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- Hacker News
- I love a good self referenceby mikelitoris
- me!
- yeah. lets plan the conference in one of the hottest weeks in the year and then cancel it due to hot weather.
Well ... it speaks for their competence. It's like creating a Teams meeting about classified security issues on Windows 95 systems...
by sazz - I didn't realize "hottest week of the year" in the UK was predictable enough that you could plan your conference schedule around it.
Is there a known week during which nobody should plan any events at all now?
by simonw - Unlike all of the things referenced in the Alanis Morrisette song, this is actually ironicby kochikame
- However, by calling her song "Ironic" when it doesn't discuss actual irony is itself ironic.by ndsipa_pomu
- Recently - from YT recommended - I learned about Glauber's salt (sodium sulfate).
Glauber's salt is a PCM phase-change material that melts at 90F / 32.4C and starts absorbing thermal energy.
by westurner - So calling for the conference and cancelling it raises awareness of extreme heat? Well playedby kiriberty
- It's extreme heat because there's a strong moral opposition and infrastructure immaturity when it comes to air conditioning. Look no further than France where there's even air conditioning in trains but they keep it borderline off, and where nursing homes and hospitals don't have A/C.
It's a mix of cheapness, climate change as things got hotter, and the unfortunate influence of Green types who believe in suffering.
by mancerayder - Sitting here in central London on the day of the conference it seems a bit wimpy to me. Max today is 34C which is hot but not life threatening. Some trains may be delayed but they do that all the time. I assume the LSE library is aircon. Most such buildings are these days.
You'd think a bit of heat would be a bonus given the topic.
by tim333 - I find it unintentionally hilarious to see our weather reporting channel (Weather Network in Canada) constantly ringing the "extreme weather warning" bell! They manage to have an alert or warning at least every week. In the winter, -10C is extreme cold; in the summer 34C is extreme heat. The words have lost meaning to me along with old advertising terms like "premium."
34C is hot and it's legitimately difficult to work indoors without AC, but there are probably people in London working outdoors in the sun.
Air conditioners can be had for as little as $150CAD.
- Europeans don’t get scolded enough for their resistance to air conditioning. In terms of accounting for preventable deaths, Greece has 2x more heat-related deaths per capita annually than Mississippi has gun deaths.
By comparison, the worst US state for heat related deaths, Nevada - a literal desert - has >10x fewer deaths per capita than Greece.
by lwansbrough - Do you have any source for that? Most people in Greece have ACs on their homes and virtually all public buildings and private businesses do as well.
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/07/15/these-eu-count...
by Vasbarlog - Genuine question: Do we have data that collaborates the theory that AC's prevent heat deaths and it's not due to confounding variables like the air in Nevada being dryer (dry heat is more bearable than wet heat) or the people in Nevada having year round higher temperatures and just being more acclimated?
Has been on my "to research" list for a while. I agree with you that Europeans should stop being so stingy with AC (speaking as an European who still hasn't an AC, but not much longer), but I do wonder how much they actually do to prevent heat deaths.
Because, how many heat deaths happen at home where people would potentially have AC? As far as I can tell (pre researching it) most, if not all, heat deaths I am aware of, happen outside. So the question would be: What is the effect of having a cool 22C home in regards to suffering heat deaths outside. Does it make it better, because your body can cool down? Does it maybe make it worse, because you step into a harsh difference when leaving it? (The last one is probably an easy no, since plenty of countries with high AC rate don't seem to have that issue).
(Or just general damages from heat, not just heat deaths)
by traxler - Air conditioning only works for things inside of buildings. Not so good for the plants and animals our lives depend on.
And it raises the heat outside of buildings. Not so good for people who have to be outside, think first responders etc.
"just turn on the AC and keep burning the world down" isn't really the answer.
- The US is generally much closer to the equator and warmer than Europe, hence air conditioning has been a requirement for much longer.
https://vividmaps.com/comparing-latitude-of-europe-and-ameri...
US states like Texas and Florida have no latitude equivalent in Europe. Los Angeles is farther south than all of Spain.
At the same time, the UK, much of Germany, and Poland are farther north than any state in the US lower 48.
by jerlam - The most bizarre thing to me is that here in the Netherlands I can get a subsidy for a heat pump if it heats radiators, but not if it’s a multi split air to air heat pump. Because the latter also happens to be an air conditioner. It makes no sense.
And then the same people who moralise air conditioning will burn tons of gas all winter for heat.
Oh, and sensible design choices like eaves that block light from windows in summer are blocked by planners in many cases, bizarrely. The houses are brick ovens.
Anyway I got AC installed here in Utrecht last week, really enjoying it
by CalRobert - I live in Las Vegas and one year at the start of summer my AC went out. It took a week to order the part needed and make the fix. I lived out of casinos for that week (using HotelTonight to get a different place each night) and it was pretty fun. I gained 10lbs. That said, AC's are a necessity out here.by dylanz
- Living in London and Dublin, what I've observed is that we get the following contradictory statements:
- "We don't need AC, It's only hot a few times during the year." - "Oh what a terrible heat, global warming is getting worse every year."
Pair to that the fact that in many places windows don't open all the way due to bureocratic regulations and many interior designs are very questionable in terms of air flow and you get some unpleasant scenarios.
by alexhans - Well yeah, because it requires re-engineering the entire built environment!
Heat waves only became a serious problem in Europe in the last decade. The vast majority of buildings predate the need for air conditioning by several decades - and in plenty of cases by several centuries. The buildings are designed around being livable in a pre-climate-catastrophe climate without needing air conditioning - which is perfectly achievable if you aren't stupid enough to build a city in the middle of a desert.
Adapting all those buildings and streets will take time. Blindly putting AC everywhere and forcing everyone to drive from building to building in an ACed car isn't going to work, that kind of wasteful behavior is how we got into this situation in the first place. You need to redesign the heat management, and you need to start with things like mandating shades to prevent heat from entering buildings in the first place, and planting trees to avoid the heat island effect.
AC will indeed be needed to deal with the final heat peak when outside night temperature is in excess of 30C, but it isn't the one-size-fits-all solution for every heat-related problem it might seem at first glance. If your AC needs to run for more than a few days per year, you've seriously screwed up.
by crote - Reminds me of "dermatology convention in Hawaii": https://youtube.com/shorts/1uRxIe1dXGUby zaik
- The dowside of hosting your conference in exquisitly beautifull old locations is that they have no airco.
While well managed traditional cooling management can keep them pleasant enough, this would require light programme adaptations, basically shifting to starting early morning - noon, covering the glass dome, and night ventilation, but that seems to be more insurmountable than cancelling.
Apparently the LSE does have airco spaces, but these aren't as inspirationally nice it seems.
by PeterStuer - > Hosted in collaboration with the Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance.
Their climate resilience seems low.
> The event will finish with a fire side chat
Is this a prank?
by delichon - Maybe an "ice cream social" would be better.by pkaye
- A fire side chat does not mean there will be an actual fire
It's corpo speak for "a more casual discussion"
- "Extreme Heat" seems to be 37-40 degrees Celsius which is bafflingly mundane to me as an Australian who grew up in rural New South Wales. We'd pack 30 kids and a teacher into an un-airconditioned classroom with just a ceiling fan and the windows open in that temperature.
I imagine the buildings there just aren't built to support that heat plus the body height of hundreds or thousands of attendees?
- And that was after running around a semi-arid playground playing 'tips' or touch footy during recess and lunch!by nomilk
- I guess it's different if you are used to it. 40 degrees is absolutely not normal here. Even 35 is very unusual.by kuerbel
- 40C in the Atlantic Spain with the Foehn effect (weather for today and tomorrow) would make 30C in Australia a joke.
The humidity here it's hell. You feel 35C like ~42C in dry climates.
by anthk - Euro buildings are built to keep heat in. Aus buildings are leaky tents.by human305893