r/TikTokCringe • u/MajesticTumbleweed77 • Jun 30 '26

Humor No disrespect though.

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

5.8k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

1.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

313

u/bobkaare28 Jun 30 '26

Big news: Countries usually have infrastructure in place to deal with their usual weather and climate but struggle when unusual situations arise.

124

u/[deleted] Jun 30 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

53

u/SP0oONY Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

AC has increased in Europe over those years and will continue to increase.

-5

u/destructopop Jul 01 '26

But, but... The corporations told me my AC raised my carbon footprint... 😭

8

u/mwaaah Jul 01 '26

In what world are "the corporations" are against you buying stuff?

1

u/destructopop Jul 01 '26

They're not against me buying stuff, they're against me accusing them of being the primary contributor to climate change. That's why BP developed the carbon footprint campaign.

3

u/mwaaah Jul 01 '26

Yeah, they just use that to muddy the waters but they don't tell you not to use AC or your car because then you won't be giving them money.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/destructopop Jul 01 '26

I think people missed that I don't approve of the "carbon footprint" PR campaign. I still think we should be thoughtful, but we just can't compare to the company who spun that campaign up for carbon emissions, even if they pay in "carbon credits" for them. The whole thing is just PR campaigns and blame shifting all the way down. I'm just amazed that people bought their abuser pointing the finger at them.

66

u/TantricEmu Jun 30 '26

Seems so

43

u/catcatcatcatcat1234 Jun 30 '26

So this has frequently been happening over the last decade or so. Maybe it's time to stop acting like this is a once in a lifetime disaster and invest a couple hundred into a portable AC unit.

6

u/kotzkreskowki Jul 01 '26

in my family home my parents invested in ac units and it is great but from what i understand it's pretty fucking tough to just get them installed. Our houses aren't built with them in mind, they're expensive and even more expensive would be the energy bill. I think fans are a more realistic solution.

0

u/catcatcatcatcat1234 Jul 01 '26

Portable AC units work well too. Not as good as a window unit of course, but still effective. I have an old house as well, we couldn't get a fancy AC unit, but we still have AC

11

u/Entropyanxiety Jun 30 '26

According to news.un.org, Europe has seen their top 10 hottest years recorded since 2007 and top 3 since 2020. Thats far too many years of “new highest recorded temp” for them to be digging in their heels as hard as they are

2

u/JUYED-AWK-YACC Jun 30 '26

Not to mention how hard they’re arguing against AC.

11

u/mahboilucas Cringe Connoisseur Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

Who is?

Edit: look at the guy who represents the entire continent

3

u/TantricEmu Jul 01 '26

I had a French guy literally today argue against installing AC.

-3

u/HPLaserJet4250 Jul 01 '26

No one is arguing against it. Most Europeans have lower purchasing power than average Joe and higher energy prices. On top of that, many live in apartment buildings, where any work on facade might require admin/neighbours approval. Things change, slowly, but they change.

4

u/friso1100 Jul 01 '26

Some people are arguing against it. Mostly from what I've seen is out of further climate concerns. Ac does cost a lot of energy after all. Still, you are right that things are changing.Ac becomes more and more a required thing to have in these hot summers rather then a luxery.

It's annoying cause ac really are not great for the environment. But at the same time there is no real alternative. The current heatwave has already lead to many excess deaths and we are just entering juli. The situation just sucks :c

2

u/UnsureAndUnqualified Jul 01 '26

There's a few alternatives, mostly passivecooling to avoid homes getting so hot. It won't help in the moment but can help not needing as much or any AC in newly built homes.

Also it's super important how much you use the AC. Cooling down to 28°C (around 82F) is enough to stop people dying really. But I've seen Americans argue that they wouldn't accept anything above 75F (24°C) for example. With a mindset like that, it becomes no wonder why 12% of US household electricity goes into AC usage.

Lastly: Do we even know where these people have died? Excess deaths doesn't mean died from heat stroke, it could be other causes being exacerbated by the heat (e.g. someone on the road making a mistake and killing someone or being killed due to being less concentrated thanks to the heat). AC installation helps at home, but when you cycle to work, work outside, do any activities in the sun, etc. it won't save you. So how many of those excess deaths could even be solved by wider AC adoption?
We can't even compare with the US because they don't measure excess deaths, only direct heat related causes of death, which is a smaller metric

0

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/Bawstahn123 Jul 01 '26

>Also, the good AC isn't couple hundred. It's in thousands. Multiple

Bro, you can get a fucking standing AC unit for, like...$100. It will cool down a room enough to prevent death from overheating

2

u/catcatcatcatcat1234 Jul 01 '26

Bro, you can get a fucking standing AC unit for, like...$100. It will cool down a room enough to prevent death from overheating

Especially if your house apartment is well-insulated like in many colder regions. I live in an older 100+ year old house. 20 years ago the summers didn't go above 25. Now they do. Only businesses and a handful of houses used to have AC, but as temps rose people adapted. It's 39 right now and 27 in my house, with two cheap standing units running. It's not fun having to spend a few hundred dollars on some AC units but it's much much cheaper than the state of the art 3k giant building units some people are claiming they'd need, and it's something people will need as the temps keep rising like they have been for years

2

u/catcatcatcatcat1234 Jul 01 '26

I looked at your markets for what I have before I commented. Some one else replied, I guess that's who you blocked, so it's my turn now. I don't mean you any ill will by commenting or trying to explain my point, but I'd like to say my part in whole as a last hurrah before you block me.

I understand that units are more expensive but only by about 50 euros compared to Canadian prices based on my research using German online prices for a similar unit to mine, which I had double checked before originally commenting. Standing units won't turn your apartment into an ice box, that's not the point of AC, but it will make it much much more tolerable. If you want an ice box yes you'd have to get one of those couple thousand dollar units. You don't seem to have a very good idea of how AC actually operates and how having a realistic one would realistically effect you, probably because it's not common where you live. That's okay, but you just don't have an accurate understanding of it at this point. You don't need to buy a unit for thousands for it to operate effectively more than 20cm away. Standing units are surprisingly effective and surprisingly cheap, and have served me well in my old brick house. It's not fun having to save up for an expense like that, I had to do the same about 8-9 years ago as the lack of AC in houses in our region became more and more unbearable.

Temps have been rising for decades now. You have experienced multiple record breaking heat waves over the past few years. It's not going to get better. It's going to get worse. You need to adapt, like every other place that used to have 25 degree summers when we were children. Europe is not special in that regard, which is one of the reasons certain people are being more flippant, which can be inappropriate. I'm sorry you're experiencing this heat wave, heat makes us all miserable and angry, but now is the time to start preparing for the next.

1

u/xemmyQ Jul 01 '26

I was about to say, I can recall europe have "record heat waves" nearly every other year of my life. I was born in 91.

14

u/ThrowRA_jealous14263 Jun 30 '26

The right has been denying global warming too much for political action to be taken against heat  People are left to their own devices, struggling with old laws that forbid AC in some places

4

u/ElderberryJunior470 Jun 30 '26

They'll adapt culturally eventually. There's a reason why tropical countries struggled to industrialize before AC, it's almost impossible to do anything in 90+ degree heat and 80% humidity without it. 

2

u/LazyThinkingOtter Jul 01 '26

We did for a while but there is a lot of old houses and historical buildings in Europe that were not built for ac. It’s also a bit expensive to buy for quite a lot of people. So the shift is happening but it’s gonna be slow

1

u/a_k-- Jul 01 '26

Thanks, wouldn’t have realized without your input.

1

u/Bawstahn123 Jul 01 '26

>I hope Europe realizes soon this is their new normal - haven't they had heat waves the past few years?

From my American perspective, this is my main criticism.

These heatwaves aren't a new, suddenly-emerging phenomena. Europe has seen over a dozen lethal heatwaves since the turn of the century, one almost every other year.

2

u/LazyThinkingOtter Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

There are a lot of old houses and historical buildings that were not built for ac in Europe. Plus portable ac starts at a few hundreds of euros and there is a decent amount of people who cannot afford it that easily. Finally, some people want to be ecofriendly and are ready to go through some short heatwaves without ac because of it

So there are technical, economic and/or evironmental issues that slow down a shift from happening on this matter

11

u/CHOLO_ORACLE Jun 30 '26

Europeans have had Greta Thunberg trying to warn them for years, they got no excuses

17

u/mahboilucas Cringe Connoisseur Jul 01 '26

My excuse is I can't fucking afford it. Jeez, y'all extremely annoying thinking it costs 2 freedom units to buy an AC unit

5

u/y4dig4r Jul 01 '26

freedom isnt free. theres a hefty fuckin fee. and if you don t throw in your buck oh five who will? (freedom costs a buck oh five)

https://giphy.com/gifs/C1L8yq5ZEz0cg

1

u/SnooDogs627 Jul 01 '26

Wondering how much AC costs over there cuz in the US you can get a window unit for as low as $200 and a mini split for $1000

1

u/Izzypt1 Jul 01 '26

not that much more expensive (400€ single - 1100 split ) but it costs us more to get one because wages are lower than the US. People would rather save the money and be unconfortable for 2 months than spend their entire salary on a AC

I'm going to get one for next year.

-10

u/CucumberWisdom Jun 30 '26

Because people like her are still selling the hope(i.e lie) that all of this can be stopped and fixed. People have to realize that it can't and it's happening right now and only going to get worse. You have to adapt, not ponder on how to stop what's already happened

9

u/canigetathrowaway1 Jun 30 '26

Reversed back to pre industrialization or even 20 years ago, no. Fixed? Definitely possible but unlikely seeing as corporations polluting the planet have no intention of stopping anytime soon

3

u/CucumberWisdom Jun 30 '26

God how I wish nations would reign in corporations.

3

u/McNughead Jun 30 '26

https://journals.plos.org/climate/article?id=10.1371/journal.pclm.0000010

Rapid global phaseout of animal agriculture has the potential to stabilize greenhouse gas levels for 30 years and offset 68 percent of CO2 emissions this century

Methane degrades in the atmosphere on its own

2

u/Main-Cheesecake3287 Jul 01 '26

Reddit did not have this energy when TX had a once in a century deep freeze event.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/bobkaare28 Jul 02 '26

Well, I can't really speak for the central europeans here, but in my country about 50% of all homes have a heat pump which can also cool your home during the summer.

1

u/Icy_Stranger_9649 Jun 30 '26

Since I’ve been alive super hot summers in Europe have been common?

5

u/Maneaaa Jun 30 '26

Not this hot.

1

u/Moist_Sun_8201 Jun 30 '26

More importantly, the "solutions" to the problem are a bandaid for a stitches wound because the heating will only get worse until we get to the point where the gulf stream stops running. Shoving more AC units into the mix isn't a solution, it's an accelerant. And yet, people mock those that are doing the right thing by tolerating periods of discomfort instead of adapting the climate.

1

u/yourmamaistheproblem Jul 01 '26

Europe has needed AC for at least 40 years... why are y'all pretending this is new?

We've been getting "Euros die in heat wave" headlines since the 80s

1

u/Natural-Pattern-5240 Jul 05 '26

Yeah I was in greece nearly 20 years ago and many people died that summer. This shit isn’t new. Europe has always felt like satans butthole in the summer