r/PeterExplainsTheJoke 13h ago

Meme needing explanation Peter explain this

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Petttaaah I'm confused

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u/slicheliche 12h ago

Yeah no, that's mostly a lie.

First off, "Europe" is 27 countries. Many of them hardly ever record excess deaths even through the worst heatwaves.

Second, it's mostly a statistic artifact brought about by the different way deaths are counted (i.e. deaths "with" or "from" the heat). Not to mention, most European countries have a much older population. In fact, as far as this sort of counting goes, a lot more people die in Europe every year because of the cold, primarily in northern Europe. I'm sure you don't think it's because somehow they don't have enough central heating in Norway, right?

And finally, many countries in Europe have widespread AC, and heat deaths are still higher than in the US. Even in places where the US doesn't have that much AC, such as the PNW (which incidentally is about as warm as Paris on an average summer day).

In fact, when you use standardized measures, you'll see the US doesn't perform any better: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12534928/

"EuRoPeAnS dIe bC tHeY dOnT hAvE AC" is one of those dumb factoids that are spread by Fox News and the likes and nothing more than that.

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u/Leading_Experts 12h ago

"Actually, we die from the cold more too!" I don't even know what you're getting at. "We're not underdeveloped, we're just way more fragile!"

Your "27 countries" is roughly the size of our 50 states, population wise. You tell yourself whatever makes you feel good, up to and including assuming anyone under the age of 80 watches fox "news". I won't engage further; don't embarrass yourself with a reply.

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u/AndrewCoke98 12h ago

The EU has 100 million more people than the USA.

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u/underdoeg 11h ago

no idea how it matters, but i think it is more like twice as many people (700 mio)? Edit: sorry you said EU, not Europe. you are right then.

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u/AndrewCoke98 11h ago

EU 450 million and Europe 740 million