I & I Editorial BoardDo you know who Willis Havilland Carrier is? No? Maybe you should. He’s the engineer who, way back in 1902, invented what we now call air conditioning. His invention has been cooling American houses and businesses ever since. But it’s also done something even more important: Saved hundreds of thousands of lives.
Think that’s hyperbole? It isn’t.
As America prepares for yet another long, hot summer, most of us will stay indoors to work and relax. Why? When the torrid weather arrives, we simply turn on our air conditioning and immediately feel cool air filling our rooms and making us comfortable.
But comfort is a bonus to AC’s real impact: saving lives.
Heat is a killer, as we’ve noted before. Here in the U.S., where air conditioning is found in nearly 90% of all homes and virtually all office buildings, deaths from excessive heat are relatively rare. In 2024, there were 2,394 deaths from excessive heat in the U.S.
Compare the U.S. total to the EU, where there are regularly far more deaths from heat than in the U.S. Last year, for example, from June through September, the EU had 62,755 heat-related deaths, or 26 times more than the U.S. in 2024. Here’s another shocking statistic: The EU heat-death total is more than total U.S. deaths annually from gun violence (44,447 for all of 2024).
Ponder that for a minute.
Of course, leftist bureaucrats immediately blame “climate change” for the excessive heat deaths, claiming this shows why we should impose even more stringent “green” climate regulations on both industry and individuals.
But most of the U.S. is, in fact, hotter than Europe during the summer. So EU deaths aren’t due to “global warming,” or any other green nonsense.
No, sadly for Europe, the high number of deaths from heat is a political choice, not climate change.
The insane pursuit of “net zero” climate rules has ruined the EU’s regional economy, creating energy-based poverty for many of its 450 million citizens. Europe now seriously lags the U.S. in GDP growth, productivity, and standard of living, largely due to its disastrous green energy policies.
“Electricity costs there are, on average, about two to three times higher than those in the United States, and Europe is generally less willing to use energy-intensive appliances like air conditioning in pursuit of its climate goals,” Dimitri Bolt of Townhall wrote recently.
“So not only is the continent reliant on foreign adversaries for much of its energy, but the limited energy it does have is not used to prevent heat-related deaths.”
EU bureaucrats would rather kill people than drill for oil, burn coal, build more nuclear power plants, or do any number of other things to create energy abundance and lower prices. Meanwhile, you can bet none of the green bureaucrats in the EU will sit in non-air-conditioned offices during the sweltering summer.
We’re not picking on Europe. It’s just that the EU, being relatively wealthy, is the most egregious example of choosing to let fellow citizens suffer from heat and die rather than to flourish with cheaper energy and plentiful air conditioning.
According to a recent WHO report, “Between 2000–2019, studies show approximately 489,000 heat-related deaths occur each year, with 45% of these in Asia and 36% in Europe.” So with just 5.6% of the world’s population, Europe accounts for more than a third of all global heat deaths.
These are virtually all preventable deaths. But you won’t hear that from those in power around the world. They’d rather spin tall tales about the threats posed by climate change — and why it can only be curbed with trillions of dollars in new green taxes.
Also, conspicuously missing from this devastating picture of global heat deaths is one country: the U.S. Why? Here, Willis Carrier’s nifty invention saves thousands of lives a year from heat death while also making it possible for even the sweltering U.S. South to grow both its population and its economy.
President Donald Trump deserves credit for pursuing a policy of energy abundance, rather than chasing the Green Chimera of “renewable” energy. Yes, we know, right now prices for oil are high, and so is electricity; but those prices will fall rapidly once the conflict with Iran is resolved, the Strait of Hormuz is reopened, and normal global oil flows are restored.
In the meantime, thanks to AC, this summer you can just stay cool. It’s what America does best.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
I think that your point about European Leaders never having to worry about heat prostration (they rule in air conditioned offices) is your most telling argument, ie while thousands everyday Britains die from the heat the cry from the leaders is “let them eat cake” and “it’s not us whose to blame. It’s global warming.”
This Britain gambit is like Governor Newsom going out to lunch during COVID when he had just passed a law stating that people (the common serfs) had to stay indoors.
I am 79 years old. The first AC we ever had we purchased in 2010…
The majority of heat deaths in Arizona are related to drug usage but the statistics are being modeled to support more and more government funding. Politicians will go for anything they think will let them wring out more taxpayer funds.
Yes, AC is great, but it has also softened up millions of students.
The boarding school I attended in Delaware made one concession to the boys when the temp rose above 90 that we could loosen our ties.
The Philadelphia Public Schools made a short sighted and extremely expensive mistake, in construction and energy cost, altering the school buildings built before AC with high ceilings, vent transom windows, ceiling fans, wide hallways and large windows that opened top and bottom for cross ventilation. They eliminated all of those hot weather design advantages and are now fulled dependent on expensive mechanical AC.
Plus, if it gets hot they still close the schools for the snowflake students and teachers and days of teaching, at such high taxpayer cost, are wasted, too.
Albert Einstein when asked which modern scientific advance had most benefitted mankind, didn’t pause for a moment and answered, “Air conditioning”
BS. I am 75 and have lived in Sacramento, CA all my life and have never had or wanted air conditioning. Summertime temperatures 110+ no big deal. Why people panic when the temperature goes above 75 is beyond me.
My AC broke a week ago local temps here in NC have been high 80s and are now in the mid 90s for the next few days. Parts ordered and Repairs scheduled for Tuesday. I have COPD and just had major surgery last April. I could not survive if not for my neighbor having lent me a portable AC unit. AC is definitely lifesaving but I never knew till this article who invented it and when.
“Society never advances,” Emerson said. We gained the advantages of AC, but we lost the toughness that comes with adapting to our environment. Also, humorist Art Buchwald said the downfall of America began with air conditioning, because without it, Congress could only stand Washington for a few months each year. Now they oppress us all year long!