
Europe Heatwave: Records Tumble in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands - reddotX
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49100271
======
scrollaway
The northern half of europe (anywhere north of the mediteranean) really sucks
at handling heat. In most of France, Belgium or Germany it's impossible to
find apartments with ceiling fans or air conditioning.

There's also no concept of central air conditioning anywhere in europe for
non-commercial buildings, which is a big opportunity for improvement
(especially in Greece where air conditioning is everywhere, looks disgusting
in the streets and is less efficient than a central unit in summer).

Possibly the worst offence in Germany and _especially_ in Belgium is that you
can't ask restaurants/bars for tap water. They'll refuse to serve you, and
will ask you to buy bottled water. (Tap water is 100% safe, they just don't
want to do the kindness)

It's an especially absurd custom given that, you go west a few kilometers and
pass the French frontier, every bar and restaurant is legally obligated to
serve tap water for free whenever customers ask. In most mediterranean
countries, it's not even a question of asking: You sit down, a waiter will
bring you water, before you've even ordered.

~~~
mrep
> In most of France, Belgium or Germany it's impossible to find apartments
> with ceiling fans or air conditioning.

My girlfriend's grandparents are still in france and the 108 degrees
fahrenheit temperature that it is supposed to be tomorrow sounds miserable.
The grandparent says that people are looked down upon for having AC so they
had to buy the grandparent a fan but that doesn't help when it gets above the
98.6 degree body temperature.

> Possibly the worst offence in Germany and especially in Belgium is that you
> can't ask restaurants/bars for tap water. They'll refuse to serve you, and
> will ask you to buy bottled water. (Tap water is 100% safe, they just don't
> want to do the kindness)

We got a lot of problems here in the US, but I love that I can get tap ice
water from every restaurant for free and I've even gotten free ice water from
starbucks without buying anything. So nice.

~~~
charlesdm
I never got why people are so into free tap water everywhere. Who goes into a
restaurant, does not order anything, and asks for free ice water?

If I'm a restaurant owner and someone is taking up a seat while drinking free
tap water, of course I'm not going to like that.

~~~
scrollaway
"Taking up a seat without ordering" is frowned upon. It's okay to dislike that
as a restaurant owner. It's universally disliked, and barring exceptional
circumstances, it's not a cool thing to do.

That is what the problematic behaviour with your described case is. "Free tap
water", however, absolutely should be the standard. In Belgium, you will
generally be refused tap water even if you're a paying customer with a 100 EUR
bill. Whereas in France, it's illegal to refuse serving tap water… think about
that.

If you're not allowed to drink tap water, you'll be drinking bottled water
which creates plastic/glass waste and promotes a business that essentially
_repackages tap water_.

~~~
charlesdm
I'm Belgian so I'm aware we don't really drink tap water. However, to say that
tap water tastes exactly the same as bottled water is also a bit ridiculous in
my mind.

At the end of the day I guess it comes down to preference. Perhaps a silly
question, but why do you go for tap water? Just because of the waste issue?
And a second question, why would tap water have to be free and would you pay
for it?

PS: Cool business! Are you in Belgium?

~~~
scrollaway
> _why do you go for tap water?_

It's wasteful not to. I wouldn't say it tastes the same, but even though the
water where I live is very chalky, I'm personally fine with it.

> _why would tap water have to be free_

Because it's virtually free to the restaurant. Having it free also promotes
the healthy habit of drinking water instead of other drinks: When thirsty, if
tap water is not an option, many people will choose soda over water… if you're
paying for it anyway.

> _would you pay for it?_

If it's water I want, I'd rather pay for tap water than pay for bottled water,
simply on the ethics of it. But I would find it absurd and disgraceful to
charge for tap water. Remember, this is a custom that is _standard_ in many
countries.

> _Are you in Belgium?_

Brussels. Sablon to be specific :)

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llamathrowaway
Weather forecast says London is going to be 38 degrees tomorrow, with a
humidity of over 60%. Railway companies are telling me not to travel tomorrow
because the heat is likely to disrupt train services. Tube lines without air
conditioning are going to be dangerously hot. I don’t know how this city is
going to function tomorrow. Maybe it’s something we need to adapt to.

~~~
Cenk
This happened a couple years ago on ICE (Inter City Express) trains in
Germany: [https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/the-world-
from-...](https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/the-world-from-berlin-
deutsche-bahn-is-soft-boiling-its-customers-a-706889.html)

> As temperatures soared to 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit), the
> cooling system on many ICE high-speed trains simply switched off, leaving
> passengers to swelter amid inside temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius
> (122 degrees Fahrenheit).

> "A company that has aspirations to be a high-tech firm, but one which soft
> boils its customers instead of bringing them comfortably to their
> destination, has more than a small technical problem."

~~~
jazzyjackson
Wow, don't suppose they could open a window !

~~~
srrr
The ICE does not have windows that can be opened because it is a high speed
train traveling at 200-300km/h.

------
Havoc
Records tumble.

That's a once off message - being a record. Good for immediate PR. Terrible
for sending the message that needs to be sent - namely climate change.

The messaging needs to switch towards things are now permanently hot in X
rather than well today is extra hot.

~~~
anonymouz
I like this graph: [https://www.bbc.com/news/science-
environment-48678196](https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48678196) .

Gets the trend across in a very concise and obvious manner.

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tzs
> The Belgian town of Kleine Brogel hit 39.9C (102F), the hottest since 1833

OK...I'll be the pedantic nit-picker and bring this up: 39.9 C is 103.83 F.
How the heck did they round that to 102 F? I can see 104F or 103F, but 102 F!?

Or maybe they got the report as 102 F and calculated C from that? No...that
doesn't work either. 102 F is 38.889 C, so should have rounded to 38.9 C if
they wanted one decimal place, not 39.9 C.

Also, might as well nit-pick this too...there is supposed to be a space
between the number and the unit symbol according to the rules for SI units,
except for °, ′, and ″ when used to denote angles in degrees, minutes, and
seconds, such as 14° 13′ 41″ [1].

I could see omitting the space if they included the circle, such as 39.9℃ and
102℉, since the circle keeps the C or F from being unpleasantly close to the
number.

[1]
[https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/2794/punctuation...](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/2794/punctuation-
with-units)

~~~
rambojazz
Maybe they truncated numbers instead of rounding.

39.9°C -> 39°C -> 102.2°F -> 102°F

------
dev_dull
> _The Belgian town of Kleine Brogel hit 39.9C (102F), the hottest since
> 1833._

Global warming is causing the heatwave now. But what caused the heat wave in
1833?

~~~
graeme
1833 is when records began. Usually the case when you heard hottest since
[19th century date]

The BBC should have said that. This article mentions it:
[https://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/wireStory/europe-braces-
rec...](https://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/wireStory/europe-braces-record-
breaking-heat-wave-64534647)

------
vermontdevil
Apparently England might break their highest temp and they have a record
dating back pretty far.

------
spraak
"Report: Average American Must Have Life Ruined By Natural Disaster Every 6
Minutes To Fear Climate Change" [1]

It's the Onion, but still seems on point

[1] [https://www.theonion.com/report-average-american-must-
have-l...](https://www.theonion.com/report-average-american-must-have-life-
ruined-by-natur-1836604584)

------
ARandomerDude
All those other people who cook, use lights and computers, and rely on
transportation are killing us.

------
rainyMammoth
we should honestly stop yelling climate change and global warming whenever it
gets too hot or too cold. That's NOT how it works and the only long term
effect will be to create more doubts around climate change.

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elorant
Meanwhile in Greece it has been the coolest summer of the last 20 years at
least. We didn't have a single heatwave so far. It even rained in mid July.

~~~
StavrosK
"Coolest"? It just hasn't hit 40 yet. The weather has been crazy, we had a
goddamn tornado for crying out loud. It even rained in July!

~~~
elorant
Cool as in opposite of hot. Not cool like nice.

