Summer heat killed nearly 1,500 in France, officials say • Hacker News Board

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

#121

Post by tjr225 » Fri, Sep 13, 2019, 3:03 PM UTC

PorterDuff wrote: post #58

xbmcuser wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Society grew because we made laws to protect people from killing and stealing from each other. Now for society to keep growing we have to make new laws that do not allow people to kill others with pollution and its effects.

Just imagine the hilarity when a society made up of 20 billion people living efficient, highrise-dwelling, car-pooling, vegetarian, recycling kind of lives breaks down.

As opposed to what other kind of lives? Suburban and rural folks will be just as screwed when they don't have a wal-mart or a costco to get supplies from.

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

#122

Post by tripzilch » Fri, Sep 13, 2019, 3:20 PM UTC

cf498 wrote: post #118

negrit wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In France it's very very uncommon to have AC.

Its not just France, its an issue across northern/western Europe. Combine that with the difficulty of getting a proper AC installed in a rented house/apartment with normal stone walls and it explains the current lack of AC units. Most landlord will immediately be scared for the buildings substance. The few AC units that you see are those "mobile" devices with a single tube hanging out of a window. Even window units a…

Many supermarkets have AC (here in the Netherlands), and I seriously considered camping out in one for a bit during the heat a few weeks ago...

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

#123

Post by tripzilch » Fri, Sep 13, 2019, 3:33 PM UTC

roywiggins wrote: post #42

geomark wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would people be able to physically adapt to longer periods of higer temperatures? I mean, it is around 40 degrees every day for most of the two months of hot season where I live. And a lot of people don't have air conditioning. On the hottest days they sit around in the village in the shade, drinking a lot and not moving much. Lots of complaining but we don't hear much about heat related deaths.

Adaptation works until the wet bulb temperature is above human body temperature, at which point you'll just slowly broil since you can't lose energy by sweating. Not very likely to get there in Europe, but other (hotter, wetter) countries may.

I read about this wet bulb temperature thing too, but then I wondered what about saunas? Super humid, can't lose energy by sweating, hotter than human body temperature, yet people stay in them for hours? (Not me personally, I don't like saunas)

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

#124

Post by mpalczewski » Sat, Sep 14, 2019, 4:27 PM UTC

cryptoz wrote: post #96

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.

No I can't.

That was unconvincing to me.

It makes sense to me that in France a society (which by the way doesn't make iPhones, not sure how that applies here anyway) that has some sort of strange hang up about air conditioning would have people die of heat.