New islands, river flowing backwards and barges unable to carry cargo in Germany - Sensationalist Headlines

https://phys.org/news/2018-10-river-chaos-germany.html Doom and gloom as I am, I was very surprised to see climate-based disruption on this scale already occurring in a first-world nation. On the waterways that are still navigable, the lower water levels have actually led to increased shipping traffic, as companies pack less weight onto boats so they don't ride so low in the water. That means they must send more vessels out to carry the same amount of freight. That has sent freight prices skyrocketing, and some costs are already being felt by consumers, with higher prices at gas pumps and for home heating oil. Chemical giant BASF has been forced to cut production due to a lack of transportation. On Friday the company lowered its yearly profit forecast after a slowdown in the third quarter partly from the extra costs incurred due to the low levels of the Rhine, which flows past its headquarters in Ludwigshafen.

Well, we were warned about what the climate change would do. At first, everybody rejected the idea. Then they said that there perhaps may be such a thing but it's too early to worry about it now. Now, we've got this happening and people either still don't care or they have accepted the fact that "there might be some sort of climate change thing going on", but that it's probably too late to do anything about it or that even if we try to change our way of life, nothing would change because human activity is not the cause. Meanwhile... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/30/wild-weather-across-europe-leaves-nine-dead-in-italy

20 years from now we'll be looking back on this and calling these rookie numbers

It's not the end of the world. But you can see it from here.

Here the Danube dropped to the point that in Hungary only small barges can be used, luckily we dammed our part so it's still relatively more navigable. The Morava can be crossed by foot - apparently according to some old people in the area, this basically never happened in recorded history. This is due to a now extreme 4-year cycle - back in 2014 we had ludicrous floods and a wet year. This means that in 2022 we'll probably be flooded again

Yikes. A friend of mine from Romania has said similar stuff, and I'm dreading how climate change is going to hit where I live. We've already got awful heat to deal with, and if it got any worse I'm not sure what anyone could do.

In fact the water level on the Rhine is so low we've already had some shortages at gas stations because the ships couldn't carry as much as usual. Maybe this, as bad as it is, might make people more aware about climate change, people not being able to fill their cars might make them think about the whole thing more.

You're screwed by your awful location that basically boosts any sort of weather Not to mention the big ozone hole Though in the final stages (thousands of years away probably, no matter if we speed it up as we do or not) apparently the entire planet will become a humid jungle, but the intermediate phase is rather dry

Heating costs are exploding in southern germany right now since the shiping got super expensive.

We’re on target to hit Cretaceous temperatures by 2500 iirc. Even an increase of 4C would be something the world hasn’t seen in millions of years - and this is an increase over decades, not millenia.

Been driving across the Elbe on my way back to my hometown last weekend. Didn't look great.

yeah I saw this firsthand during the summer holidays, we resided right next to the mösel. various parts along the entire river were obviously a lot drier than they should have been and it was especially bad in koblenz, the city where the mösel merges with the rhine. so many little islands of loose pebbles and such, it was frightening as hell. didn't expect it to be this bad so fast though