Nationwide, one in five of the lowest-income households have no access to air conditioning, while 30% rely solely on window units, according to exclusive analysis by the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (Neada) for the Guardian.

As many as 60% of American households live paycheck to paycheck, while one in three report forgoing basic necessities such as food or medicine to pay energy bills and avoid disconnection.

Heat is the deadliest weather phenomenon in the US and globally, killing almost half a million people worldwide each year, according to the World Health Organization. The death toll is rising as human-caused climate crisis drives more frequent, more brutal and longer heatwaves.

Last month marked 30 years since what was then an unprecedented five-day heatwave in Chicago that killed more than 730 people and sent thousands to hospital. The majority were elderly, Black, isolated, low-income residents either lacking air conditioning or the money to run it.

  • PhilipTheBucket@piefed.social
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    2 days ago

    I mean Biden tried spending almost a trillion dollars on the biggest action on climate change in the history of the US, about ten times over, and y’all didn’t give a fuck. So I guess Newsom is trying shitposting instead. I don’t love it either, but aiming to win elections on substance certainly doesn’t either, so why not.

    Edit: I’m not able to see or reply to the lemmygrad person locally, but yes, people not voting hard enough for Al Gore in 2000 is very much a primary reason why this is happening as early as it is. It would have changed a lot of things, among them the creation of ICE. It wouldn’t have been enough by any means, but IDK how any person alive in the US right now at this point in history can say that voting doesn’t make a difference to the day-to-day reality we live in. This year is literally the A/B test demonstration.

    • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 days ago

      LOL

      Are we still giving Joe Biden credit for pretending to be progressive and then making excuses, after watching Donald completely remake the country with the same amount of power?

      Go for it then.

      Crown Newsom. He’s just what we need as a president: another Democrat pretending to be progressive but, in fact, is presiding over a state that’s becoming unlivable for the majority of the people who live there while at the same time criminalizing homelessness. You probably think Mamdani’s a threat too.

      • PhilipTheBucket@piefed.social
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        2 days ago

        Are we still giving Joe Biden credit for pretending to be progressive

        What was it I gave Joe Biden credit for? I feel like you might have skimmed my message because of length, and missed it. I was pretty specific though.

        Also, what’s the total reduction in emissions that Biden’s policies have resulted in, and what total are they predicted to produce in the future? (Or were, I mean Trump’s trying hard to undo them with some level of success.) That stuff wasn’t contained in my message but I’m curious whether you are aware.

        • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.worldOP
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          2 days ago

          Looking at the fact that wildfires have become normal: not enough.

          Clearly.

          I’m not inclined to give Biden credit for pretending to do good thing when he was an objectively shitty president.

          • PhilipTheBucket@piefed.social
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            2 days ago

            You expected him to single-handedly solve climate change? Start in 2020 and then by 2024 there is no accelerating pace of wildfires? And you can’t support a politician unless they can do that?

            I asked what the total level of reduction in emissions his policies are predicted to accomplish are. I completely share the opinion that what someone pretends to do, doesn’t matter. So what’s the predicted reduction in objective terms? I feel like that’s something you should know.

            Do you want me to tell you? I feel like it could be educational for you to learn on your own. You tell me, I can do either way.

            • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.worldOP
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              2 days ago

              Nope.

              I appreciate your response, but Biden’s failure has affected my life on such a fundamental level (and really, most people’s) that I’m not willing to spend a ton of time giving him credit for pretending. I legitimately hate him and the finger-wagging people who still support him despite his monumental failure.

                • doubtingtammy@lemmy.ml
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                  1 day ago

                  It’s 2025. Any minor success of his administration is being dismantled by Trump. Get with the times.

                  Also jesus christ, your condescending tone is obnoxious. Go back to reddit

                  • PhilipTheBucket@piefed.social
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                    1 day ago

                    It’s 2025. Any minor success of his administration is being dismantled by Trump. Get with the times.

                    What percent reduction in US overall carbon emissions would you define as “minor”? If you had to give an objective number to it.

                    The larger point outside of that one word “minor,” I think, is largely true. People really fucked up on a world-altering scale letting Trump come to power again. Were you one of them? I feel like there are a lot of them in this thread, who contributed in their little infinitesimal ways to letting it happen. Thanks! You guys should do something about that going forward, or else this stuff is going to keep happening and get infinitely worse.

                    Also jesus christ, your condescending tone is obnoxious.

                    Do a quick search for “LOL” in these comments. I was pretty direct about disagreeing, but I wasn’t condescending until someone came up super hostile and talking down to me. I actually still kept it factual about what we were trying to talk about, which domain in standard lemmy.ml tradition they rejected with extreme hostility, but I wasn’t the one that started the condescension. Condescension and hostility are strong traditions here, valued and celebrated as long as they’re in line with the hivemind opinion-set. I was just better at it than the other person, and that’s why they got upset, and why you’re mentioning it now.