In Europe, heat is a deadly killer. According to a 2024 UN report, 175,000 people lose their lives every year in Europe from heat-related causes. Another study, released in 2023, puts that figure at over 60,000, with more than 100 deaths per million people per year in Europe from heat-related causes. In the United States, the reported per-capita figure is more than an order of magnitude lower, at around 5 per million people per year.
The difference is not due to milder weather in the United States; it is because of the prevalence of air-conditioning, a noetic technology that improves thinking and physical performance, and which is constantly attacked for reasons related to claims about climate change. Soaring energy prices due to “green” policy commitments put this technology out of reach of many in Europe.
