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SP's avatar

At least religious people believe in a life after death for their self-imposed suffering. Euros suffer all this for what exactly? Too feel superior to Americans. Lmao.

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Roberto Artellini's avatar

It is not our fault if we live on a continent with a temperate climate while you yanks live in cities built on the desert. I understand that for the average yanktard having AC is like having golden sofa for romas, now you can go back to slaughtering over the Cracker Barrel logo in silence.

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Adrian's avatar

Cool, well happy to have made the comment then. I like the sentiment of 'sympathetic urbanism'. That's a nice turn of phrase.

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P4Freedom Girl's avatar

Is AC really right/left issue? I don't like AC as it is not good for health, same as I hate artificial ventilation in huge office buildings. Germs incubators ;) Regarding some solutions to heat: siesta :), return to beautiful and functional architecture that works well with the changing seasons.

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Ken Kovar's avatar

Ac would kill the cafe culture of France so please don’t adopt it 😎

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Ruben Cober's avatar

Very clear argument. Besides, there can be no growth without discomfort!! Europeans must develop the growth mindset!

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Adrian's avatar

Love to see you writing about this Sam. It is a subject near and dear to my heart. A few important elements to consider in addition: a city with additional green space and trees is not only cooler but has significantly more capacity to absorb water. As rains get more intense this will ability is key for lessening massive damage from flooding. Finding room for green space and trees in a packed city is difficult. We can't tear down buildings to out up a park. So what's the lowest value land in a city? On street parking. Cooling cities as you describe will require a massive reduction in in street parking and it will be a hell of a battle. We need a big investment in public transport and bike lanes (both of which move many more people per M2 than cars) to free up more space for these kind of interventions. The cities that do this well will flourish. The cities that don't will whither. And if we do succeed in the broad greening of our cities what will be the impact on the car industry? I can imagine they will fight these efforts tooth and nail.

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Sam Wilkin's avatar

Thanks! In fact it was your post on LinkedIn that directed me to the Energy Cities piece, which was really informative. I agree that all these issues are linked, and that once you start down the path of sympathetic urbanism then one thing should flow naturally into another. Whereas a selfish urbanism model, for want of a better term - represented first and foremost by the private car - makes everything more difficult.

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