Sep 14, 2022 05:59 AM
(This post was last modified: Sep 14, 2022 06:00 AM by C C.)
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220...s-tomorrow
EXCERPTS: . . . the Danube River [...] snakes its way for 1,800 miles (2,898km) ... scores of towns – such as the small Romanian port of Zimnicea on the Bulgarian border – depend on the waterway for their livelihood.
But this summer's epic drought and historic high temperatures, now in a fifth gruelling month, have depleted the once-mighty Danube, upending everything that Zimnicea's residents – port workers, farmers, the shipping industry, anglers, restaurant owners, and families – had for generations counted on to sustain themselves.
Never in living memory has the river run so low, with large areas of mud-cracked river bottom exposed along Zimnicea's shorelines, the dead molluscs evidence of the devastating toll on riverine life.
With the Danube flowing at less than half its usual summer volume, dozens of cargo barges lie motionless in Zimnicea's harbor, waiting for a turn to use the only channel deep enough for passage. [...] As elsewhere along the Danube – and, indeed, across much of Europe this summer – emergency dredging teams have been called in to deepen the riverway to break the cargo jam.
Nevertheless, grain transports emanating from Ukraine – with many of its Black Sea ports controlled by Russia, the Danube is an alternative route for the war-wracked country to export foodstuffs – have been forced to shed cargo weight in order to pass, when they can pass at all.
[...] Romanian wheat farmers say that drought has cost them a fifth of their harvest. Romania is one of Europe's largest wheat producers, and all the more important for the international market in light of Russia's blockage of much of Ukraine's wheat exports.
"At towns up and down the Danube, drought and climate change take on an existential meaning," explains Nick Thorpe, author of The Danube: A Journey Upriver from the Black Sea to the Black Forest. "In contrast to city dwellers, they're having this disaster unfold before their eyes."
[...] Nearly two-thirds of Europe has suffered drought conditions this year – the worst dry spell in 500 years – and scientists say global warming has played a large role in the crisis. The heatwave has wreaked havoc on many of the continent's waterways – great and small, from the Loire to the Rhine – with wide-ranging knock-on effects for Europe's food supply, commerce, water access, energy systems, and ecology. And scientists warn that if hot, dry summers become a long-term trend, some of these waterways may never recover.
[...] In early August, France's prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, said that France is in the midst of the "most severe drought" the country has ever experienced, which has so sapped rivers – including the Loire, the Doubs, the Dordogne, and the Garonne – that hundreds of municipalities now require that drinking water be delivered by truck.
[...] The coal and fuel that travel the Rhine and other rivers are particularly vital in light of Russia's embargoes on gas and coal. And the outages at France's nuclear power plants due to a lack of cooling water have contributed to the soaring price of French electricity...
[...] The less water in the water system as a whole, explains Gabriel Singer, an ecologist at University of Innsbruck, Austria, the less dilution for salts and the slower a river flows. This leads to higher saline content and higher water temperatures, which can be lethal for many species of riverine life, such as Danube salmon, barbel, and European grayling, among many others.
Higher temperatures also feed algae blooms, Singer explains, which can be toxic for river systems. [...] it is the smaller rivers that suffer disproportionately. "So many of them are completely dried up, not a drop of water left," says Rinke. "When this happens they lose their entire community of biodiversity, forever. It won't just return the next time it rains."
Scientists say that millennia of engineering and human activity along Europe's rivers have also played a role. The straightening of once-wild rivers, deforestation, damming, industrial pollution, wastewater discharges, and agriculture's usurpation of shorelines and wetlands has made Europe's rivers all the more susceptible to heat waves and low-water conditions, as well as floods... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: . . . the Danube River [...] snakes its way for 1,800 miles (2,898km) ... scores of towns – such as the small Romanian port of Zimnicea on the Bulgarian border – depend on the waterway for their livelihood.
But this summer's epic drought and historic high temperatures, now in a fifth gruelling month, have depleted the once-mighty Danube, upending everything that Zimnicea's residents – port workers, farmers, the shipping industry, anglers, restaurant owners, and families – had for generations counted on to sustain themselves.
Never in living memory has the river run so low, with large areas of mud-cracked river bottom exposed along Zimnicea's shorelines, the dead molluscs evidence of the devastating toll on riverine life.
With the Danube flowing at less than half its usual summer volume, dozens of cargo barges lie motionless in Zimnicea's harbor, waiting for a turn to use the only channel deep enough for passage. [...] As elsewhere along the Danube – and, indeed, across much of Europe this summer – emergency dredging teams have been called in to deepen the riverway to break the cargo jam.
Nevertheless, grain transports emanating from Ukraine – with many of its Black Sea ports controlled by Russia, the Danube is an alternative route for the war-wracked country to export foodstuffs – have been forced to shed cargo weight in order to pass, when they can pass at all.
[...] Romanian wheat farmers say that drought has cost them a fifth of their harvest. Romania is one of Europe's largest wheat producers, and all the more important for the international market in light of Russia's blockage of much of Ukraine's wheat exports.
"At towns up and down the Danube, drought and climate change take on an existential meaning," explains Nick Thorpe, author of The Danube: A Journey Upriver from the Black Sea to the Black Forest. "In contrast to city dwellers, they're having this disaster unfold before their eyes."
[...] Nearly two-thirds of Europe has suffered drought conditions this year – the worst dry spell in 500 years – and scientists say global warming has played a large role in the crisis. The heatwave has wreaked havoc on many of the continent's waterways – great and small, from the Loire to the Rhine – with wide-ranging knock-on effects for Europe's food supply, commerce, water access, energy systems, and ecology. And scientists warn that if hot, dry summers become a long-term trend, some of these waterways may never recover.
[...] In early August, France's prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, said that France is in the midst of the "most severe drought" the country has ever experienced, which has so sapped rivers – including the Loire, the Doubs, the Dordogne, and the Garonne – that hundreds of municipalities now require that drinking water be delivered by truck.
[...] The coal and fuel that travel the Rhine and other rivers are particularly vital in light of Russia's embargoes on gas and coal. And the outages at France's nuclear power plants due to a lack of cooling water have contributed to the soaring price of French electricity...
[...] The less water in the water system as a whole, explains Gabriel Singer, an ecologist at University of Innsbruck, Austria, the less dilution for salts and the slower a river flows. This leads to higher saline content and higher water temperatures, which can be lethal for many species of riverine life, such as Danube salmon, barbel, and European grayling, among many others.
Higher temperatures also feed algae blooms, Singer explains, which can be toxic for river systems. [...] it is the smaller rivers that suffer disproportionately. "So many of them are completely dried up, not a drop of water left," says Rinke. "When this happens they lose their entire community of biodiversity, forever. It won't just return the next time it rains."
Scientists say that millennia of engineering and human activity along Europe's rivers have also played a role. The straightening of once-wild rivers, deforestation, damming, industrial pollution, wastewater discharges, and agriculture's usurpation of shorelines and wetlands has made Europe's rivers all the more susceptible to heat waves and low-water conditions, as well as floods... (MORE - missing details)