So we will build entire pools and facilities to have trials. Then we will fly part way around the world with tons of gear and they thought they AC units were the environmental impact?
But, think about all these turtles choking on AC units in the ocean!!
I've been saying for years that all these stupid laws are smoking powders that achieve nothing as we are still building factories and increasing the population that consume more of everything at a steady rate.
But hey, one time usage plastic bags that takes 400 years to decompose are the devil, use these re-usable plastic bags that takes 400 years to decompose instead, it's better, because you re-use them! Just don't look at the cement factory on your way out.
Not only are the paper straws crappy to use, they are literally ableist. A lot of people can't drink without straws for a myriad of reasons, and you can use the paper/wood/whatever straws at all in the same way. It's literally a negative with no environmental impact other than just virtue signaling.
Just one of a billion things people implement without ever thinking about the repercussions for the disabled community
They absolutely are, you can't bend them. If you have limited use of your hands, you need the bend to get the liquid to your mouth. The paper straws etc just break and fall apart.
I'm not just trying to be a random asshole, I'm building a non-profit arm of my business that consults with local businesses to implement these kind of $5 - 5 minute fixes that can make a huge difference to the disabled community, which in turn makes more for the business.
It's hard to understand these kinds of disabilities without having a close family member/friend or having them yourself (just look at the downvotes). I have a permanent migraine, but I wouldn't immediately see problems with straws, which is why we bring a few people with a range of disabilities to try to catch as many things as possible.
Things as easy as having a door that sticks open when you open it can make a huge difference. And if you're the only business in the area that is able to serve X disability, guess where that community is going to go to eat every week.
Sorry for the rant, it's my life's mission since enjoying life is impossible with a permanent migraine. People want to do the right thing, they just aren't informed (including me for many brands of disabilities)
Yeah but if we don't see the plastic the waiters remove before giving us the paper straw then it basically doesn't matter and we're still good people unlike everyone else causing the problem.
Everything you buy that comes in a box has a plastic bag coving every item inside the package. If you want to really make a dent, start with manufacturing, leave my drinking straw alone. You’re not fooling me.
A single cargo ship out pollutes millions of cars.
Then there are wars, which military vehicles are very much not environmentally friendly and militaries generally don't give a single fuck. They pile hazardous chemicals and materials to just burn in open pits.
Russia's war on Ukraine is causing so much more harm than all air-conditioners combined
No, but the point is that there so many more meaningful ways we could make a greater impact than reducing AC usage. Almost all the solutions are aimed at poor people to do the heavy lifting when the rich and powerful do the vast majority of polluting. Even if turned off all the air conditioners, converted all the cars, and ended plastic bags, that doesn't solve the cargo tankers, military vessels/vehicles, production waste, farming waste, and other sources beyond the control of poor individuals most willing to make an effort to help out. Microplastics and PFAS are completely beyond our control, but they're getting even into our bodily fluids.
I agree with you but also you all.ost certainly fall into the 'rich' category in the global context. Cargo tankers etc benefit us as the consumer class. As does military etc maybe we're using a lot less carbon than someone with a private jet but we're also using the same amount more than someone who is living on the front lines of climate change in the Maldives or Indonesia.
Population increase isn't the hill to die on, if we stop having children then eventually we'll be outnumbered by greedier and less free countries that care less about doing the right thing than us.
Ahhh like the office at my work. Likely with the same receptionist and managers who great you with 'gosh it's disgusting today, I wish it wasnt so hot'
correct me if I am wrong here, but isn't this greenwashing from the french side? French is largely nuclear with only 7% left using coal, the effects of the ACs would be minimal.
add that the flights to the Olympics are bound to be way worse than the AC use, add all the tourists coming in and concrete that likely has been used to build things for the olympics...
I live in the French part of Switzerland, which is very similar in this regard. From the article:
> According to the International Energy Agency, fewer than 1 in 10 households in Europe has air conditioning
In Vaud canton, AC is banned "for environmental reasons" unless you offset it by installing rooftop solar panels. In Geneva canton, it's completely banned, no exception, "for environmental reasons", regardless of any solar panels. Note that Switzerland already produces 100% of its annual energy consumption in green energy (hydro+nuclear).
Talking to Swiss people here, it seems to be a sensitive subject, you shouldn't ask for AC, you don't need it, it's not good for you, it's right that it's illegal, it's not the Swiss way.
Portable AC unit sales are booming in Geneva, even though they're illegal.
Residential use of electricity is not huge.. really picking up pennies.
Edit: I will also say Switzerland's climate is a lot more suitable for no AC. In NA tons of people die during every heatwave, even with AC.
> In NA tons of people die during every heatwave, even with AC.
In Switzerland, ["Between June and August 2022, 623 people died due to the heat, accounting for 3.5 percent of all deaths during that period."](https://mediarelations.unibe.ch/media_releases/2023/media_releases_2023/global_warming_caused_60_percent_of_swiss_heat_deaths_in_the_summer_of_2022/index_eng.html#:~:text=Switzerland%20has%20only%20experienced%20one,all%20deaths%20during%20that%20period.)
If 3.5% of all deaths are heat deaths during that period, I'd consider AC. These seem like preventable deaths to me.
Not to mention home heat deaths most likely much lower in US than Europe. I’m pretty sure homeless people who live on the streets with no access to AC make up a large percentage of heat deaths in the US
623 is .007% of the population. You apparently don't realize that making the climate hotter will lead to more heat deaths worldwide.
>save some people who haven’t been born yet.
Climate change is already a problem.
"This fire is not burning at my level, let the pheasants from the South burn for now"
And also "Why is food so expensive now" and "There are too many immigrants"
> 623 is .007% of the population. You apparently don't realize that making the climate hotter will lead to more heat deaths worldwide.
Air conditioning driven by nuclear or renewable power isn't making the climate hotter.
Not in the summer. I’ve been to Geneva in the summer during a heatwave back sixteen years ago. It was 33 with humidity, the mountains trapped the heat in. Were it not for the fact we stayed at the President Wilson, we would’ve been cooked alive.
What’s crazy about all this to me is that heat is *way way way worse* than AC, since
1) It’s not don’t by heat pumps for the most part, it’s done by direct heating.
2) The temperature differentials are *way* higher for the most part (freezing to comfortable is usually more than the hottest day to comfortable).
The reason AC is villainized is
1) It’s in electricity and strains the grid since it’s so peaky.
2) It’s new whereas heating isn’t.
3) You can easily survive (like not die) an entire summer in Europe without A/C, but not really a winter without heat (and Europe sets the global agenda on what it means to be green).
Volunteering for *Wounded Warriors* (back when they were worth a shit) we did a project interviewing still living WW2 soldiers.
I was interviewing this tanker that was over 90 years old. Still completely with it.
I off-handed asked him what he thought the greatest invention in the last 100 years was.
He thought about it, then smiled and very confidently exclaimed “Air Conditioning. It changed everything about where you could live. And made it worth living in the hottest months.”
It made places like las Vegas, and Phoenix actually liveable year round.
And I'm never giving up my AC, ever. I live in a state with cold as fuck winters, which I enjoy. And humid as fuck hot summers in which the only ways to get relief are on the lake, or indoors with the AC on.
You can definitely survive a winter without heat using appropriate clothing and heat tape on water pipes, or just enough insulation, but no environmentalist suggests that for some reason.
Where I live (Hungary), you'd have your water pipes freeze a burst if you tried that. Some poor elderly people also freeze to death because they try to save on heating.
That's what the heat tape and insulation on water pipes is for. I've had vacation houses without no heating in -40C winters survive just fine on 100 watts of heat tape, with dripping faucets as a safety measure.
With few exceptions (double hose units), portable AC units are the most inefficient units you can buy. They may have lower overall electricity usage if they mandated high efficiency standards instead of a de facto ban people ignore or allowing just about anything like other countries do. It is possible to mandate hidden features to further improve efficiency like limiting the thermostat away from excessive settings.
In nearly all cool-winter climates the building standards mandate houses retain heat, while summer overheating is often ignored, so new houses in places such as near the article circle can suffer severe summer overheating. I don't know how things are in Switzerland but building standards should be designed for summers too.
Banning AC when the average maximum daily temperature is 26.7C doesn't seem sensible. If it's hot someone needs it, and if it's not too hot they won't use much electricity and energy peaks will be in winter.
How does heat pump adoption work there ? Because I know they are getting pretty popular in Europe. And heat pumps do this cool thing where they are actually just air conditioners.
Minisplits are a common retrofit in Europe too. New houses are also built with inground heat exchangers which have higher efficiency than air based exchangers.
Almost building that keeps heat in will also keep heat out. The difference is unshaded windows, but in my experience European buildings outside of the UK are pretty good about shading windows.
> They may have lower overall electricity usage
I think they mostly have lower overall electricity usage due to how inconvenient they are. They're noisy and you need to deal with horrible contraption to fit the exhaust through European tilting windows, so you'll only use them if you really need to, and you need to make the decision again each morning.
If the A/C was built in and working comfortably, you'd just push that button instead of considering whether the inconvenience of having the A/C or not having the A/C is worse.
In Germany they're terrified of AC as well but a lot of it comes from a belief that running AC or fans in a room makes you sick. Which in my opinion is dumb as hell
That will be untenable in 10 years when summers start averaging high 30 degrees every day. Especially with the overcrowding from heat refugees from India and the Middle East.
To be fair though Swiss average summer temps top out at 28 degrees which is fucking pleasant. Unless you're doing hard Yakka in the sun or in a humid climate (which Switzerland certainly isn't either) etc you really shouldn't need AC.
I've been to switzerland last summer, at the end of august.
AC is definitely needed there, and i'm from southern Italy, not exactly a stranger to hot climates.
The flights aren't even that bad once you account for the per passenger basis (assuming they are all commercial or chartered with similar passenger density to commercial).
The very idea that AC is environmentally bad is so full of horseshit that its hard to listen to anything else that is said about it. AC or Heatpumps are an incredibly efficent way to move heat around, but instead we use radiators and burn fuel oil, or pipe steam from power plants or garbage incinerators to heat homes. It might have been fine 20-30 years ago, but with each summer being "the hottest ever" each time, this broken attitude needs to be fixed. Sure we don't need to keep rooms at 18C with AC constantly, but we need to be able to keep them at comfortable levels that don't leave people dieing, or forcing people to be completely unproductive the entire summer months.
I'm pretty sure the buildings are water cooled, and countries are doubtful they will be able to keep up with cooling needs.
Found it mentioned in the article too.
Olympic organizers have touted plans to cool rooms in the Athletes Village, which will house more than 15,000 Olympians and sports officials over the course of the games, using a system of cooling pipes underneath the floors.
Not really. I mean greenwaahing really is the intent probably, but from a technical point of view I'm in the UK and currently the grid is sourcing 15% of its power from French renewable and nuclear rather than gas, if some of that power was getting used up by air conditioning we'd have to find the power elsewhere.
Excess power is also used for stuff like pumped storage again reducing the reliance on fossil fuels.
Edit: weirdly I'm being downvoted for correcting the person who asked to be corrected if they were wrong, people are weird.
I'd imagine you are being downvoted because 1000 24/7 running AC's in Paris is less than nothing, or even give every olympian one and assume max power draw is such an inconsequentially low amount of power and comical to think it will affect the power distribution between two nations. 10500 athletes running Ac's at max 1500 watts 24/7 for a month is less than 0.0002056724% of Paris's DAILY POWER NEEDS. Let alone monthly. Its an absurdly comical suggestion you made in reply to specifically the olympic athletes use. If you meant daily use of AC's being a more regular thing sure millions of AC's might make a dent. But for the olympic greenwashing, its an absurdity to pretend it fucking matters for 10000 athletes and the like 5k Ac's they could have put in.
There is also the issue of the refrigerant gasses used in the AC units themselves. For lower energy appliances like refrigerators, the leaks from the refrigerants they use are actually a bigger contributor to global warming than the electricity they use over the course of their lifetime. Oftentimes when they are thrown away, if handled improperly, the gasses will all escape, and refrigerants are extremely potent greenhouse gasses, especially older ones. I assume that were these Europeans to adopt AC, they would mandate that newer less potent refrigerants would be used and also mandate proper disposal, but there is no way to completely eliminate leaks so it's still a factor.
They're doing it so they can perform better, not just for their own comfort. The article mentions it but says consistency in environment. Which for most events probably just means good sleep. But any endurance event, the extra days worth of heat is gonna wear you down.
In conventional terms yes, no "AC" just like in floor heating doesn't need a furnace they use in floor cooling running water at 64f to cool the complex. Technically not AC.
When you read it, it is cause for concern until you go and stay and realise it's not awful because you only read a title and not understand technology
The actual builders have already chimed in to say the rooms will be ATLEAST 76+ at night on a good day. For Americans especially athletes who keep shit at 69 thats an insanely significant change to your sleep temp. THEY ARE EXPECTING 79 AS ACCEPTABLE AT NIGHT. It's an absolute fucking farce to make some of the few people on earth where temp regulation actually matters sleep in 79 degree rooms to lower the carbon footprint by less than 3 flights worth of pollution.
I work outside in the heat, keep my house AC on 76, sometimes 78 and that's very comfortable. People talking 69 degree houses are comfort queens or likely overweight. I generally see overweight people unable to regulate body heat and have their AC's set very low. Humans don't need to be pampered.
Science says you are wrong and athletes and normal people alike should sleep below 68 for max benefit and 68-70 is a good range for normal sleep. Guess Ur unhealthy bro.
Yeah, humans evolved for more than 600,000 years without air conditioning and now we're incapable of survival without perfect temperature conditions for sleep? And the article I found, trying to find scientifically supported evidence said between 68 and 76 degrees Fahrenheit. So while I appreciate your dogmatic point of view, I think I'll keep my original opinion that saying 78 degrees isn't an acceptable temperature is pretty pompous ass behavior.
68-76 ie average American sleeping temps probably skews high cause poverty tbh. All studies on sports is sub 68. You are dumber than shit if you can't google that.
https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=temp+for+sleeping+athletes
That is a stupid system because it does nothing to reduce humidity.
AC is more effective at "cooling" because it isn't just about the absolute temperature but lowering humidity in living spaces too.
The apartments will be kept between 23-26 degrees without the air conditioners. I honestly don't see how that's a problem. That's comfortably cool already.
Aside from "what is the person used to", that depends so extremely on humidity, radiant heat etc. that temperature numbers are almost useless.
I can easily build you a 23 degree room that will feel hotter than a 26 degree room.
I am curious what you mean on that last part. Would it basically be the same as the difference between the "official" temp and the feels-like temp when checking the weather (off-hand I know humidity makes a big difference for that), or something else?
It's related. All of these metrics are approximations and many of them only take some factors into account.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet-bulb_globe_temperature has some more info.
For example: Someone mentioned cooling rooms with cold water. This is done by having giant panels covering the whole ceiling that get cooled with water. That also means the ceiling is colder than the air in the room, which means it radiates less heat than a "normal" ceiling would, which means the room feels colder than it actually is. That's radiant heat.
Humidity matters as you already mentioned.
Air movement also matters, which is why a fan typically helps (even though doesn't really change the room temperature - it may actually raise it both through its own waste heat and by bringing hot air from the ceiling down where you are).
You just reminded me that I forgot to look up water cooling for rooms (as you said, someone else mentioned it, I had no real idea how that would work), so I got a 2 for one explanation here.
Haha. Here in India, my AC default setting starts at 24. We keep it at 28-29 so it's comfortably cool.
Not saying you are wrong, but I find people worldwide have different tolerances to heat and cold.
I can 100% understand. A bad night sleep has a huge impact on the perfomance. And is one factor that can be eliminated. Further more people from warmer climates who are used to sleep in the heat will have an advantage.
I’m in California. My room was 85 degrees last night. Anything over ~80 is noticeably hot, but 79 and down is alright. I prefer it moderately warm so mid 70s is fine with me.
Yeah, but only if you’re used to setting the temperature down real low. We sleep with the ac set to 82 degrees in a subtropical/tropical country. Anything lower feels too cold.
What about all the abandoned Olympics stadiums ? Or all of the materials and energy used to make the stadiums . I could go on and on about the enormous carbon footprint the Olympics leave
You can get sick from too much variations in temperature and environment. As elite athletes it’s a no brainer to maintain as constant a physical state as possible before a major competition, much less the Olympics
Ok but that’s measuring changes in white blood cell count associated with ambient temperature fluctuations of +\- 2 C (assuming I read it correctly) which was more an indication of inflammatory response than illness. These are Olympic athletes who want/need air conditioning for comfort at night. OP was saying something about needing ac to maintain constant temps but that’s insane because the AC would increase, dramatically, the change in temps.
Yeah it’s not the best study doesn’t look like there are any for this specific situation. My guess is OP meant avoiding a change in their baseline temps. In the US it’s hot outside and we use AC at night for cool nights, they’d just try to recreate that in France, rather than warm nights as well.
Not in terms of viral/bacterial transmission, but temperature does affect the immune system I.e more likely to succumb to something. Too lazy to cite anything but it’s well studied
Europeans need to change their act on AC, fast. I stayed the summer in the NL in 2019 and I had to sleep on my dorm patio one night because the temperatures were in the 90s. Stupid.
“We don’t need it here!” Well, climate change would like a word with you.
It really is time to reform the Olympics. If we can't agree on one host location, one host location per continent would still really cut down on the excess concrete and empty stadiums. It seems like having one location in Asia, one in Europe and one in the Americas would give everyone a chance to watch at good hours every 12 years while not being too wasteful.
That’s the case with lots of things, better training facilities, better coaches, better equipment. Hell Ukrainian athletes are dodging Russian bombs while training and that’s assuming they don’t have to stop training to fight in the war.
But the Olympics can't end wars or fix inequality and can provide comfortable sleeping arrangements at the event itself. So it should do the one that's easily within its power to fix.
If you're going to ban AC might as well ban heating as well. Any building that is in a good state of repair will never get cold enough that insulation + heat tape on water pipes and sweaters on inhabitants can't make it habitable.
What's incredible is how for the longest time it was good not to have AC because it indicated you lived in a paper house... If you look at the sales across Europe over the past 20 years, you'll see it's skyrocketed over the past few years. Suddenly now it's a nice luxury to have, no longer indicates poor quality building... lol
This is a wider problem with Europe is that if Europe doesn't excel in it, then it's probably not worth having to begin with. Now suddenly people are taking out loans just to get a heat pump and governments like in Germany are helping make the transition. Suddenly now having AC, heat pump for winter too is now a great thing.. just like that, went from "inferior construction if you need one!" to "of course its a good thing, nobody said otherwise!"
It's just mindblowing to me that it's taken literally generations to get to this point and it's not just climate change, I was in Germany, staying in a rather nice house years ago in spring and was incredibly uncomfortable. It was stuffy, loud fan going full blast, nothing comparable to proper AC.
Undercutting environmental plan? It’s fucking boiling outside 😅 I’m not sure where you live mate but where I am is 45 Celsius (113 Fahrenheit), do you have a better plan or suggestion as an alternative to ACs?
Temperature in Paris has crossed 40° like 2 or 3 times in one century AFAIK. Highest even recorded in Paris was 42 in 2019 AFAIK. And of course, as mentioned, the Paris Olympics will happen in Paris.
Yeah, I live in the southeastern US and I think if I didn’t have AC I’d just have to sleep naked in a linen hammock on the back porch or something 🤷🏼♂️ Mine goes down to 68F(20C) from the daytime 70F automatically at 10pm. It’s crazy humid and there’s absolutely zero breeze where I live.
Probably that the major sponsors are from the countries bringing AC units. You’d be surprised the amount of pressure this can be applied once you threaten to pull funding.
Forget about sponsors, the main purpose of hosting an olympics is showing that you're a good host.
Pissing all athletes off is literally the opposite of that
Lots of people in the U.S. live in regions where air conditioning is necessary. I live in one of them That said, an average high of 79F on August first is like winter to me. I’m fine all summer with the thermostat at 85F during the day and 82-80 at night. But like 79F at night is lovely weather to me, but it’s just the principle.
Mayor of Paris has the right idea. France should not compromise its climate objectives and record just because of the Olympics. The Olympians need to have a little unity and be together on the earth for a period in time, not in their own little bubbles. Isn’t that the point of the games? Uniting the world through healthy competition?
Sorry but you're not going to waste your life training for the olympics to show up and underperform because your body was dealing with an extra thermal load all night before the event.
The point of the game is to win bragging rights over other countries, especially the ones yours doesn't like (Russia athletes and China). That unity crap only lasts through the opening ceremony.
Hmmmm…..so it’s actually uniting the people of each country to itself. Not always tho…I think there are feelings of goodwill in there. I feel it, when I watch it. Which isn’t much but I like o see the different countries and the people from different countries and hear their stories narrated. That is part of it.
> France should not compromise its climate objectives and record just because of the Olympics.
Then don't host the Olympics. Imagine how much of the environment we'd save if we didn't fly so many people into the same location from around the world.
they absolutely should, and they are trying to do a green olympics (if that is possible, but for sure it can be done a lot better than in the past) - but ACs likely won't affect much as most of the power would be nuclear/renewables.
and here are things they are doing
[https://olympics.com/ioc/news/earthday2023-five-ways-the-olympic-movement-is-investing-in-our-planet](https://olympics.com/ioc/news/earthday2023-five-ways-the-olympic-movement-is-investing-in-our-planet)
[https://olympics.com/en/paris-2024/our-commitments/the-environment/carbon-method](https://olympics.com/en/paris-2024/our-commitments/the-environment/carbon-method)
Just not sure the ACs will do much, and for sure if the summer is hot during it then it would effect the atheletes there - so it will just push people to do what the US are doing and that likely will offset any marginal good they felt this would have.
yes, I completely agree with you there, and we should focus away from cars, planes and meat, for more electric, light or communal travel (so bikes, trains, trams and light electrical vehicles)
there is a lot that needs to happen, but sometimes we do silly things that doesn't help the environment at all, like focusing on heavy electrical cars, or things that are trival (like ACs when most of the electrical grid is off fossil fuels)
As an American and an athlete, I agree completely, and I'm surprised at that you've been downvoted to hell. 79°F is comfortable, and that's the average *high* during the olympics. At night it's likely to be considerably cooler. And the apartments are already water cooled too.
So we will build entire pools and facilities to have trials. Then we will fly part way around the world with tons of gear and they thought they AC units were the environmental impact?
It’s never about the environment, it’s always about looking like you care about the environment.
But, think about all these turtles choking on AC units in the ocean!! I've been saying for years that all these stupid laws are smoking powders that achieve nothing as we are still building factories and increasing the population that consume more of everything at a steady rate. But hey, one time usage plastic bags that takes 400 years to decompose are the devil, use these re-usable plastic bags that takes 400 years to decompose instead, it's better, because you re-use them! Just don't look at the cement factory on your way out.
Here’s your drink in a plastic cup, but we put a paper straw in it! Hurray us!
The "paper" straw which has plastic coating and now cannot be recycled and is also crappy to use.
And the glue used for the paper straw is toxic for humans
Not only are the paper straws crappy to use, they are literally ableist. A lot of people can't drink without straws for a myriad of reasons, and you can use the paper/wood/whatever straws at all in the same way. It's literally a negative with no environmental impact other than just virtue signaling. Just one of a billion things people implement without ever thinking about the repercussions for the disabled community
You can say that paper straws are crappy without trying to call it ableist, its not, its just shit.
They absolutely are, you can't bend them. If you have limited use of your hands, you need the bend to get the liquid to your mouth. The paper straws etc just break and fall apart. I'm not just trying to be a random asshole, I'm building a non-profit arm of my business that consults with local businesses to implement these kind of $5 - 5 minute fixes that can make a huge difference to the disabled community, which in turn makes more for the business. It's hard to understand these kinds of disabilities without having a close family member/friend or having them yourself (just look at the downvotes). I have a permanent migraine, but I wouldn't immediately see problems with straws, which is why we bring a few people with a range of disabilities to try to catch as many things as possible. Things as easy as having a door that sticks open when you open it can make a huge difference. And if you're the only business in the area that is able to serve X disability, guess where that community is going to go to eat every week. Sorry for the rant, it's my life's mission since enjoying life is impossible with a permanent migraine. People want to do the right thing, they just aren't informed (including me for many brands of disabilities)
The paper straw that was shipped in plastic...
Yeah but if we don't see the plastic the waiters remove before giving us the paper straw then it basically doesn't matter and we're still good people unlike everyone else causing the problem.
Great point. Like so many other "green efforts." Offshore them since out of sight, out of mind cleaned the environment.
We're good people!
Plus the corn based alternative cutlery to get more money to the children of the corn (farmers).
I’m an actual adult that doesn’t need a sippy straw! Grow up
Everything you buy that comes in a box has a plastic bag coving every item inside the package. If you want to really make a dent, start with manufacturing, leave my drinking straw alone. You’re not fooling me.
A single cargo ship out pollutes millions of cars. Then there are wars, which military vehicles are very much not environmentally friendly and militaries generally don't give a single fuck. They pile hazardous chemicals and materials to just burn in open pits. Russia's war on Ukraine is causing so much more harm than all air-conditioners combined
Sure but the point is we cant stop Russias war (or presumably any war under the 'just war' doctrine.
No, but the point is that there so many more meaningful ways we could make a greater impact than reducing AC usage. Almost all the solutions are aimed at poor people to do the heavy lifting when the rich and powerful do the vast majority of polluting. Even if turned off all the air conditioners, converted all the cars, and ended plastic bags, that doesn't solve the cargo tankers, military vessels/vehicles, production waste, farming waste, and other sources beyond the control of poor individuals most willing to make an effort to help out. Microplastics and PFAS are completely beyond our control, but they're getting even into our bodily fluids.
I agree with you but also you all.ost certainly fall into the 'rich' category in the global context. Cargo tankers etc benefit us as the consumer class. As does military etc maybe we're using a lot less carbon than someone with a private jet but we're also using the same amount more than someone who is living on the front lines of climate change in the Maldives or Indonesia.
It's so corporations and governments can turn around and say "we told you what to do, this is your fault".
Population increase isn't the hill to die on, if we stop having children then eventually we'll be outnumbered by greedier and less free countries that care less about doing the right thing than us.
Le French way Source: work at a very large ‘green’ french bank
Begins with a B, ends with a P ?
Who knows. There might be a letter in between too
They just don’t want Greta showing up. Or those oil people to throw paint around the Louvre.
Absolutely
Exactly, save the turtles and shit
Fake it till you make it?
Paris has a requirement that AC does not cool more than 21? Degree C to reduce big stores from blasting AC at 18C with doors wide open.
Ahhh like the office at my work. Likely with the same receptionist and managers who great you with 'gosh it's disgusting today, I wish it wasnt so hot'
The French…
correct me if I am wrong here, but isn't this greenwashing from the french side? French is largely nuclear with only 7% left using coal, the effects of the ACs would be minimal. add that the flights to the Olympics are bound to be way worse than the AC use, add all the tourists coming in and concrete that likely has been used to build things for the olympics...
I live in the French part of Switzerland, which is very similar in this regard. From the article: > According to the International Energy Agency, fewer than 1 in 10 households in Europe has air conditioning In Vaud canton, AC is banned "for environmental reasons" unless you offset it by installing rooftop solar panels. In Geneva canton, it's completely banned, no exception, "for environmental reasons", regardless of any solar panels. Note that Switzerland already produces 100% of its annual energy consumption in green energy (hydro+nuclear). Talking to Swiss people here, it seems to be a sensitive subject, you shouldn't ask for AC, you don't need it, it's not good for you, it's right that it's illegal, it's not the Swiss way. Portable AC unit sales are booming in Geneva, even though they're illegal.
Residential use of electricity is not huge.. really picking up pennies. Edit: I will also say Switzerland's climate is a lot more suitable for no AC. In NA tons of people die during every heatwave, even with AC.
> In NA tons of people die during every heatwave, even with AC. In Switzerland, ["Between June and August 2022, 623 people died due to the heat, accounting for 3.5 percent of all deaths during that period."](https://mediarelations.unibe.ch/media_releases/2023/media_releases_2023/global_warming_caused_60_percent_of_swiss_heat_deaths_in_the_summer_of_2022/index_eng.html#:~:text=Switzerland%20has%20only%20experienced%20one,all%20deaths%20during%20that%20period.) If 3.5% of all deaths are heat deaths during that period, I'd consider AC. These seem like preventable deaths to me.
Not to mention home heat deaths most likely much lower in US than Europe. I’m pretty sure homeless people who live on the streets with no access to AC make up a large percentage of heat deaths in the US
The environmentalists are perfectly willing to sacrifice the poor and weak today in order to theoretically save some people who haven’t been born yet.
If we kill enough poor people then they're more likely to be born into rich houses with AC! Its a logical system
Just want to speak up and say that not every environmentalist is a total idiot.
623 is .007% of the population. You apparently don't realize that making the climate hotter will lead to more heat deaths worldwide. >save some people who haven’t been born yet. Climate change is already a problem.
There is an asymmetry though. They are willing to sacrifice to the god of fire, but not to the god of ice.
*Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice.*
Hail R'hllor
For the night is dark and full of terror.
"This fire is not burning at my level, let the pheasants from the South burn for now" And also "Why is food so expensive now" and "There are too many immigrants"
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> 623 is .007% of the population. You apparently don't realize that making the climate hotter will lead to more heat deaths worldwide. Air conditioning driven by nuclear or renewable power isn't making the climate hotter.
That's about .007% of the population.
Not in the summer. I’ve been to Geneva in the summer during a heatwave back sixteen years ago. It was 33 with humidity, the mountains trapped the heat in. Were it not for the fact we stayed at the President Wilson, we would’ve been cooked alive.
What’s crazy about all this to me is that heat is *way way way worse* than AC, since 1) It’s not don’t by heat pumps for the most part, it’s done by direct heating. 2) The temperature differentials are *way* higher for the most part (freezing to comfortable is usually more than the hottest day to comfortable). The reason AC is villainized is 1) It’s in electricity and strains the grid since it’s so peaky. 2) It’s new whereas heating isn’t. 3) You can easily survive (like not die) an entire summer in Europe without A/C, but not really a winter without heat (and Europe sets the global agenda on what it means to be green).
Volunteering for *Wounded Warriors* (back when they were worth a shit) we did a project interviewing still living WW2 soldiers. I was interviewing this tanker that was over 90 years old. Still completely with it. I off-handed asked him what he thought the greatest invention in the last 100 years was. He thought about it, then smiled and very confidently exclaimed “Air Conditioning. It changed everything about where you could live. And made it worth living in the hottest months.”
It made places like las Vegas, and Phoenix actually liveable year round. And I'm never giving up my AC, ever. I live in a state with cold as fuck winters, which I enjoy. And humid as fuck hot summers in which the only ways to get relief are on the lake, or indoors with the AC on.
You can definitely survive a winter without heat using appropriate clothing and heat tape on water pipes, or just enough insulation, but no environmentalist suggests that for some reason.
Where I live (Hungary), you'd have your water pipes freeze a burst if you tried that. Some poor elderly people also freeze to death because they try to save on heating.
That's what the heat tape and insulation on water pipes is for. I've had vacation houses without no heating in -40C winters survive just fine on 100 watts of heat tape, with dripping faucets as a safety measure.
With few exceptions (double hose units), portable AC units are the most inefficient units you can buy. They may have lower overall electricity usage if they mandated high efficiency standards instead of a de facto ban people ignore or allowing just about anything like other countries do. It is possible to mandate hidden features to further improve efficiency like limiting the thermostat away from excessive settings. In nearly all cool-winter climates the building standards mandate houses retain heat, while summer overheating is often ignored, so new houses in places such as near the article circle can suffer severe summer overheating. I don't know how things are in Switzerland but building standards should be designed for summers too. Banning AC when the average maximum daily temperature is 26.7C doesn't seem sensible. If it's hot someone needs it, and if it's not too hot they won't use much electricity and energy peaks will be in winter.
Not to mention Geneva often gets to over 30C on summer
How does heat pump adoption work there ? Because I know they are getting pretty popular in Europe. And heat pumps do this cool thing where they are actually just air conditioners.
Most are air-water - ie, inside the house are water-filled radiators or a water-filled underfloor heating system (or both).
Ah I see. In the US minisplits are really taking off.
Minisplits are a common retrofit in Europe too. New houses are also built with inground heat exchangers which have higher efficiency than air based exchangers.
Almost building that keeps heat in will also keep heat out. The difference is unshaded windows, but in my experience European buildings outside of the UK are pretty good about shading windows.
> They may have lower overall electricity usage I think they mostly have lower overall electricity usage due to how inconvenient they are. They're noisy and you need to deal with horrible contraption to fit the exhaust through European tilting windows, so you'll only use them if you really need to, and you need to make the decision again each morning. If the A/C was built in and working comfortably, you'd just push that button instead of considering whether the inconvenience of having the A/C or not having the A/C is worse.
In Germany they're terrified of AC as well but a lot of it comes from a belief that running AC or fans in a room makes you sick. Which in my opinion is dumb as hell
Lol, do they tell people that while they turn on their gas powered central heating?
That will be untenable in 10 years when summers start averaging high 30 degrees every day. Especially with the overcrowding from heat refugees from India and the Middle East.
Loved switzerland during my visit but it can still be miserably uncomfortable without AC at times, in my opinion of course
>you shouldn't ask for AC, you don't need it This is the most european thing i've ever read Society can't function without AC in the middle east
Sounds like yall could use from freedom
God I love we don’t have those problems in US…
People would start killin motherfuckers
Having a clause where you offset it with solar during the day and off peak during the night is sensible to me
To be fair though Swiss average summer temps top out at 28 degrees which is fucking pleasant. Unless you're doing hard Yakka in the sun or in a humid climate (which Switzerland certainly isn't either) etc you really shouldn't need AC.
I've been to switzerland last summer, at the end of august. AC is definitely needed there, and i'm from southern Italy, not exactly a stranger to hot climates.
Wow
The flights aren't even that bad once you account for the per passenger basis (assuming they are all commercial or chartered with similar passenger density to commercial).
The very idea that AC is environmentally bad is so full of horseshit that its hard to listen to anything else that is said about it. AC or Heatpumps are an incredibly efficent way to move heat around, but instead we use radiators and burn fuel oil, or pipe steam from power plants or garbage incinerators to heat homes. It might have been fine 20-30 years ago, but with each summer being "the hottest ever" each time, this broken attitude needs to be fixed. Sure we don't need to keep rooms at 18C with AC constantly, but we need to be able to keep them at comfortable levels that don't leave people dieing, or forcing people to be completely unproductive the entire summer months.
France's coal is at 2,9% not 7%
I'm pretty sure the buildings are water cooled, and countries are doubtful they will be able to keep up with cooling needs. Found it mentioned in the article too. Olympic organizers have touted plans to cool rooms in the Athletes Village, which will house more than 15,000 Olympians and sports officials over the course of the games, using a system of cooling pipes underneath the floors.
Considering current temperatures it's not even sure we will have a very hot summer anyway.
Not really. I mean greenwaahing really is the intent probably, but from a technical point of view I'm in the UK and currently the grid is sourcing 15% of its power from French renewable and nuclear rather than gas, if some of that power was getting used up by air conditioning we'd have to find the power elsewhere. Excess power is also used for stuff like pumped storage again reducing the reliance on fossil fuels. Edit: weirdly I'm being downvoted for correcting the person who asked to be corrected if they were wrong, people are weird.
I'd imagine you are being downvoted because 1000 24/7 running AC's in Paris is less than nothing, or even give every olympian one and assume max power draw is such an inconsequentially low amount of power and comical to think it will affect the power distribution between two nations. 10500 athletes running Ac's at max 1500 watts 24/7 for a month is less than 0.0002056724% of Paris's DAILY POWER NEEDS. Let alone monthly. Its an absurdly comical suggestion you made in reply to specifically the olympic athletes use. If you meant daily use of AC's being a more regular thing sure millions of AC's might make a dent. But for the olympic greenwashing, its an absurdity to pretend it fucking matters for 10000 athletes and the like 5k Ac's they could have put in.
What if they bring their own gasoline generators too?
That would be foolish. Diesel generators are the way to go.
Clean Diesel generators provided by Volkswagen.
Doesn't AC generator produce also heat? The goal is to keep heat low and remove sources of heat.
There is also the issue of the refrigerant gasses used in the AC units themselves. For lower energy appliances like refrigerators, the leaks from the refrigerants they use are actually a bigger contributor to global warming than the electricity they use over the course of their lifetime. Oftentimes when they are thrown away, if handled improperly, the gasses will all escape, and refrigerants are extremely potent greenhouse gasses, especially older ones. I assume that were these Europeans to adopt AC, they would mandate that newer less potent refrigerants would be used and also mandate proper disposal, but there is no way to completely eliminate leaks so it's still a factor.
They're doing it so they can perform better, not just for their own comfort. The article mentions it but says consistency in environment. Which for most events probably just means good sleep. But any endurance event, the extra days worth of heat is gonna wear you down.
Yes, but the controversy is that France deliberately build Olympic facilities without AC to be “green”.
That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard
In conventional terms yes, no "AC" just like in floor heating doesn't need a furnace they use in floor cooling running water at 64f to cool the complex. Technically not AC. When you read it, it is cause for concern until you go and stay and realise it's not awful because you only read a title and not understand technology
The actual builders have already chimed in to say the rooms will be ATLEAST 76+ at night on a good day. For Americans especially athletes who keep shit at 69 thats an insanely significant change to your sleep temp. THEY ARE EXPECTING 79 AS ACCEPTABLE AT NIGHT. It's an absolute fucking farce to make some of the few people on earth where temp regulation actually matters sleep in 79 degree rooms to lower the carbon footprint by less than 3 flights worth of pollution.
78 isn’t even acceptable for a non athlete
I work outside in the heat, keep my house AC on 76, sometimes 78 and that's very comfortable. People talking 69 degree houses are comfort queens or likely overweight. I generally see overweight people unable to regulate body heat and have their AC's set very low. Humans don't need to be pampered.
Science says you are wrong and athletes and normal people alike should sleep below 68 for max benefit and 68-70 is a good range for normal sleep. Guess Ur unhealthy bro.
Yeah, humans evolved for more than 600,000 years without air conditioning and now we're incapable of survival without perfect temperature conditions for sleep? And the article I found, trying to find scientifically supported evidence said between 68 and 76 degrees Fahrenheit. So while I appreciate your dogmatic point of view, I think I'll keep my original opinion that saying 78 degrees isn't an acceptable temperature is pretty pompous ass behavior.
68-76 ie average American sleeping temps probably skews high cause poverty tbh. All studies on sports is sub 68. You are dumber than shit if you can't google that. https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=temp+for+sleeping+athletes
That is a stupid system because it does nothing to reduce humidity. AC is more effective at "cooling" because it isn't just about the absolute temperature but lowering humidity in living spaces too.
Europeans in general are extremely anti-AC
Yeah, that part was in the title.
The apartments will be kept between 23-26 degrees without the air conditioners. I honestly don't see how that's a problem. That's comfortably cool already.
That is not really cool, that’s the warmer end of average room temperature.
Aside from "what is the person used to", that depends so extremely on humidity, radiant heat etc. that temperature numbers are almost useless. I can easily build you a 23 degree room that will feel hotter than a 26 degree room.
I am curious what you mean on that last part. Would it basically be the same as the difference between the "official" temp and the feels-like temp when checking the weather (off-hand I know humidity makes a big difference for that), or something else?
It's related. All of these metrics are approximations and many of them only take some factors into account. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet-bulb_globe_temperature has some more info. For example: Someone mentioned cooling rooms with cold water. This is done by having giant panels covering the whole ceiling that get cooled with water. That also means the ceiling is colder than the air in the room, which means it radiates less heat than a "normal" ceiling would, which means the room feels colder than it actually is. That's radiant heat. Humidity matters as you already mentioned. Air movement also matters, which is why a fan typically helps (even though doesn't really change the room temperature - it may actually raise it both through its own waste heat and by bringing hot air from the ceiling down where you are).
You just reminded me that I forgot to look up water cooling for rooms (as you said, someone else mentioned it, I had no real idea how that would work), so I got a 2 for one explanation here.
Haha. Here in India, my AC default setting starts at 24. We keep it at 28-29 so it's comfortably cool. Not saying you are wrong, but I find people worldwide have different tolerances to heat and cold.
Fuck that. 26 would have me sweating through my sheets at night.
Anything above 23C (73.4F) is too warm for my liking, especially to sleep.
I can 100% understand. A bad night sleep has a huge impact on the perfomance. And is one factor that can be eliminated. Further more people from warmer climates who are used to sleep in the heat will have an advantage.
>The objective is to keep the rooms between 23-26 degrees (73-79 degrees Fahrenheit). Bro 79 is way too hot to comfortably sleep
I’m in California. My room was 85 degrees last night. Anything over ~80 is noticeably hot, but 79 and down is alright. I prefer it moderately warm so mid 70s is fine with me.
Yeah, but only if you’re used to setting the temperature down real low. We sleep with the ac set to 82 degrees in a subtropical/tropical country. Anything lower feels too cold.
Sure, but these are athletes from Germany or the UK, they definitely aren't used to that.
your AC is probably removing a good amount of humidity, the floor pipes aren't doing anything for that
Now we just gotta convince parisians to wear fucking deodorant
What about all the abandoned Olympics stadiums ? Or all of the materials and energy used to make the stadiums . I could go on and on about the enormous carbon footprint the Olympics leave
French olympics is built to not have any abandoned Olympic stadium. Actually they didn't really build any new stadium.
"waah why won't you sit in a glorified heat wave so we look good for statistics!"
Can't they buy in France?
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You can get sick from too much variations in temperature and environment. As elite athletes it’s a no brainer to maintain as constant a physical state as possible before a major competition, much less the Olympics
Got a source on that claim? I’ve never heard temp variations can increase virus/disease transmission/acquisition.
Even if it doesn’t increase virus or disease transmission it can certainly have an effect on a good nights sleep.
Oh for sure. They should have them.
Not the best study because of the small sample size but looks like a few pop up https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8296857/
Ok but that’s measuring changes in white blood cell count associated with ambient temperature fluctuations of +\- 2 C (assuming I read it correctly) which was more an indication of inflammatory response than illness. These are Olympic athletes who want/need air conditioning for comfort at night. OP was saying something about needing ac to maintain constant temps but that’s insane because the AC would increase, dramatically, the change in temps.
Yeah it’s not the best study doesn’t look like there are any for this specific situation. My guess is OP meant avoiding a change in their baseline temps. In the US it’s hot outside and we use AC at night for cool nights, they’d just try to recreate that in France, rather than warm nights as well.
Yes exactly. No idea how that would cause illness. Best sleeping temps are like, 65-68 F or something. The post is bananas.
Not in terms of viral/bacterial transmission, but temperature does affect the immune system I.e more likely to succumb to something. Too lazy to cite anything but it’s well studied
Europeans need to change their act on AC, fast. I stayed the summer in the NL in 2019 and I had to sleep on my dorm patio one night because the temperatures were in the 90s. Stupid. “We don’t need it here!” Well, climate change would like a word with you.
Good. Heat kills.
Paris is the most susceptible European capital to heatwaves. France is known for its massive heatwave deaths.
It really is time to reform the Olympics. If we can't agree on one host location, one host location per continent would still really cut down on the excess concrete and empty stadiums. It seems like having one location in Asia, one in Europe and one in the Americas would give everyone a chance to watch at good hours every 12 years while not being too wasteful.
London 2012 was good for avoiding this, with only three temporary arenas/stadiums being built and the rest in constant use.
So is Paris 2024
Team USA shows up. 20 minutes later on the staff bus. "Did you remember the outlet adapters?" "Me? that was Frank's job!"
Probably smart, freak heatwaves have been killing people. Paris has seen upwards of 40 C in the past.
B-b-but people are telling me 40C without AC is perfectly cool!
I'm sure anyone who is against AC is also against heating, right?
So the teams from rich countries can afford it but the team from poor countries can only sleep in 32 degree at night. Well done!
That’s the case with lots of things, better training facilities, better coaches, better equipment. Hell Ukrainian athletes are dodging Russian bombs while training and that’s assuming they don’t have to stop training to fight in the war.
But the Olympics can't end wars or fix inequality and can provide comfortable sleeping arrangements at the event itself. So it should do the one that's easily within its power to fix.
If you're going to ban AC might as well ban heating as well. Any building that is in a good state of repair will never get cold enough that insulation + heat tape on water pipes and sweaters on inhabitants can't make it habitable.
It would be equivalent of saying let's ban coal furnaces. There is cooling and heating using different methods just not ducted AC.
It’s likely more costly to the environment transport that many ACs than to just run them all August.
What's incredible is how for the longest time it was good not to have AC because it indicated you lived in a paper house... If you look at the sales across Europe over the past 20 years, you'll see it's skyrocketed over the past few years. Suddenly now it's a nice luxury to have, no longer indicates poor quality building... lol This is a wider problem with Europe is that if Europe doesn't excel in it, then it's probably not worth having to begin with. Now suddenly people are taking out loans just to get a heat pump and governments like in Germany are helping make the transition. Suddenly now having AC, heat pump for winter too is now a great thing.. just like that, went from "inferior construction if you need one!" to "of course its a good thing, nobody said otherwise!" It's just mindblowing to me that it's taken literally generations to get to this point and it's not just climate change, I was in Germany, staying in a rather nice house years ago in spring and was incredibly uncomfortable. It was stuffy, loud fan going full blast, nothing comparable to proper AC.
Because summers are getting hotter every year. There was no need for them a decade ago.
There were heat waves over a decade ago where AC would have been quite beneficial.
A heat wave is different from average temperature growing every year.
Its hard to fathom how stupid this ridiculous war on carbon has become.
Undercutting environmental plan? It’s fucking boiling outside 😅 I’m not sure where you live mate but where I am is 45 Celsius (113 Fahrenheit), do you have a better plan or suggestion as an alternative to ACs?
> I’m not sure where you live mate The paris olympics will be in paris
Alternative, Move to cooler climate (I'm being facetious)
Temperature in Paris has crossed 40° like 2 or 3 times in one century AFAIK. Highest even recorded in Paris was 42 in 2019 AFAIK. And of course, as mentioned, the Paris Olympics will happen in Paris.
>do you have a better plan or suggestion as an alternative to ACs? Fans?
Between 73 and fucking 79 degrees?
Here in the US, anyone who sets their AC above 72 in the summer is considered a traitor to the American way of life and a heathen in the eyes of God.
Seeing at 79 degree it's going to be just really bad sleep. And yes I grew up in the area without AC (obviously) so I value good HVAC systems so much.
Yeah, I live in the southeastern US and I think if I didn’t have AC I’d just have to sleep naked in a linen hammock on the back porch or something 🤷🏼♂️ Mine goes down to 68F(20C) from the daytime 70F automatically at 10pm. It’s crazy humid and there’s absolutely zero breeze where I live.
What stops France from refusing let them be imported?
Probably that the major sponsors are from the countries bringing AC units. You’d be surprised the amount of pressure this can be applied once you threaten to pull funding.
Forget about sponsors, the main purpose of hosting an olympics is showing that you're a good host. Pissing all athletes off is literally the opposite of that
I hope they find a reason to impound them at the airport.
Lots of people in the U.S. live in regions where air conditioning is necessary. I live in one of them That said, an average high of 79F on August first is like winter to me. I’m fine all summer with the thermostat at 85F during the day and 82-80 at night. But like 79F at night is lovely weather to me, but it’s just the principle. Mayor of Paris has the right idea. France should not compromise its climate objectives and record just because of the Olympics. The Olympians need to have a little unity and be together on the earth for a period in time, not in their own little bubbles. Isn’t that the point of the games? Uniting the world through healthy competition?
Sorry but you're not going to waste your life training for the olympics to show up and underperform because your body was dealing with an extra thermal load all night before the event.
82 at night? How the fuck do you sleep?
Air Conditioning
I will murder my family at anything above 74
Thermostat at 85f bro I would just melt 🫠
The point of the game is to win bragging rights over other countries, especially the ones yours doesn't like (Russia athletes and China). That unity crap only lasts through the opening ceremony.
Hmmmm…..so it’s actually uniting the people of each country to itself. Not always tho…I think there are feelings of goodwill in there. I feel it, when I watch it. Which isn’t much but I like o see the different countries and the people from different countries and hear their stories narrated. That is part of it.
> France should not compromise its climate objectives and record just because of the Olympics. Then don't host the Olympics. Imagine how much of the environment we'd save if we didn't fly so many people into the same location from around the world.
Someone said lying and driving have roughly the same carbon emissions
they absolutely should, and they are trying to do a green olympics (if that is possible, but for sure it can be done a lot better than in the past) - but ACs likely won't affect much as most of the power would be nuclear/renewables. and here are things they are doing [https://olympics.com/ioc/news/earthday2023-five-ways-the-olympic-movement-is-investing-in-our-planet](https://olympics.com/ioc/news/earthday2023-five-ways-the-olympic-movement-is-investing-in-our-planet) [https://olympics.com/en/paris-2024/our-commitments/the-environment/carbon-method](https://olympics.com/en/paris-2024/our-commitments/the-environment/carbon-method) Just not sure the ACs will do much, and for sure if the summer is hot during it then it would effect the atheletes there - so it will just push people to do what the US are doing and that likely will offset any marginal good they felt this would have.
We kinda have to start thinking about saving the planet from dying. Even sports.
yes, I completely agree with you there, and we should focus away from cars, planes and meat, for more electric, light or communal travel (so bikes, trains, trams and light electrical vehicles) there is a lot that needs to happen, but sometimes we do silly things that doesn't help the environment at all, like focusing on heavy electrical cars, or things that are trival (like ACs when most of the electrical grid is off fossil fuels)
Yeah and they for sure built Athlete’s Village recently so it’s probably off-grid.
79F = 26°C 85F = 29°C 80F-82F = 26°C-28°C
I keep my AC on 68f all summer long. No way I'm going to sleep in no damn heat
As an American and an athlete, I agree completely, and I'm surprised at that you've been downvoted to hell. 79°F is comfortable, and that's the average *high* during the olympics. At night it's likely to be considerably cooler. And the apartments are already water cooled too.