These days anyone who takes his walk or just sits there and sits down and sit down. Rhine In Bonn or in some other tributary town he feels he's missing something. It is the cargo ships that usually pass nonstop, almost in convoys, carrying goods or fuel on the route of about 1,200 km linking the Swiss Alps to Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Over 6,500 ships move daily to the Rhine, which is the second in order in the river world, in terms of transport volume, after Mississippi.
The Rhine is one of Europe's most important commercial arteries. Along it are some of the largest German industries, ensuring that they are supplied with raw materials, but also that their products are transported to the major ports of the North in Europe.
This key for Europe artery has now paralyzed, since due to heat and drought the river has «dried» and has retreated both in depth and in width making it impossible to sail for large commercial barges in some more narrow and «pistachios» points, like the Cabb, south of Cobleds. He has essentially tied his negative level record since 2018. So, after the Straits of Hormuz, there comes now the headache with the... straits of the Rhine for Europeans.
Launching of costs
Only small barges can move, and they with difficulty
Only some smaller and more «shallow» ships can now be moved, but their capacity is clearly smaller, while the transport of the contents of a barge by road would require dozens of pullovers, raising costs to prohibitive heights. But transport fares through the river have also been considerably expensive.
This is also another consequence of climate change, which proves that its effects are spreading in too many areas of human activity and the delay in dealing with it due to financial calculations could in a long time prove to be much more costly.
Even if the heat starts gradually to recede in Germany, it is estimated that it will take days and... rains to normalize the situation, since all rivers are dry «fill» the Rhine along its route.
Alarm to the Danube
«Dry» and the Danube in Budapest
Proportional problem faces the second great river The European Parliament, DanubeIn fact, Hungary and Romania were forced to download switches to nuclear power stations, which require large quantities of water to cool them, and especially in Romania, authorities do not rule out any problems in power supply.
But there are also consequences for tourism in resorts, such as Lake Balaton in Hungary, which also have «dry» And where one once swam, now he can walk. This has its reflection and cancellations of reservations in surrounding hotels, as the situation is not expected to improve soon. The climate crisis shows this summer «teeth» in many fields.
source: dw
