DoomsdaysCW<p>Are drying <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/rivers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>rivers</span></a> a warning of <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Europe" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Europe</span></a>'s tomorrow?</p><p>by Paul Hokenos<br>13 September 2022</p><p>"Across southern <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Romania" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Romania</span></a>, much of which relies on the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Danube" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Danube</span></a> for fresh <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/DrinkingWater" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>DrinkingWater</span></a>, hundreds of villages are rationing water supplies and curtailing the irrigation of <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/farmland" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>farmland</span></a> that Europe relies upon for <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/corn" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>corn</span></a>, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/grain" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>grain</span></a>, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/sunflowers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>sunflowers</span></a>, and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/vegetables" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>vegetables</span></a>. The cruise ships that normally ferry tourists along the iconic waterway are docked. In the first six months of 2022, Romania's <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/hydropower" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>hydropower</span></a> utility <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Hidroelectrica" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Hidroelectrica</span></a> generated a third less electricity than it normally does. And Romanian <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/wheat" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>wheat</span></a> 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.</p><p>"'At towns up and down the Danube, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/drought" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>drought</span></a> and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ClimateChange" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ClimateChange</span></a> take on an existential meaning,' explains Nick Thorpe, author of The Danube: A Journey Upriver from the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BlackSea" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BlackSea</span></a> to the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BlackForest" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BlackForest</span></a>. 'In contrast to city dwellers, they're having this disaster unfold before their eyes.'"</p><p>[...]</p><p>"Scientists say that the economic cost of the rivers' decimation is only part of the problem. The less water in the water system as a whole, explains Gabriel Singer, an ecologist at University of Innsbruck, Austria, the less dilution for <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/salts" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>salts</span></a> and the slower a river flows. This leads to higher <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/saline" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>saline</span></a> content and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/HigherWaterTemperatures" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>HigherWaterTemperatures</span></a>, which can be lethal for many species of <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Riverine" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Riverine</span></a> life, such as Danube <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/salmon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>salmon</span></a>, b#arbel, and European <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/grayling" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>grayling</span></a>, among many others.</p><p>"Higher temperatures also feed <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/AlgaeBlooms" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>AlgaeBlooms</span></a>, Singer explains, which can be <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/toxic" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>toxic</span></a> for river systems. This is what has happened in several German rivers, including the Moselle and Neckar, as well as perhaps the Oder River, where in mid-August more than 100 metric tons (220,000lbs) of dead fish – among them <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/perch" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>perch</span></a>, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/catfish" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>catfish</span></a>, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/pike" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>pike</span></a>, and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/asp" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>asp</span></a> – washed up on its shores within a week. (Experts are currently investigating the cause of the die-off.)"</p><p>Read more:<br><a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220912-are-drying-rivers-a-warning-of-europes-tomorrow" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">bbc.com/future/article/2022091</span><span class="invisible">2-are-drying-rivers-a-warning-of-europes-tomorrow</span></a> </p><p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/WaterIsLife" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>WaterIsLife</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Europe" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Europe</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/DanubeRiver" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>DanubeRiver</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Extinction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Extinction</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ClimateCrisis" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ClimateCrisis</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ClimateCatastrophe" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ClimateCatastrophe</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/HungerGames" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>HungerGames</span></a></p>