Europe’s Trains, Nuclear Plants and Factories Can’t Take the Heat Either
The devastating heat wave has exposed weaknesses in the continent’s infrastructure, much of it built for a cooler climate that no longer exists.
Train networks across Western Europe were snarled by heat that threatened to buckle tracks.
Several nuclear reactors in France shuttered or slowed because the cooling water they were discharging into rivers was getting too hot. Museums curtailed hours because they [couldn’t control the heat].
At a French auto plant, union leaders called for a strike, saying conditions on the factory floor had become excruciating. And electricity outages knocked out power for hundreds of thousands in France and Italy.
The heat seeped through thick-walled apartments and turned cities into hotboxes that couldn’t cool at night. Sleep-deprived Europeans staggered into parks after midnight, or joined in frenzies to buy portable air-conditioning units, or even sought refuge in hotels.
A recent report from Allianz, the German financial and insurance company, singled out Italy, France, Germany and Spain as among the “most exposed economies" to economic losses from heat. The insufficient infrastructure has deadly consequences.
Here’s an interesting part:
Europe has been warming at the rate of 1 degree Fahrenheit per decade — meaning infrastructure is facing stresses that would have been unthinkable when built. Train tracks are at particular risk, because heat can make them expand and buckle.
The article mentions a phrase I had not heard before: the Tragedy of the Horizons: You need to spend a lot now to avoid costs in the future. Especially when train travel can’t be had, nuclear plans have to shut down because they can’t be cooled, and homes and workplaces are too hot to be occupied.
But I guess it’s cooler if you keep your head in the sand?
We have similar problems that go unreported in the US and Canada. I wonder if Canada is also seeing rising temperatures by a degree F per decade being to the north.
Coincidence, in August I will be in Spain for two weeks. We are taking a car from Madrid to Bilbou instead of the train. Good to think that is the better move.
The spending involved in global warming does not create profit centers directly.
I wonder how European home building materials will affect the health impacts of the heat.
In my travels around Europe, I observed only masonry houses (including building sites with piles of masonry bricks) never an American-style wood-frame house. I guess this is due to their building codes since many European cities had widespread fires.
Masonry homes dampen temperature fluctuations. They are designed for a cooler climate. Most don’t have air conditioning. If they heat up during the day they won’t cool down quickly at night.
It’s easy to dress warmly if you’re cold. But if you’re too hot, especially at night, it’s hard to sleep. This has especially bad impacts on seniors. Some European cities are opening air-conditioned libraries, museums, and public parks as overnight climate shelters to give vulnerable residents a place where their bodies can finally cool down and rest.
To make this Macroeconomic - the tourist industry brings billions of euros. Many towns rely on tourism as the foundation of their economy. The blistering heat will drive away tourists. Why visit Paris, Barcelona or Rome if miserable heat is added to long lines and swarms of tourists? Even a professional tourist like @OrmontUS is heading north this summer after suffering the heat during his last European visit.
As for me, I’m wearing a light sweater today since our heat wave last week (which topped out at 80 degrees) has reverted to our normal PNW weather. No way would I leave my cool corner of the world between June and September.
It’s due to America abandoning brick houses, not that AI agrees with me.
European cities did mandate masonry and brick construction in response to historical fires, but America hasn’t abandoned brick houses
. Today, over 90% of new American single-family homes are built with wood framing, a choice driven by vast historical timber reserves, industry path dependence, and its flexibility during earthquakes. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
The differences in how the two continents build stem from a few key historical and economic factors:
Material Availability (The “Abundance Factor”): Early European settlers in North America found a continent covered in old-growth forests. Wood was abundant, free, and lightweight. Conversely, much of Europe was deforested centuries ago for shipbuilding and fuel, forcing a transition to brick, stone, and concrete. [1, 2, 3, 4]
Industrial Optimization: In the 1830s, America developed “balloon framing” (using mass-produced nails and standardized lumber). This system made building fast and affordable for semi-skilled laborers. The entire American supply chain, construction workforce, and financial model is still optimized for this method. [1, 2, 3, 4]
Durability vs. Flexibility: European masonry homes offer high thermal mass and are built to last for generations. American wood-frame homes are designed to flex and absorb shock during seismic events. Furthermore, the hollow cavities in wood-frame walls are ideal for holding thick layers of modern insulation needed for extreme continental temperature swings. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Modern European Construction: While masonry remains dominant, modern building codes in places like QP Savills Insights are prompting a resurgence in timber-frame construction due to sustainability and energy efficiency
I grew up in a two story brick house in Caracas. When decades later the house was demolished I saw the walls were two solid bricks thick. I remember someone asking if we had air conditioning, the house was so cool compared to outside temperature. I think it was built before hollow bricks became common..
Thermal mass-dirt stone & concrete absorb, store, and release heat & cold which can help regulate indoor temperatures. Thick walls delay heat and cold transfer to the interior.
Old structures in New Mexico have 2 Adobe brick thickness measuring 1 foot thick walls.
Thermal mass is a cornerstone of passive solar design, allowing buildings to utilize solar energy for heating and cooling.
Heat deaths in the U.S. have risen by over 50% since you first posted that study at tmf in 2015, and by over 30% in Europe. And that is only a small part of the overall damage, but I vowed long ago not to play the Cherry Picked Stats game with inexhaustible internet warriors.
Your chart does show the national trend in heat waves since 2015, but still omits the disproportionate impact of heat and heat waves on the south: Southeast
Come to think of it, letting people move to increasingly hot infernos is the ultimate expression of free will. Go for it.
That’s an outstanding concept…as long as the temperatures stay within the normal limits the designers expected. If the thermal mass heats up to a higher temperature than expected it will radiate it higher and longer than expected.
I’ve compiled the overarching historical data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the EPA from 1999 through recent years to map out how these death rates have evolved.
It also said
A Note on the Metrics: These numbers track official death certificates where extreme cold or heat was specifically listed by medical professionals as the underlying or contributing cause. Many epidemiologists note that both metrics are likely undercounted, as extreme temperatures frequently exacerbate fatal cardiovascular or respiratory failures without the weather link being explicitly documented on the final record.
Presumably this caveat is true for all data compilations.
No need to cherry pick; there are lots of studies from lots of countries. Here’s one from three months ago:
How about Europe? The researchers write “Across the 854 urban areas in Europe, we estimated an annual excess of 130,228 deaths attributed to cold and 13,589 attributed to heat.”
Of deaths registered in the period, 6.5 percent were found to have been caused by nonoptimal temperatures, with 5.72 percent caused by cold and 0.84 percent caused by heat.
Did you notice that the Lancet study was a republication of a study ending in 2019? I am thinking that you are in fact searching far and wide to cherry pick studies that cannot change the fact that temperatures are rising worldwide and at an accelerating rate.
King Abdullah University may be a real thing, but I don’t intend to look it up.
That is, shall we say, a topic of some uncertainty. As the linked NOAA article notes right off the bat, “Currently, certain hypotheses that establish Arctic amplification as a contributor to more severe winter weather, like the record-cold Texas temperatures in February 2021, have ignited intense debates among climate scientists.”
At any rate, excess winter mortality is found far from the Arctic – Brazil, India, Taiwan, Australia, etc.
