分类： environment

Across sweltering European farmlands this summer, an unprecedented drought fueled by human-caused global warming and an amplified El Niño event is pushing agricultural production to its breaking point, leaving even adaptive farmers scrambling to mitigate staggering losses. From the fertile coastal plains of the Netherlands’ southwestern Zeeland Province to the river basins of the Balkan region, the extreme heat and prolonged dry spell have scorched staple crops, drained critical water reserves, and threatened livelihoods that depend on predictable growing seasons.

In Zeeland, Maarten Janse has spent years adapting his 150-hectare farm to worsening climate volatility: he uses no-till farming methods that leave soil undisturbed to retain moisture, plants year-round cover crops to prevent dehydration, and adds organic compost and manure to boost soil health. He even diversified his income stream by opening a popular lakeside campsite and began growing salt-tolerant samphire to combat rising soil salinity from prolonged dry conditions. But even these proactive measures are failing to hold back this year’s extreme drought. As he drives his tractor across parched fields, spreading nutrient-rich organic matter to revive cracked soil, the lack of rain has left even his salt-resistant samphire stunted—this crop that evolved to withstand brackish conditions still requires periodic fresh water to grow, a resource that has all but vanished in 2024.

Zeeland farmer Hendrik Jan ten Cate counts himself among the lucky ones: he still has official permission to irrigate his potato crop, grown to supply frozen French fries to major global chains including McDonald’s. Even so, his harvest is coming a full month earlier than usual, and nearly all of his potato plants are already withered and stunted. Most of this year’s crop is too small to meet the demand for long, full-cut French fries that consumers prefer, and he projects his total yield will drop by one-third compared to average growing years. “It’s not just the lack of rain that’s killing our crops,” ten Cate explained. “It’s the combination of relentless sun, bone-dry air, and record consecutive hot days. Potatoes simply cannot survive that mix.”

The crisis extends far beyond the Netherlands, leaving agricultural sectors across the continent reeling. In Bosnia, where agriculture accounts for 5% of national GDP and 10% of total employment, grain farmer Slavisa Lukic stares out across a field of limp, heat-stricken corn stalks. Where he once harvested 6 to 7 tons of corn per hectare, he now expects just 1.5 to 2 tons—if he can even bring a full harvest to market. Clover pastures that once fed local livestock have completely vanished from his property in northeastern Bosnia. “They literally do not exist now,” Lukic said. “Nothing is left.”

Even the Czech Republic’s iconic beer industry is at risk, as drought stunts the annual hop harvest that supplies the country’s world-famous breweries. Plzeňský Prazdroj, the nation’s largest beer producer, projects significant financial losses this year due to reduced hop yields. Jakub Zaoral, the company’s sustainability manager, noted shifting rainfall patterns have made harvests increasingly unpredictable: long dry spells are broken only by intense, short storms that run off parched soil instead of replenishing groundwater reserves. “We’ve had to accept that one year will be great and the next will be a loss,” Zaoral said. “But if this stretches to three consecutive bad years, that could become an existential threat for small hop growers across the country.”

In the Danube River basin, the drought has created cascading crises beyond crop failure. While Romania’s heat and drought-resistant sunflower crops have fared better than most staples this year, record-low water levels on the Danube have brought grain transport to a near-standstill. Congestion at river terminals has left silos overflowing, with farmers unable to store or ship their existing harvests ahead of the upcoming sunflower and corn harvest. “Farmers are already in full panic mode,” said Cezar Gheorghe, founder of Romanian grain consultancy Agricolumn. “They have nowhere to put the crops they already have, and the next harvest is just 10 days away.” In Hungary, Sándor Molnár’s dairy farm has seen no rain since late May, turning cattle grazing plains to dust and forcing him to buy expensive supplementary feed for his 130 dairy cows. “We keep hanging on and hoping next year will be better,” Molnár said. “To be honest, we’ve been saying that for years now. But we’re still hoping this time it will be true.”

Even large, well-resourced farming operations that invested heavily in climate adaptation are feeling the strain. The 10,000-acre Elveden Estate on the Suffolk-Norfolk border in the United Kingdom built a massive reservoir capable of holding water equal to 200 Olympic-sized swimming pools, opening the facility less than a year ago to protect against drought. Today, that reservoir is nearly empty, and a second on-site reservoir holds just 20% of its capacity. While the investment in water storage has allowed the farm to keep irrigating through the current crisis, managing director Andrew Blenkiron warned that supplies are running critically low. “If this hot, dry weather holds, we only have enough water left for six more weeks of irrigation,” Blenkiron said.

The economic damage from this summer’s extreme conditions is projected to last for years, according to a new analysis from Dutch sustainable bank Triodos. The report estimates that repeated heatwaves and droughts across the continent could cut the European Union’s total GDP by 1% by 2026, equal to roughly 180 billion euros ($208 billion). Farmers are positioned to bear the brunt of the damage, with many regions already implementing strict water restrictions that bar farmers from drawing water from streams and drainage channels to irrigate fields and orchards. As climate change continues to increase the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, European agricultural producers are facing a new normal where even the most proactive adaptation strategies are often no match for the scale of the crisis.

Under the blazing August sun that has settled over the Swiss Alps, the slopes above Adelboden lie bare and golden, with not a patch of natural snow or a single skier in sight. Yet what has long been a winter-only ski infrastructure is being tapped for an urgent new purpose: as Europe grapples with increasingly severe heatwaves and prolonged droughts, the Adelboden-Lenk ski resort is repurposing its massive snowmaking network to help fight the growing threat of wildfires.

Decades of human-caused climate change have transformed the Alpine landscape dramatically. Glaciers across the region and throughout Switzerland are retreating at alarming rates, and natural snowfall has become increasingly sparse and unpredictable. For mid-altitude resorts like Adelboden-Lenk, whose 125 miles of slopes sit between 1,000 and 2,300 meters above sea level, this shift has already forced major adaptation: today, roughly 70% of the snow covering its pistes every winter is produced artificially.

The artificial snow system relies on more than just the visible snow cannons and lances that dot the slopes. Beneath the surface lies an extensive hidden network: tens of kilometers of buried water pipes connected to multiple reservoirs that collect rainwater and glacial melt during warm months, storing the resource to produce snow when winter arrives. Now, resort leaders say this existing infrastructure could be a critical tool for wildfire prevention and response as dry conditions raise fire risk across the country.

“We can provide meaningful support to firefighters through our existing infrastructure,” explained Jürg Klopfenstein, who oversees the resort’s snowmaking operations. “While the snow cannons themselves have limited uses—they can mostly be used to wet down surrounding vegetation and protect nearby infrastructure—our pipes, pumps, and reservoirs offer far more value. Firefighters can tap into our network directly, and helicopter water bombers can refill their tanks from our stored water supplies.”

In the event of an approaching wildfire, the connected system can also be used to create wet fuel breaks, or buffer zones, that slow the spread of flames. This buys valuable time for ground emergency crews and aerial support to reach the remote mountain area, which draws thousands of hikers, mountain bikers, trail runners, and paragliders to the region during the summer months.

So far in 2024, Switzerland has avoided the large-scale destructive wildfires that have devastated parts of neighboring countries across southern and central Europe. But the entire nation, including the Bern region where Adelboden is located, is currently facing severe drought, and official wildfire risk assessments classify most of the country as high risk.

While the Alpine ecosystem does not face the exact same fire risk as the drier Mediterranean regions of southern Europe, resort operations manager Stefan Buchs emphasized that the threat cannot be ignored. “Different vegetation and varying soil moisture mean we can’t directly map southern Europe’s large fire events onto the Alps, but widespread wildfire is still a very plausible scenario here,” Buchs noted. “We’ve worked closely with local fire crews on this plan, and they agree that the risk is growing. Even in spring, conditions get far drier than they used to, not just in the peak of summer.”

Adelboden Mayor Willy Schranz echoed the need for proactive preparation, saying, “We have to get ready now, because this won’t be the last hot, dry summer we face.”

Still, climate experts warn that this adaptive measure is only a short-term solution, not a fix for the broader impacts of climate change. Nathan Solothurnmann, a climate change specialist with the environmental organization Greenpeace, cautioned against overstating the long-term value of repurposing snow infrastructure for wildfire response.

“The system Adelboden is putting in place will certainly help in the near term, but the climate changes we are confronting are far more severe,” Solothurnmann said. “Adaptations like this only buy us time, they don’t address the root of the problem. What’s more, this kind of extensive pre-built water network is rare across Switzerland. Most Alpine forest areas don’t have a ready-made network of underground pipes to tap into when a fire breaks out.”

Western Europe is bracing for another round of extreme heat on Thursday, with the United Kingdom facing its fifth heat wave of what is already on track to become the hottest summer recorded in the nation’s history.

Meteorologists forecast temperatures will climb as high as 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) across central and southeast England, coming within half a degree of the August all-time record set in 2003. The UK’s national weather service, the Met Office, confirmed earlier this week that even average temperatures for the remainder of August would push 202X past last year’s mark to become the hottest full year on record.

For a nation that has not built widespread infrastructure to cope with sustained high temperatures, this summer’s string of heat waves has created persistent and dangerous discomfort across communities. The crisis has been particularly acute in NHS hospitals, where nursing staff have already suffered heat exhaustion that led to some workers collapsing on the job, according to the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).

RCN Chief Executive and General Secretary Professor Nicola Ranger emphasized the severity of the failure to protect frontline care staff: “When nursing staff are collapsing, feeling dizzy, sick or even being admitted to the very hospitals they work in because their workplaces cannot handle the heat, it shows just how badly they are being failed.”

Beyond risks to public health, most of the UK is now officially experiencing drought, putting unprecedented strain on household water supplies, agricultural production and natural ecosystems. Southern Water, the utility managing water access across southern England, has submitted an application for a rare drought order that would enforce a ban on non-essential business water use, including vehicle washing and filling non-residential swimming pools. The company noted that “exceptional” rainfall deficits have put supplies for communities in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight at direct risk. UK Environment Secretary Angela Eagle will make the final decision on the request, which would mark the first such ban imposed in the country since May 2006.

Extreme dry conditions have also created tinder-dry vegetation that has fueled a sharp rise in wildfire activity across the UK. The most prominent active blaze this week has been burning across the New Forest in southern England, and new data from the National Fire Chiefs Council shows England and Wales have already recorded 1,017 wildfires so far this year – matching last year’s record-breaking total. While the UK’s wildfire crisis has not reached the devastating scale seen in France, Greece and Spain this summer, it serves as clear evidence that the nation must adapt to a new climate reality.

With extreme heat continuing to grip large swathes of the country, Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced this week that he is considering a national ban on disposable barbecues, a common source of accidental wildfire ignitions during dry, hot conditions. “I do believe we need to get the message out loud and clear,” Burnham said. “People should not be using those barbecues outside at this moment in time.”

Just 24 months after launching operations, a major liquefied natural gas export terminal outside New Orleans is pushing forward with a multibillion-dollar expansion, leveraging a controversial Trump administration emergency permitting framework that cuts short environmental oversight and threatens fragile coastal ecosystems in one of America’s most vulnerable land-loss regions.

Located along the Mississippi River between the Louisiana communities of Myrtle Grove and Port Sulphur, Plaquemines LNG has qualified for expedited approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under the national energy emergency declared by former President Trump in 2024. Under the accelerated process, the public comment window has been slashed from the standard 30 days to just 10 days, closing on July 2, and Corps officials are on track to greenlight the project rapidly.

If approved, the expansion would more than double the terminal’s footprint, growing it from just under 590 acres to roughly 1,220 acres. According to the facility’s owner, Virginia-based developer Venture Global, the expansion would cement Plaquemines LNG’s status as the largest LNG export terminal in North America. The total price tag for the buildout is estimated at $18 billion.

But environmental advocates are sounding the alarm, warning that the truncated review process eliminates critical scrutiny of the dredging, in-water construction, and marshland filling required for the expansion. Corps projections confirm the project could damage or destroy up to 470 acres of sensitive wetlands and water bottoms in central Plaquemines Parish, a region already grappling with catastrophic coastal land loss just 25 miles south of New Orleans.

“Louisiana is already in the middle of an unprecedented coastal crisis,” explained Matt Rota, senior policy director for New Orleans-based environmental nonprofit Healthy Gulf. “Destroying another 400 acres of wetland in Plaquemines Parish is indefensible. Remaining land in the parish is already incredibly scarce, and this project would erase a huge chunk of what’s left.”

Data bears out Rota’s warning: Over the past 60 years, Plaquemines Parish alone has lost more than 250 square miles of coastal land to a combination of geological subsidence, human-caused sea level rise, and chronic erosion. The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority projects that an additional 300 square miles — roughly half of the parish’s remaining land mass — could disappear within the next 50 years. The crisis extends across the entire Louisiana coast: Since the early 1900s, the state has lost nearly 2,000 square miles of coastal land, an area roughly equivalent to the entire state of Delaware.

Neither the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers nor Venture Global responded to repeated requests for comment on the project and associated environmental risks.

The Plaquemines expansion is far from an isolated case. The 2024 national energy emergency declaration opened the door for hundreds of other energy projects across the country to skip rigorous standard environmental reviews required under the Clean Water Act. Last year, the Army Corps identified more than 600 energy projects eligible for the expedited permitting process. Trump justified the emergency order as a necessary step to protect energy security for the U.S. military and domestic economy, framing the action as critical to maintaining a “reliable, diversified, and affordable supply of energy.”

The streamlined regulatory process is expected to supercharge the already rapidly growing U.S. LNG export industry. Currently, more than 30 new or expanded LNG export terminals are in the proposal or construction phase across the country. Plaquemines LNG is the newest of four operating LNG terminals in Louisiana, which is now a national hub for LNG exports; Venture Global also owns the Calcasieu Pass LNG terminal in the state, alongside existing facilities at Sabine Pass and Cameron LNG.

LNG is natural gas cooled into liquid form to enable low-cost shipment to overseas markets, where global demand has surged since 2022 as European nations sought alternatives to Russian piped gas and economies shifted away from higher-emission coal. But critics point out that exporting massive volumes of LNG directly contradicts the Trump administration’s stated rationale for the emergency declaration, which was framed as a way to shore up domestic U.S. energy supplies and improve national energy independence.

“It’s impossible to argue that expanding an LNG export terminal boosts domestic energy reliability or independence,” noted Griffin Bird, research analyst with the Environmental Integrity Project. Rota went further, arguing: “This has nothing to do with energy security. It’s just sacrificing the Louisiana coast to line the pockets of corporate billionaires.”

U.S. Energy Information Administration data backs up the export-focused nature of Plaquemines’ operations: Of the 833 billion cubic feet of LNG exported from the terminal in 2024, the vast majority was shipped to Europe, with Germany taking the largest single share at 19 percent.

Today, Plaquemines LNG ranks among Louisiana’s largest industrial facilities, with 1.3 miles of Mississippi River frontage, three deep-water ship berths, two on-site gas-fired power plants, and nearly 30 miles of connecting natural gas pipelines. It is also one of the state’s largest sources of industrial greenhouse gas pollution. Company permitting records show the facility is legally allowed to emit roughly 8.1 million tons of carbon dioxide and other climate-warming gases each year — an amount equal to the annual emissions from 1.7 million gasoline-powered passenger vehicles.

Only one industrial facility in Louisiana posts higher annual emissions: CF Industries, an ammonia production plant in Donaldsonville that reported 10.4 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions in 2023, the most recent year included in U.S. Environmental Protection Agency public emissions data.

Advocates emphasize that these emissions, combined with the additional carbon released when imported LNG is burned for energy overseas, accelerate the climate change that is already driving sea level rise and more intense storm systems that worsen Plaquemines Parish’s land loss crisis. “Burning more natural gas from this expansion means we lose Plaquemines Parish even faster,” Rota said.

If the expansion moves forward, the terminal’s total annual export capacity will jump from roughly 1.4 trillion cubic feet to 2.3 trillion cubic feet. While the exact impact on overall emissions is still undisclosed, federal regulatory filings indicate the expanded facility could emit at least 9 million tons of greenhouse gases annually. Venture Global has stated it plans to deploy carbon capture and sequestration technology to inject a portion of the terminal’s emissions into underground geologic formations, though details on the scope and efficacy of the system have not been released publicly.

The project has earned support from many Louisiana political leaders, who frame the expansion as a major economic boost that will create high-wage jobs for local workers. U.S. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a Republican from Jefferson Parish, publicly praised the rapid development of the Plaquemines LNG site during an April 2025 tour of the facility.

“Four or five years ago, this was nothing but cow pasture,” Scalise told reporters during the visit. “Today it’s the most modern, most efficient LNG export facility in the world, and they’re building another identical facility right next door.”

This report was originally produced by Verite News and distributed via a partnership with The Associated Press.