VICTOR JOECKS: Las Vegas shows how Europe can stay cool

Heat isn’t the only factor in the number of heat-related deaths.

A recent midsummer heat wave in Europe killed around 2,300 people in just 12 cities. A new study blamed 1,500 of those deaths on global warming. Human-caused carbon emissions, the study claims, increased temperatures by up to 4 degrees Celsius, which is 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit, leading to increased mortality.

Heat deaths aren’t a new phenomenon in Europe. One study claimed Europe had more than 61,000 heat-related deaths in 2022. Another report estimated that more than 47,000 people in Europe died from heat in 2023.

Those numbers are staggeringly high.

“According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around 700 people (in the United States) die heat-related deaths each year,” CNN reported in 2023.

Some years are worse than others. In 2023, there were more than 2,300 U.S. deaths connected to excessive heat, The Associated Press reported. Clark County reported more than 400 deaths in 2024 in which heat was a contributing factor.

These aren’t apples-to-apples datasets, but there’s an obvious takeaway: Europe has far more heat-related deaths than America.

Because we live in a city where summer temperatures routinely surpass 110, it makes you wonder how hot it is across the Atlantic. Consider Paris. The recent heat wave shut down more than 1,000 schools and even the Eiffel Tower. According to AccuWeather, the hottest day in Paris this summer was July 1. The temperature topped out at 101 with a low of 70.

That’s hot for Paris. But that’s a cool summer day here. Las Vegas’ high on July 1 was 103. Through Wednesday, there have been 16 days in July when the high temperature surpassed 101. That includes a stretch from July 7 to July 15 where the lowest high temperature was 107. On two days, it hit 111.

See if you can figure out this paradox. Paris came to a virtual standstill when it experienced temperatures Las Vegans don’t think twice about.

The biggest reason is air conditioning. It’s ubiquitous in Las Vegas. If the AC goes out in a rented house or apartment, the landlord has just 48 hours to fix it.

It’s different in Europe. Paris schools closed because they don’t have AC. Just a quarter of homes in France have this cooling option. That number drops to 5 percent in the United Kingdom and just 3 percent in Germany.

The obvious solution to Europe’s heat waves is to install more AC. But many European leaders oppose doing so because it would increase carbon emissions. That path leads to tens of thousands of needless deaths and no noticeable change in global temperatures.

The weather is not an all-powerful villain that humanity — like a damsel in distress — is powerless to resist. We can and already have adapted. As Bjorn Lomborg has written, climate-related deaths have dropped by 99 percent over the past century.

A city can survive and even thrive when it hits triple digits. Just look at Las Vegas.

Victor Joecks’ column appears in the Opinion section each Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Contact him at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on X.