Forty-eight people have drowned in France over the past week, plunging into rivers, canals, and lakes to escape the heat wave gripping Europe over the past week. Temperatures in France have reached temperatures of 104°F in a country where most homes have no air conditioning.

The Deputy Mayor of Paris would like you to know this is American's fault.

Audrey Pulvar, who took office in March 2026, posted a statement on Instagram last Friday aimed squarely at American journalists and social media users who had the audacity to notice that one of the wealthiest cities on earth can't cool its own buildings. "Dear American journalists and social media 'influencers': for days, some of you have been criticizing and making fun of Paris because the city does not have A/C in every room. OMG, this is so rich!" Pulvar wrote.

Rich is one word for it.

Pulvar's argument runs like this: the United States is the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, American cities are "90% air-conditioned," and therefore Americans bear "a significant amount of responsibility for global warming and the consequences we, in France, are experiencing." In other words, your window unit in Tulsa killed those 48 people.

The logic is remarkable. Paris chose not to install air conditioning. Parisians are dying in a heat wave. And the problem is that Americans did install air conditioning. "Your cities '90% air-conditioned' are not unrelated to this," Pulvar wrote. "In Paris, we take responsibility."

Taking responsibility, in this case, means the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre reduced their operating hours. Authorities imposed alcohol restrictions in public spaces and limited public gatherings. Thousands of emergency workers were deployed across the country. What authorities did not do was turn on air conditioners, because they don't have them, because that would apparently be an ecological sin.

Pulvar closed her Instagram sermon with a suggestion: "If every American city made the same ecological transition efforts as Paris and many European cities, believe me, the whole world would be better off."

The same ecological transition efforts that left 48 families burying someone this week because the nearest body of water looked better than a 104-degree apartment.

This is the pattern with every "America is the problem" lecture from European officials. The policy is the priority. The people are the externality. When the policy produces a body count, the answer is never to question the policy — it's to find someone else to blame. Preferably someone an ocean away with a Carrier unit humming in the window.

Paris didn't lose 48 people because Kansas has central air. Paris lost 48 people because Paris decided that comfort is a climate crime and built a city around that theory. The heat didn't care about the theory.

When your ecological transition kills more people than the thing you transitioned away from, you haven't taken responsibility. You've just redefined who's expendable.