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november 04, 2021
essay | shutters won’t stop france’s lethal summer heat
my four siblings and i have been struggling to stay cool in the summertime ever since i can remember. from waking up multiple times a night to take a cold shower, to physically fighting each other over the three fans available at our house on the outskirts of paris, our summers were always restless.
why don’t we have ac, you might ask? because it just isn’t that popular. in 2019, less than a fourth of households in france were equipped with at least one air conditioning system, compared to 90% of households in the united states at that time.
but temperatures will continue to rise until at least 2050. how will we be able to cope?
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editor’s note: check back each day during cop26 for more pieces in planet forward’s climate hits home series.
