German Public Broadcaster Launches Anti-Air Conditioning Campaign as Record Heat Wave Hits
Berlin — Germany’s public broadcaster ARD has begun an “anti-AC campaign” warning citizens about the supposed dangers of air conditioning, even as the country suffers through a severe heat wave.
The campaign features infographics claiming that air conditioners “cool us down but heat up the Earth.” It argues that increased AC use will contribute to global warming through higher energy consumption.
The Campaign
ARD’s messaging pushes the idea that relying on air conditioning is selfish and environmentally damaging. The broadcaster is actively discouraging Germans from installing or using AC units, framing it as a climate issue rather than a practical solution to extreme heat.
This comes at a time when much of Germany is under severe heat warnings, with temperatures making indoor spaces without cooling extremely uncomfortable and potentially dangerous, especially for the elderly and vulnerable.
This Is Peak European Insanity
This is what happens when ideology completely overrides common sense.
While Germans are sweating through record heat, their public broadcaster is telling them that using air conditioning is bad for the planet. The same green religion that has already made energy expensive and unreliable in Germany is now actively working to keep people from staying cool.
Europe’s long-standing resistance to air conditioning has always been a mix of snobbery and environmental extremism. Unlike the United States, where AC is widespread and considered basic infrastructure, much of Europe has treated it as some kind of decadent American excess. The result is that during heat waves, people suffer unnecessarily in homes, offices, and especially hospitals and care facilities.
ARD’s campaign is not about protecting the environment in any meaningful way. It is about enforcing a worldview that prioritizes abstract climate goals over actual human comfort and health. Telling people not to use air conditioning while temperatures are dangerously high is not virtuous — it is cruel and detached from reality.
If the goal is truly to help people survive heat waves, the solution is obvious: more air conditioning, better energy infrastructure, and less moralizing from state-funded broadcasters. Instead, Germany is getting lectures about how staying cool is destroying the planet.
This is the logical endpoint of Europe’s climate obsession. When the ideology becomes more important than keeping people from suffering in their own homes, something has gone seriously wrong.