US Olympic and other teams will bring their own AC units to the Paris Olympics

[just444]

US Olympic and other teams will bring their own AC units to Paris, undercutting environmental plan https://t.co/qk8oVurm3D
- The Associated Press (@AP) June 22, 2024

sourceTo cut carbon emissions the olympic village in Paris does not have air conditioning

Comments

[truth_and_facts]

Umm, if it's gonna be too hot then yeah, they shouldn't have to be miserable and sweaty just because. As someone that lives in a hot hot region, it can get really miserable and even down right depressing.
Hopefully whatever they bring is energy efficient.

[melancolour]

to be clear, doing something for climate change / reduce emissions is not "just because"

[truth_and_facts]

It is "just because", because 1. France mostly uses nuclear power 2. Why invite people to come over and compete in highly stressful environment and then have them be suffering in the heat, they could try to cut emissions elsewhere, make use of electric mass transport, reduction in plastic usage, etc.

[melancolour]

I doubt either of us are informed enough to speak about the increase of emissions that have actually been modeled because this olympic village having / not having AC. People whose job it was made an informed decision, and unless you have actual specific facts to speak against it, then you should trust that decision makers were coming from an informed place. What would be an amount of carbon saved that would make it worth it? How will the villages be used in the future, and what would be the increased amount of carbon associated with the changes in construction that putting it in would involve? Do you actually know they aren't using electric mass transit or no single use items?

I stand by my point that it's not "just because", and unless you actually are deeply familiar with this site, I don't think it's right to just handwave away environmental benefit. People constantly dismiss environmental impact for convenience, that's how we got here.

[truth_and_facts]

I may not have all the details about this current plan and what the numbers look like and what other places they've tried to cut emissions, but I have worked on many projects where people have misplaced priorities that lead to an inefficient and even positive net emission. Now people are going to bring their own ACs which are probably not as energy efficient as if the organizers had done it themselves.
You may see it as "conveniences" but the athletes and their trainers it is an absolute necessities. Having athletes and others work and perform high intensity activities in the heat and then not having the relief of returning to cooler place is not "convenience", it's a health necessity.

[melancolour]

Again, we don't know enough about how these buildings perform in high temperatures to say how it will actually be for athletes. What we do know is that not all countries are setting their athletes up with this, and the Paris folks literally deemed it unnecessary. So it's pretty much by definition a convenience.

Absolutely this could backfire, but neither of us actually has enough information to say, and any valid critique of specific decisions made still places their decision outside of being "just because". For example, their decisions could be "misguided " or "counter productive". But again, it's not ok to frame environmentally driven decisions as "just because".

[soavantgarde]

If I’ve learned anything the past 15 years, it’s to not trust the decision makers to do the right thing lmfao.

[melancolour]

Loool yeah but it's hard to critique when we're coming from a place of total ignorance.

[acidosaur]

yeah, anti-intellectualism has worked out so well for us, hasn't it.

[soavantgarde]

I missed when the Olympics committee all became climate experts! I wonder if they’ll touch base with FIFA for the next world cup

[saraken]

Even if they use nuclear power, ACs contribute to global warming because they emit greenhouse gases (HFCs and CFCs).

[sillyskinny]

"Fewer than 1 in 10 households in Europe have air conditioning, even less in Paris"

Clearly, it's doable.

[truth_and_facts]

Sure, people living there have gotten used to it, like I've gotten to the heat here, but invited outsiders shouldn't be obliged to deal with it. This isn't some tourists deciding to take a tour of a country, they literally invited them to come, and part of the deal is to provide a conducive environment for the them to perform in the games.

[ionadelfina]

Europe has more heat related deaths per capita than the US though

[itsalanisbitch]

every year a heat wave kills a bunch of people in Europe cause they don’t have ac so…

It’s just gonna get worse with climate change. Isn’t France mostly nuclear power? lol this is just for grandstanding tbh

[anydoppelganger]

Much of Western Europe simply doesn't get anywhere near as hot, for as sustained a time, as most of the United States. And even then, as people point out, thousands of Europeans die when they do experience heat waves.

Their countries have much milder climates (both winters and summers) compared to American states that sit at much lower latitudes. Think about the early colonialists who got their asses kicked because they were expecting a Spanish climate when they arrived in the New World.

Let's compare Paris's climate to a few representative cities in the U.S. -- I'll pick some of the most populous cities in the country, in different regions.

[Spoiler (click to open)]
In Fahrenheit:

Measure Paris Philadelphia Phoenix Chicago Houston Boston

Daily Average low temp (for coldest month) 36 27 46 22 47 24
Daily Average High Temp (for hottest month) 76 86 106 82 94 82
Average coldest hourly temperature (for coldest month) 32 below 15 32 below 15 32 below 15
Average hottest hourly temperature (for hottest month) 85 above 95 above 95 85 above 95 85

Same