Ready for a heated debate?

It involves two of the most trusted organizations when it comes to health — the United States Centers for Disease Control and the United Nations World Health Organization — hardcore climate change “warriors” and a lot of dead people.

The number of dead, in this case, is all over the board.

But taking the most laser-focused data involving deaths where heat was the primary cause of death in 2024 there were 2,304 casualties according to the CDC in the United States.

In Europe, WHO put the 2024 death toll at 62,775 for deaths where heat was the primary factor. That said, WHO estimates 175,000 people throughout Europe died in 2024 with heat being a contributing factor.

Europe, overall, has 743.7 million residents. The population of the United States is 342.2 million.

Europe has 1.2 times the population but has 27.2 times the deaths where heat is considered the primary cause.

And when it comes to households with conditioning, Europe is at 20 percent and the United States at 92 percent.

The rise of home air conditioning in 1960 is credited for most of steady decline in “hot day” related facilities in the United States over the last 66 years.

It is why some brave politicians in France want to make $23 billion available in interest free loans to help 30 million to 40 million households buy air conditioning.

The green brigade led by French progressives is throwing up roadblocks to stop such a move.

They call air conditioning an “ecological menace” and an act of self-indulgence.

Tell that to young children, the elderly, and the ill that are most vulnerable to heat-related deaths as their bodies are less effective at regulating the impacts of heat.

That said, air conditioning does use a lot of energy.

The International Energy Agency estimates the 2025 summer heat wave in Europe raised demands 14 percent above winter peaks.

The Word Resources Institute has projected air conditioning could generate 6.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide a year. That is close to 20 percent of all emissions.

But at funny thing about the alarm sounded by the World Resources Institute. It assumes a dirty grid and it assumes a proliferation of air conditioning.

Currently, the institute pegs air conditioning as the culprit in roughly 3 percent of all global emissions rods.

Toss in the fact two-thirds of energy used today in France is generated and rest is low-carbon, running an air conditioning unit in Paris is almost carbon-free today,

So why kill more air conditioning when it is clear that it could prevent a lot of deaths including in France where government health officials blamed a 2003 heat wave for 15,000 deaths?

Climate change is real.

It’s been a constant factor in the 4.54 billion plus years that Earth had existed.

Yes, man does move the dial to a degree.

But much of the death and destruction is a direct result of where cities were built in perennial flood plains, megalopolises in arid deserts, and housing at the foot of active volcanoes or in land prone to wildfires even in non-drought years.

What inroads man has made regarding things such as famine, disease, and such is by altering the natural order of things.

We tend to forget that big time during the Chicken Little rants that are driving how we go about tackling adapting to climate change today.

Those that believe the issue is a secular version of Paradise Lost are as blind to reality and the consequences of their actions as someone pushing to place mega-coal burning energy plants in Bakersfield, Fresno, and downtown Los Angeles.

Attacking the nuances of climate change as if they are each in isolated non-interconnected silos and that it is imperative each has to be absolutely eradicated is reckless.

To be clear — and the air today overall in the San Joaquin Valley is by all measures more than 50 percent clearer than it was in 1990 with almost half the population — we need to make adjustments that make sense and deliver results.

The goal supposedly is to save the planet and by extension mankind. That translates into keeping Earth livable and sustainable for mankind which means saving lives.

Cleaner air in the San Joaquin Valley has saved lives.

More universal air conditioning in France and Europe will save lives.

It is especially true in France where air conditioning use can expand with minuscule impact on the carbon footprint.

Imagine what life would be like in the Northern San Joaquin Valley if California progressives picked up the anti-air conditioning banner of their peers in France.

Last year, emergency rooms in San Joaquin County treated 120 people for heat-related medical emergencies.

There were just a handful of deaths tied directly or indirectly to hot day weather.

Get rid of 80 percent of the air conditioning in San Joaquin County —including in vehicles — and what do you think will happen?