The floods were disabling.
By Rachel Elbaum and Andy Eckardt
Three months after historic floods hit Dernau, swaths of the German village are still in ruins.
Figure 1 (click here) shows observed trends in mean annual river flood discharge in medium and large catchments in Europe over the period 1960–2010. The analysis is based on the European Flood Database, which is the most complete database on flooding available for Europe so far [i]. The figure and the underlying analysis shows that climate change has both increased and decreased river floods in Europe....
Ahrweiler, Germany — Layers of dried mud on sidewalks, (click here) concrete roads turned to gravel and time-worn stone bridges washed away. Three months after this summer’s catastrophic floods in Germany’s Ahrweiler region, there are reminders everywhere of the destruction they wrought.
The deluge, which was preceded by three consecutive summers of drought, has brought a new urgency for many to find climate change solutions — and that has impacted Germany’s politics, too.
In last month’s federal election, the environmentalist Green Party had its best results yet, winning nearly 15 percent of the vote, and trailing just behind the two largest parties.
Unlike in the United States where the issue is still subject to debate, global warming is a key concern in Germany that voters increasingly expect politicians to address.
Its prominence in the election was no surprise to architect Florian Trummer, 65, whose hometown of Antweiler was hit by the floods. He officially joined the Green Party two months ago after a lifetime of swing voting....
The patterns are all part of the evidence that brings countries together to end the blight on Earth by greenhouse gases produced by industries that care little for people regardless of the fact that people are their bottom line. It is time for regulations that work to end deadly trends in climate. Would we neglect the quality of food we eat? Then why neglect the soils that grow it?
