With Germany in the midst of a record heatwave, the country’s state-owned media is pushing a campaign against air conditioning.
The German broadcaster Westdeutsche Rundfunk (WDR) “warns that air conditioning systems add to global warming. By 2050, the Earth could warm by 0.05 degrees,” Germany’s Apollo News reported on Friday. “What Cools us Down Heats the Planet,” WDR’s science platform Quark declared.
The campaign is being rolled out as Germany faces a record-breaking summer. “For the third consecutive day, a new record high temperature has been measured in Germany,” the radio station Deutschlandfunk reported Sunday. “The extreme heat continues to cause disruptions to daily life.”
The intensifying heatwave wreaks havoc on the highways and sparks multi-state wildfires across the country. “The heat is damaging infrastructure, including asphalt and concrete surfaces on the Autobahn, ” the radio broadcaster continued. “Wildfires broke out … in several states, including Saxony-Anhalt, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Bavaria.”
Germany’s leftists and Green politicians have long been railing against the ills of air conditioning in the age of “climate change.” However, campaigning against air conditioning will only make the Left and the Greens more unpopular, German commentators fear.
The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) is approaching a record-breaking 30 percent in the latest opinion polls. The Party’s common-sense approach to air-conditioning will only boost its support in the upcoming East German state elections.
“We must not leave [the issue of] air conditioning to the right [-wing parties],” German weekly Die Zeit noted. “As temperatures rise, the Left and the Greens warn about the future [of the planet], while the right[-wingers] promise people air conditioning.”
“Are all air conditioners power guzzlers?” German state broadcaster ARD asked and answered in the affirmative. According to the state-run news outlet, selfishly cooling your home could be a “climate killer.”
“Air conditioning units require electricity and release the heat removed from indoor spaces outside. This can cause the surrounding environment to heat up even further. For Paris, researchers calculated that during a heatwave, the waste heat from numerous air conditioners can locally increase the city’s outdoor temperature by several additional degrees,” the broadcaster added.
Similar climate madness is being reported in Britain. On Thursday, the London-based GB News reported that “Britons have been ordered to remove air conditioning from their homes — despite the country baking in up to 40C heat this week — under a fresh Net Zero crackdown.”
Not to be outdone in hypocrisy, the EU top brass in Brussels has also ordered staff to turn off their cooling units while keeping their own offices air-conditioned, Politico reported Friday:
The European Commission’s headquarters was forced to shut down its air-conditioning system on Friday due to the heat wave.Staff working at the Berlaymont building received a text at midday, reading: “BERL — URGENT —Due to extreme weather conditions, forced shut down of air cooling system from floor 1 to 7 for the rest of the day.”The 13-story building is home to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, her 26 commissioners and about 3,000 staff. Von der Leyen works on the 13th floor, and most of her commissioners’ offices are housed on floors eight or above.
Germany has one of the lowest rates of air conditioning in Europe. “Around 90% of people living in the U.S. have air conditioning at home, according to the US Department of Energy. In Europe, which has a similar climate, that figure is only about 20%, though it does vary across the continent … in Germany it’s around just 6%,” Germany’s state-run DW TV reported earlier this week.
Rising energy costs and strict housing regulations have worsened the crisis. Germany’s green energy policy has resulted in soaring electricity prices, making them the highest in the European Union. “Many houses and apartments in Germany and other parts of northern Europe were designed to keep heat in during colder months, but not for maximum cooling when it gets hot,” the German state TV added. “Cost is another factor holding many Europeans back from installing air conditioning. Rising energy prices are making it expensive to beat the heat, and 38% of people in an EU-wide survey said they could not afford to keep their home cool.”
Seeking relief from rising temperatures, Germans are challenging strict public bathing laws. In Berlin, protests erupted against the swimming ban in the Spree River. “The heat also led several hundred people in Berlin last weekend to take part in a new protest against the blanket ban on swimming in the River Spree through the city center,” Spanish newspaper El País reported. “About 500 people, according to the Flussbad Berlin association, plunged into the water on Saturday to call for an end to the 101-year ban on bathing in that stretch of the river, which was imposed at the time because of increasing water pollution.”
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