Europe’s Great Rivers Are Dying. The Continent Is In for a Shock.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/15/opinion/europe-rivers-danube-rhine-drought.html?unlocked_article_code=1.5lA.IoGi.1IUZ_KqkxHc3

Crossposted from https://slrpnk.net/post/41519313

archived copy of the article

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A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip · 1 pts · 29d (1 reply)
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Tiresia@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 29d

I'm from the Netherlands. The most common sentiment here is "We expected the weather to get pleasant like in southern europe, how dare there be negative consequences."

Also the Rhine is halfway to no water at all (assuming a summer baseline. It's 80% of the way there by the winter baseline), and thanks to irrigation getting to zero is much easier than you seem to think. Rivers lose water too as it they are tapped by industry and as water diffuses into the soil and from there into aquifers that are also being tapped.

With glacier meltwater running out and droughts worsening, how sure are you it won't run dry at some point in the next 50 years?