(ORDO NEWS) — European countries are experiencing the most terrible summer in several centuries of history, and the reason for this is a natural cataclysm in the form of an unprecedented drought.
The drought began in the winter of 2022, when there was practically no snow in the countries of the Old Continent, and in the spring there was a catastrophic lack of rain.
With the arrival of summer, record high temperatures have been recorded for a long time, and in two months there have already been 6 waves of African heat, when thermometers stayed above +40 degrees for a week or more.
For two summer months (in some regions since the beginning of April), not a single rain has fallen. As a result, the water level in lakes and rivers, which are always full of water, fell by 2-5 meters, and small natural reservoirs dried up completely.
Such a tragic situation is observed not only in the southern part of Europe, but also in the west of the continent, and even always in the comfortable areas of the north, including the Scandinavian countries.
“Hunger stones” and catastrophic consequences
So-called “hungry stones” appeared in most of the record shallowing rivers. They were marked with carved inscriptions such as “When you see me – cry” and this was done during the years of drought and subsequent terrible famine.
By mid-August, almost a hundred such stone warnings appeared from the water, 27 of them on the Elbe River. The oldest mention of drought and terrible famine dates back to 1417 in Berlin, on the Spree River.
According to some experts, in particular Andrea Toreti from the European Commission’s Joint Research Center, the drought of 2022 may turn out to be even worse if the rains do not pass in the near future. And forecasters do not promise them until at least mid-September.
Here are just a few examples illustrating the scale of the disaster.
- The Loire is the longest river in France (more than 1000 km), navigable, 3-12 m deep. Now you can cross it on foot without getting your feet wet. It provided moisture to famous French vineyards, now they are on the verge of death.
- Po is a river in Italy, the water level has dropped by 2 m, all the gardens and crops around have completely dried up. Due to the lack of water, the entire corn crop has already been destroyed, and the rice for risotto will be at least 60% less than last year.
- The Danube flows through 10 countries, 9 more are in its basin. The water level dropped to 5 m. On the territory of Serbia, dozens of warships of fascist Germany, which were sunk in 1944, were exposed at the bottom.
- Navigation is fully established on the Rhine River, including barges with a high bottom. At the moment, power plants have practically run out of coal, since it is impossible to transport the required amount by land transport. Chemical enterprises are also shutting down, most are operating at 25% capacity. Damages have already amounted to more than 5 billion euros.
- In France, there is a huge problem with the cooling of nuclear power plants. Not only is there not enough water, but the temperature is so high that it does not provide a safe level.
- The increase in temperature leads to the mass death of fish and shellfish, as well as to the proliferation of poisonous blue-green algae. The Oder River is poisoned by their toxins to such an extent that the treatment facilities cannot cope and the water intake is stopped.
- Northern Norway, which receives 90% of its energy with the help of hydroelectric power plants, was forced to stop exporting electricity due to the catastrophic shallowing of reservoirs.
This is almost the situation in Asian countries – in China and India, in some regions there is a terrible drought, and in others there are floods one after another. The Yangtze River has dried up by 90%.
Experts associate such natural cataclysms not only with global warming as a result of human activity, but also with a change in the tilt of the Earth‘s axis, as well as incomprehensible processes with the Earth’s magnetic field.
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