Climate News
Europe's rivers hit record lows, and the shrinking Danube exposes sunken WWII warships
Several of Europe's biggest rivers have fallen to record lows during a summer of heat and drought. Al Jazeera reported that the European Commission's Joint Research Centre said the Loire, Po, Rhine and Danube had all reached record-low levels. About half of Europe's land area was in drought in mid-July, and 9% was at the highest "alert" level, including southern Germany, Hungary, Romania, Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Al Jazeera's open-source team compared satellite images showing more sand and gravel exposed on the Loire near Saumur and on the Rhine near Kaub.
On the Danube, the low water has uncovered relics of the second world war. The Guardian reported that dozens of German warships have appeared near Prahovo, on the border between Serbia and Romania. They were part of Hitler's Black Sea fleet, which Germany sank on purpose in September 1944 to slow the Soviet advance. In Budapest, a German military motorcycle was recovered, and Slovak police removed an unexploded 700kg British bomb.
How each outlet framed it
- Al Jazeera — satellite evidence of the drought across France, Germany and central Europe.
- The Guardian — the wartime wrecks, and the energy problems caused because many power plants need river water for cooling.
- PBS NewsHour — AP's report on the falling water as the ships began to appear.
- Dawn — the Pakistani daily carried the story for South Asian readers: low water revealing sunken shipwrecks.
Meaning and limits: the wrecks have appeared in earlier droughts and then disappeared again when water levels rose. Many have stayed in the river because of the explosives they still carry.
What we don't know yet: how long the low water will last, and how much it will disrupt shipping and power generation.