Well in a way houses are still built for the local climate, but the local climate has abundant cheap energy. Building houses to be better insulated and able to

Well in a way houses are still built for the local climate, but the local climate has abundant cheap energy. Building houses to be better insulated and able to tolerate extreme temperature events with just minor discomfort is possible[0], but it is also more expensive. If you spend $50,000 more to insulate a house to tolerate this, and it reduces the energy costs by $1,200/year, then financially it's not worth it [1]. Of course for the environment that's a big difference, but capitalism :-) [0] I live in Northern Europe, in a house built to our pretty strict building standards, and we don't even turn on the heating until it goes below freezing outside. Yesterday we had highs of 32C (90F) - which is hot for here - and I was out so the AC was off. When I came home in the afternoon, our living room which directly faces south and has no shade other than decorative blinds was... 25C (77F). [1] Average stock market returns over the last century are around 10% per year. Even if you conservatively half that, it still doesn't work out.