Record heat is drying up Europe's major rivers, as these striking images show(washingtonpost.com) |
Record heat is drying up Europe's major rivers, as these striking images show(washingtonpost.com) |
The American chemical company Chemours is warning of the persistent drought. According to the company, the current drought period will soon make it impossible to dump toxic chemicals into the river.
The company has been discharging a mosaic of toxic substances into sewage water for decades. Chemours spokesperson Emma Versteen: ‘A quintessential Dutch tradition is in danger of being lost if this drought continues. If there is one thing that unites the Dutch, it is PFAS in their blood.’
It is not just the company itself that is suffering from the persistent drought; local residents are also suffering. ‘The heavily polluted PFAS pool that we enjoy bathing in every summer is also in danger of evaporating,’ says resident Bert Stoof. ‘And what about my wife’s vegetable garden? Without that heavily polluted groundwater, not a single mutated cucumber will grow anymore. And what about our chickens? You wouldn't want to think about having to serve our children edible eggs.’
Chemours is receiving a lot of support. Owners of drug labs also warn that drug waste will soon no longer be able to flow into our waters naturally, and many other companies that discharge PFAS fear that the consequences will become incalculable if they are no longer able to do so. ‘If things continue like this, all those chemicals will have seeped into the ground before they have even been able to reach the North Sea,’ reads an open letter from an association of waste processing companies to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management.
The drought is expected to worsen in the coming years. Chemours is already trying to prepare for this by building a new plant in the IJsselmeer.
https://speld.nl/2026/08/11/chemours-waarschuwt-voor-droogte...
(Satire)
I used to live in lower Vltava valley, and for a single ship that would pass (mostly carrying sand or stone; I don't remember any single container ship), about 100 freight trains would thunder along the same river, mostly from/to Hamburg.
But around half of those bulk carriers are transporting fossil fuels, so while they suffer under the climate crisis-induced drought, many of them are contributors to their own (and our collective) problems.
It sucks for those transporting essential, not climate-destroying goods, but when it comes to the other ones, I just hope it helps to speed up independence from fossil fuels.