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Europe's summer drought is so extreme that desertification is a growing threat

https://fortune.com/2026/08/29/europe-summer-drought-desertification-threat-rivers-fish/
25•Brajeshwar•54m ago

Comments

ghurtado•24m ago
> The fish industry has been hit especially hard, with damage estimated in the millions of euros (dollars).

JFC, does FORTUNE magazine really need to explain what Euros are? It's the second most used currency in the world. You could have put random characters in place of "euro" and anybody with a half a brain would quickly realize it's "a thing similar to dollars"

The stupification of America is complete.

MomsAVoxell•17m ago
I read it more as an uncompleted copy-editor’s note, more like (todo: insert dollar value here), than a banal reference.
tracerbulletx•10m ago
That does not really make sense. Millions of euros is also millions of dollars. It's not an exact number, why would they have a currency conversion.
MomsAVoxell•19m ago
Just took a train ride from Vienna to Budapest for a few days, and couldn’t help but notice how very, very dry everything is .. as an Australian living in Europe for a few decades now, I’ve always been intrigued by just how green everything is, literally something growing in every single crack in the pavement, or endless rolling green fields of prosperity during spring - whereas, where I’m from its year-long spinifex and grass shrubs and wattles with the occasional bush flower bloom, barely hanging on out in the desert, mostly reds and blacks and greys, not much green - so European fields and the abundant countryside flora has always been pleasant to my eyes ..

During this trip, I was kind of shocked that things felt a bit more Australian to my eyes .. the grasses are dry and barren, the beautiful city parks of both Budapest and Vienna dustier than usual, the Danube water level definitely noticeably lower than I remember ever seeing.

I’ve long been encouraging my European friends to not take the abundance of growth for granted, and now we see it in the environment, plain and clear: the worlds’ weather is changing.

A week of sweltering heat is predicted for us again in Vienna, and as we get started on September and then October so close, two thoughts are on my mind: use this opportunity to go for more dips in the Danube, and .. I wonder what the floods of late-autumn will bring, because .. inevitably .. this super dry summer means there will be heavier rains in October. Might be we look back in a month or two and wish we had this dry heat back again, who knows ..

Either way, neither city is particularly comfortable in the heat. A hundred or so years ago, the heat retention was a feature. Now it’s a bug.

touwer•13m ago
It's so dry, even in tne Netherlands and north of France. Amazing how quickly it goes
MomsAVoxell•10m ago
I can’t imagine what the Netherlands would look like if desertification would occur. It seems implausible that those flat, flat lands would ever turn brown and grey and dusty - but I won’t be surprised if things turn that way in a few years. I hope the Dutch have a solution, they always seem to when it comes to water control ..
throw-the-towel•11m ago
I think Hungary is supposed to be dry though? Not this dry, sure, but still.
MomsAVoxell•6m ago
Sure, it gets dry in summer, it’s not always so lush - at least in my experience over the years.

But, parks of dead grass, and dust devils blowing in the corners? Can’t say I’ve seen that much over the decades of visiting the region. In fact I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much dry, dead grass.

I, for one, am very grateful for my neighborhood turning the streets into cooler, greener little oases for pedestrians. Perhaps those eucalyptus trees the Schönbrunner Zoo keeps for its koalas will be of use in providing avenues of shade in the decades to come, who knows …

pmpmpmpm•16m ago
Who is liable for the deaths caused by extreme weather patterns? Is anyone?
GolfPopper•9m ago
Legally? Almost certainly no one. Ethically? The corporate executives who deliberately covered up evidence of global warming, starting back in the 70s.[1]

1. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/01/harvard-led-a...

touwer•14m ago
It's very scary. And if you're not scared by this, you need a brain implant with some IQ points
sdcfgy•8m ago
Quick, build some data centres!
DataDive•6m ago
Europe is caught in a dilemma: tourism, air travel, and city hopping are its economic lifeblood that keeps the continent running, but these also cause the greatest damage to the environment.

Since they can't fix the real problem are trying to go "green" in counterproductive ways that make things worse: blowing up nuclear plants or taxing cow fart.

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