and freeze to death in winter? not cook your food and eat it raw? walk/cycle for 3 hours to commute to work?
Europe is far more densely populated. The cities are generally much closer to each other. There often isn't the equivalent of American "suburbs", instead there are more (and smaller) cities. Most people living in cities get around by walking or use the public transit.
This is off topic but I always find statements like the above rather bizarre. Why must humans insist on living in places where the environment is hostile to human life?
I guess its because I grew up in a place where heating is very rarely necessary, without cooling of any kind and have spent most of the last three years traveling around countries where you could theoretically walk around naked all year if you so desired but I increasingly find it bizarre how attached people are to living in locations that are ill-suited to humans.
As a species we lack fur, so we are really vulnerable to cold.
No one is talking about resettling anyone. My question was just about why people individually choose to remain in places that feature temperatures well outside of the range compatible with our species. Others have covered it pretty well. Some combination of habituation, laziness and disliking hot summers basically.
Also, moving is not easy: you have to learn new languages, acquire skills you did not have use for previously, and get a work permit.
(And for the hilarious part, we often see people from warm countries moving to more temperate ones because those are economically and politically better off)
An example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_people
If we only lived in locations that are a good temperature year-round we would barely live anywhere.
Because by an unlucky twist of nature (physics and chemistry combined) the richest soils are found in temperate regions, so the lands that historically were capable of sustaining a high population density are in the colder regions, the ones where you need heating at least in winter.
Even now, with advances chemistry and fertilizers we'd not be able to sustain the worlds population if we all moved closer to the equator and gave up on regions that require heating at least in winter.