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Summer heat killed nearly 1,500 in France, officials say

bbc.com

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Re: Summer heat killed nearly 1,500 in France, officials say

#91

Post by inetknght »

abootstrapper wrote: post #55
zadkey wrote: post #34

I live in Texas. The heat wave that France is experienced this summer is like maybe 1 or 2 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than a normal summer for us. Preparedness for summer is deeply ingrained in everyone's minds here. Many Apartment complexes treat issues with AC units as emergency situations, reach out to on-call handymen and give high priority to their fix. In the city of Dallas, city code requires that property owne…

And all Texas cities basically shut down with any amount of snow or ice. Imagine if there was a blizzard in Houston and some yank was like, “where are their snow plows, snow chains, heavy jackets, insulated pipes, etc?”

> * “where are their snow plows, snow chains, heavy jackets, insulated pipes, etc?”*

I live in Houston. When it snows here we will sometimes see sand trucks driving around. They come down from North.

You can't just truck in AC though so I think your example is like comparing apples to oranges.

Re: Summer heat killed nearly 1,500 in France, officials say

#92

Post by jellicle »

skohan wrote: post #77
dv_dt wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems increasingly needed now, and is one of many profit externalities to the fossil fuel companies costing everybody else money. The fairest, and market leveraging way would be to make them pay for this.

Shell and EXON buying everyone in France an AC unit so everyone can keep driving cars around is one of the most dystopian ideas I have considered in some time.

If you phrase it as "fossil fuel companies should pay large amounts in taxes and the government should use those taxes to help mitigate the effects of climate change" it changes from dystopian to socialism without missing a beat.

Re: Summer heat killed nearly 1,500 in France, officials say

#93

Post by Steven_Vellon »

paulsutter wrote: post #85
skohan wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would consider a 3% increase in mortality rate to be quite alarming.

No information is provided whether the rate changed, only that the deaths were attributed to heat. This is the sort of homework I would expect of the journalist EDIT: regarding CNN, 9% doesn’t add up and the quote is vague. I know I’m crazy to expect journalists to care about numbers but it just bugs me

CNN's reporting was better: https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/08/europe/france-heat-wave-death...

They report that the mortality rate was 9% higher than baseline during the heat wave.

Re: Summer heat killed nearly 1,500 in France, officials say

#94

Post by driverdan »

HenryBemis wrote: post #4

> half of those who died were aged over 75 France/Paris has a deeper problem that comes out in these heatwaves. Older people that live alone, with little or no relatives caring for them, and living in flats without air-conditioning, or have low income/pension that they cannot afford an extended heatwave, happen to pass every summer there is a heatwave in Central Europe (which lately is more frequent). I remember hear…

The way you worded that is insulting. Just because someone is old, has a limited budget, and no family doesn't mean they can't care for themselves. They should know the risks of heat stroke by that age. It doesn't require a lot of money to go sit in a coffee shop or buy a $100 window AC unit.

Re: Summer heat killed nearly 1,500 in France, officials say

#95

Post by xenocyon »

joachim4 wrote: post #56
throwaway5752 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people of France aren't ignorant. They have just acclimated to a climate that is rapidly getting hotter. It would be patronizing if French people offered basic advice on not building on floodplains and storm preparation after Harvey. People just plan based on their prior experiences.

The use of AC in France is also quite foreign. None person in my family use one, despite them living all over the country. But go to the states or to India, and there is AC everywhere.

When I grew up in India AC was actually almost nonexistent (except for very rich people and some offices). Instead there were lots of trees, high-velocity ceiling fans, and ventilation (which is important when there's no electricity). Heatstroke/sunstroke outdoors was known, but deaths from hot conditions indoors were rare.

Today, there's fewer trees and a lot more AC. It's ironic because AC (especially inefficient window units) contributes to global warming in a big way.

Re: Summer heat killed nearly 1,500 in France, officials say

#96

Post by cryptoz »

mpalczewski wrote: post #67

That's certainly many people, and it sucks if someone you know died because of the head. However, I can't tell for a population like France if this is a large number. Would love to see something like, how many people die from cold in France each year, or other environmental effects.

> However, I can't tell for a population like France if this is a large number.

Sure you can. The number should be 0 for any country regardless of size, and 1500 is a huge number compared to 0. There's no reason in our modern society, with our ability to build iPhones and measure the weather with satellites, that a single person should die from a heat wave.

Re: Summer heat killed nearly 1,500 in France, officials say

#97

Post by ousta »

cryptoz wrote: post #87
dalore wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't make sense to have AC preparedness when it's only used for 1 week out of a year. Also the environmental impact of everyone having an AC, that's not good. In France and the UK hardly any has an AC because it's not really needed. Your suggestion is that they spend billions of dollars for this? Who buys everyone the AC? I lived in PNG which is near the equator and hot. It's not the temperature that's the true…

> In France and the UK hardly any has an AC because it's not really needed Thousands of people just died. It is clearly needed.

people don't die from the heat. they die from being old.

Re: Summer heat killed nearly 1,500 in France, officials say

#98

Post by PhasmaFelis »

prolepunk wrote: post #48
zadkey wrote: post #34

I live in Texas. The heat wave that France is experienced this summer is like maybe 1 or 2 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than a normal summer for us. Preparedness for summer is deeply ingrained in everyone's minds here. Many Apartment complexes treat issues with AC units as emergency situations, reach out to on-call handymen and give high priority to their fix. In the city of Dallas, city code requires that property owne…

Maybe more appropriate topic of discussion should be how climate change affects the people of France and what can be done about it, instead of chastising them for not having Dallas housing codes.

> Maybe more appropriate topic of discussion should be how climate change affects the people of France and what can be done about it

That's what Zadkey was doing, though.

Re: Summer heat killed nearly 1,500 in France, officials say

#99

Post by ousta »

Steven_Vellon wrote: post #93
paulsutter wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No information is provided whether the rate changed, only that the deaths were attributed to heat. This is the sort of homework I would expect of the journalist EDIT: regarding CNN, 9% doesn’t add up and the quote is vague. I know I’m crazy to expect journalists to care about numbers but it just bugs me

CNN's reporting was better: https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/08/europe/france-heat-wave-death... They report that the mortality rate was 9% higher than baseline during the heat wave.

what about mortality rate after? probably lower than baseline as well

Re: Summer heat killed nearly 1,500 in France, officials say

#100

Post by jandrese »

skohan wrote: post #77
dv_dt wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems increasingly needed now, and is one of many profit externalities to the fossil fuel companies costing everybody else money. The fairest, and market leveraging way would be to make them pay for this.

Shell and EXON buying everyone in France an AC unit so everyone can keep driving cars around is one of the most dystopian ideas I have considered in some time.

It's not even to keep people driving cars. It's just the new normal. Even if we stopped driving today we're still going to bake Paris in the summer. The damage is already done. Think of it more like a fine for destroying the environment.

A more reasonable shortish term solution is to air condition large communal buildings and allow people to camp out overnight when the temperatures become inhospitable.

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