaurants, etc, but that’s just survival where I live.
FYI
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Domenico De Giorgio, EU. Capre Diem (not a typo).
@degiorgiod
Sharp increase in mortality figures during heat wave at end of 2nd quarter of 2026
destatis.de/EN/Press/2026/
So how many trillions will it take to install enough a/c in Europe to prevent those deaths and how many people will die until it is done?
so when does the US pay for our ACs? only a share in accordance with ghg emissions, so 30-40% of getting an ac *everywhere*
Incredible fact: the deaths from cold happen every year and outweigh the deaths from heat by a factor of at least 10 in that graph.
$37 gets you an 8,000 BTU Frigidaire air conditioner.
I'll never understand Europeans.
