If you want to take our AC, you'll have to pry it from our cold dead hands...emphasis on cold.
The summer Olympics are coming up, taking place next month in Paris, France. And of course, one of the differences between the United States and Europe is that here in America, we love our air conditioning.
Over in Europe, fewer than 1 in 10 households has air conditioning, but here in the good ol' USA, it's pretty much unheard of to not have AC unless you're living up north. (There are an estimated 375 million AC units in America - more than the US population. Damn I love this country).
Well, Paris is trying to do everything they can to make the 2024 Olympics environmentally friendly - including not providing AC units in the housing for the athletes.
Now, it's not going to be some big heat wave over there. The average temperature in Paris around that time is 26 degrees Celsius, or 79 degrees Fahrenheit. But still, as someone who keeps his house at a crisp 68 degrees year round, that's basically like sleeping in a desert.
The Olympic committee plans to cool the rooms in Athletes Village using a system of cooling pipes under the floor, and by providing fans, in order to keep the rooms between 73-79 degrees.
But that's not good enough for America.
Instead, Team USA plans to bring their own AC units to make sure our athletes are as comfortable as possible to compete at the highest level.
According to U.S. Olympic and Paralympic CEO Sarah Hirshland:
“As you can imagine, this is a period of time in which consistency and predictability is critical for Team USA’s performance. In our conversations with athletes, this was a very high priority and something that the athletes felt was a critical component in their performance capability.”
Of course this doesn't exactly square with the whole "going green" plan that Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo laid out when she said she wanted the games to be "exemplary from an environmental point of view."
But Americans couldn't be more proud of our athletes for refusing to give up their AC:
https://twitter.com/rhcm123/status/1804357572759052613
https://twitter.com/growing_daniel/status/1804404012948820401
https://twitter.com/DastDn/status/1804327881490694337
https://twitter.com/KFILE/status/1804544044439097458
https://twitter.com/sunnyright/status/1804528197972705768
https://twitter.com/ratlpolicy/status/1804324167883374815
https://twitter.com/MontanaDOOF/status/1804335451605791055
https://twitter.com/magills_/status/1804335797564268658
https://twitter.com/3xliquidated/status/1804534045168066579
Of course the US isn't the only country who will be bringing their own AC to France. According to the Washington Post, Germany, Australia, Italy, Canada and Britain also plan to travel with their own units and buck the push to be "environmentally friendly" (which is honestly kind of nonsense because most of France's power comes from nuclear, but that's another story).
But either way, rest assured that Team USA will be nice and comfortable in their rooms thanks to the wonders of modern technology that some countries just refuse to adopt.
Damn I love this country.
https://twitter.com/KyleTDavis1/status/1804482568537940294
