Tell me again how Europe is a beacon of modern civilization. I must've missed that memo while watching 250 Londoners quietly roast to death in their apartments this year.
Yes, that's a real number. During a recent heat wave in the United Kingdom, more than 250 people died in London alone. Why? Because the continent that never tires of lecturing America on our so-called barbarism doesn't believe in air conditioning. Not metaphorically, but literally. It's banned, fined, discouraged, and, in some places, illegal.
According to economist Tyler Cowen, more Europeans die from heat-related causes than Americans die from gunshot wounds. Let that sink in. The cradle of café culture, vegan wine, and smug public transport enjoyers boasts a higher death toll from avoidable overheating than the gun-toting Wild West we call home. This isn't a satire headline; it's real life, or real death, not to put it too lightly.
In many European cities, installing an air conditioner is like applying for top-secret security clearance. In Geneva, you must demonstrate medical necessity. In Portofino, Italy, you might get fined over forty thousand euros just for trying to cool your living room. Neighbors turn each other in, as if it's a 21st-century Salem witch trial, except instead of heresy, the sin is comfort.
It gets better. Freya Sanders, writing from the Free Press' London outpost, describes working through the same heat wave in a 15-year-old apartment with no air conditioning. She tried everything: closed the curtains, wrapped herself in cold towels, and probably prayed to the saint of central air. Still, people died. And yet, the same continent continues to sneer at Americans for needing an "excessive" climate-controlled environment to function. Guess what, Europe, it's not excessive if it keeps grandma alive.
Singapore's founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, once credited air conditioning as one of the most important inventions in human history. Not democracy, not the internet, not even Singapore's famously clean subways. No, it was A/C. In a 2009 interview, Lee said, "It changed the nature of civilization by making development possible in the tropics." What was the first thing he did as Prime Minister? Air condition the civil service offices. Productivity soared.
Lee built one of the most successful nations in modern history, with no natural resources and a humid equator wrapped around its neck. Meanwhile, Europe's leaders are out here waging war on window units in the name of "climate justice," all while the bodies pile up like unpaid utility bills.
Here in America, our A/C units hum along while the media hyperventilates over gun statistics. Context never cuts. You'll never see MSNBC report that your odds of dying in a heat wave in Marseille might be higher than getting shot in Milwaukee. But sure, let's keep pretending every trip to Walmart is a Mad Max sequel.
The more profound irony is that air conditioning, like firearms, is an American innovation rooted in independence, comfort, and control. It's something people use to improve their lives, not to signal moral purity. And it works.
Europe is roughly three times as lethal from heat per capita as the U.S. is from guns. According to WHO estimates, about 175,000 Europeans die annually from heat‐related causes across a population of roughly 900 million, which comes out to nearly 19 heat deaths per 100,000 people per year—by contrast, American gun deaths, including suicides, homicides, and accidents, totaled around 48,000 in 2023, which is about 13.7 deaths per 100,000 people. That gap is staggering. Even using more conservative European estimates, say 50,000 heat deaths… that's still 5.5 per 100,000, versus 13.7 for guns in the U.S., putting Europe in a weaker position per person when it comes to avoidable deaths. This data flips the script; air conditioning denialism outpaces what the left obsesses over constantly in the States, even per capita.
According to Dr. Cory Franklin, a retired ICU physician writing for the Chicago Tribune, Europe sees up to 20 times more heat deaths per capita than the U.S. That's not a typo. Twenty times. So next time someone brings up American gun violence, maybe ask how many Europeans cooked in their apartments last summer. While Spanish bureaucrats impose fines on window units, Chicagoans are hauling A/C units to elderly tenants by hand. It's called the People's Cooling Army, a group of volunteers keeping folks alive one window unit at a time.
What we're witnessing in Europe is a culture so obsessed with performative humility and aesthetic regulations that it can't keep its people from dying indoors. Meanwhile, air conditioning accounts for just 3% of global carbon emissions, yet saves tens of thousands of lives a year. But some climate crusaders would rather let people die than see a bump in the electric bill.
So the next time some Euro-bureaucrat flutters their scarf and whines about American gun deaths, hand them a cold glass of sweet tea and a copy of this article. Remind them that civilization doesn't mean moldy castles, aristocrats, and whatever tapas are. Sometimes, it means not dying when the thermostat hits 95.
And if you're lucky enough to be sitting in AC right now as the heat wave continues, say a quiet thank you. To capitalism. To common sense. And to that big, beautiful box of freedom humming away in your window. Like Creed Bratton from The Office said, you already won the lottery, because you were born in the U.S. of A, baby.
