The U.S. Olympic team is one of a handful that will supply air conditioners for their athletes at the Paris Games in a move that undercuts organizers’ plans to cut carbon emissions.

U.S. Olympic and Paralympic CEO Sarah Hirshland said Friday that while the U.S. team appreciates efforts aimed at sustainability, the federation would be supplying AC units for what is typically the largest contingent of athletes at the Summer Games.

“As you can imagine, this is a period of time in which consistency and predictability is critical for Team USA’s performance,” Hirshland said. “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.”

The Washington Post reported earlier this month that Germany, Australia, Italy, Canada and Britain were among the other countries with plans to bring air conditioners to France.

  • Feliskatos 🐱@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    The world will continue to get hotter year by year until climate change is solved. I’d fully expect to see more AC use, not less. This won’t be limited just to athletes, but it will be limited by affordability.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Big cities already periodically provide “Cooling Centers” to support the large population of working poor who can’t afford the sky high energy bills. I have no idea what rural communities do during a heat-wave induced brown out. Everyone gets in the lake that’s full of industrial agricultural run off? They retreat into the mines, like a bunch of Morlocks? Y’all just fucking die?

      But this is entirely unsustainable long term. Either we find a way to keep our large populations cool during the killer hot months or we stop having large populations all together.

    • Agent641@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Humans ceasing to emit carbon dioxide is inevitable. I reckon this will happen some time before the average global temperature reaches 100 degrees C.

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Climate change will never be solved. It wont even be mitigated.

      It will just continue to get worse until it stops being a curiosity the rich invest into solutions (which will never be practical for scale) for positive coverage, and shift their money into their survival plans… Bunkers, Sea Living (under sea or on ships), or space ships to get to lunar colonies or mars.

      A small, lucky few of the proletariate might even get selected to be “Saved” along side them, because afterall… the Rich need their menial labor.

      And everyone else will suffer and die.