Mon May 3, 2021 Some parts of the United States are uninhabitable without air conditioning. And even in major cities, before air conditioning became widely available, people slept on balconies and fire escapes in stifling heat. Beyond comfort, the lack of air conditioning in Europe has killed thousands. Mostly the elderly. "Do Americans Need Air-Conditioning?" a New York Times piece asked in July. Air conditioning, it argued, is bad for the environment and makes us less human. It ran quotes suggesting that, "first world discomfort is a learned behavior", and urging "a certain degree of self-imposed suffering". Temperatures in Paris hit 108.6 degrees. Desperate Frenchmen dived into the fountains of the City of Lights with their clothes on. Parisian authorities announced that they were deploying heat wave management plan orange, level three, which meant setting up foggers in public parks and distributing heat wave kits. The kits consist of leaflets telling people to go to libraries which have air conditioning.