drive forest fires and dry rivers
Europe’s succession of heatwaves and historic drought is driving forest fires and drying major rivers as the continent grapples with Russia’s war in Ukraine.
LONDON — Forests are burning. Major rivers are drying up. And dead fish are washing ashore.
Europe’s heat waves and historic drought are threatening new ecological and economic pain for a continent already grappling with the effects of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
On Friday, nations across Europe sent teams of firefighters to tackle a "monster" wildfire in France, the crucial Rhine in Germany was threatening to fall so low that it could become difficult to transport vital goods on the river, while Britain was sweltering through its latest "extreme heat" spell.
Temperatures have once again approached 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the United Kingdom and France this week. A drought was officially declared early Friday in several parts of England, leaving millions facing restrictions on the use of water — much of its famously “green and pleasant” countryside has already gone brown.
Some parts of western, central and southern Europe have gone without rainfall for almost two months, leaving almost half the continent facing drought in a cycle of hot weather experts say is a direct result of climate change.
The crisis is being keenly felt in both the human and the animal kingdoms.
A river in Lux, in eastern France near the city of Dijon, normally sees 2,100 gallons flow along it every second but has run dry. Fish cannot survive.
"It’s heartbreaking ... They are trapped upstream and downstream, there’s no water coming in, so the oxygen level will keep decreasing as the [water] volume will go down," Jean-Philippe Couasné, chief technician at the local Federation for Fishing and Protection of the Aquatic Environment, told The Associated Press.
"These are species that will gradually disappear."
Poland’s World Wildlife Fund office has called on the government to declare an emergency and send in the army to help clear away fish and other animals that are washing up dead on the shores of the Oder river near the border with Germany.
The German state of Brandenburg said Friday that the release of a toxic chemical may have been to blame for the fish deaths, exacerbated by low water levels.