“This is climate change live!“ This is how weather and climate expert and Chairman of the Deutsche Meteorologische Gesellschaft, Frank Böttcher, describes the current drought. It is reported everywhere: agricultural soils in Germany are drying out, the first forest fires are occurring, and wild animals are dying of thirst (or starving, because the bone-dry plants are not sufficiently nutritious). The ending spring was the driest in Germany since weather records began.
Many citizens tune out when faced with such information. The reports are too unpleasant, the outlook too bleak. It is difficult for our psyche to process such bad news – all too willingly, people grasp at any straw that makes it look as if things are not that bad: "It rained yesterday and was cool – so where is the hot drought now?!" The distinction between weather and climate is then dragged out again because it allows for such reassuring statements.
As a rule of thumb, it is actually quite simple: weather is local and short-term, climate is global and long-term. The local weather of yesterday may look like whatever it wants – viewed globally and over a long period, there is no longer any scientifically substantiated doubt: severe global warming is taking place at an unprecedented rate, and it is caused by humans, primarily through the burning of fossil fuels and other materials.
Yet one still hears: “There has always been climate change!” or “The world is in eternal flux, humans are not to blame!” Both statements are unequivocally false. But this also aligns with our human psyche: if something is very large and very slow, we do not really register it because we adapt to gradual changes. This is known as a shifting baseline: what we consider "normal" changes so slowly that we do not perceive the shift.
For this reason, scientists, organisations like ElasmOcean, and reputable media outlets continuously educate the public, tirelessly repeating the facts so that human perception changes and we recognise the sad truth: humanity must change its way of life, completely and globally. Otherwise, current droughts, as well as other extreme weather events (storms, heavy rainfall, hail, etc.), will continue to increase and threaten our livelihoods.
Background information, simply explained and compactly packaged, can be found in our climate change brochure in our download area (PDF)
The full interview with Frank Böttcher: https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/regional/niedersachsen/ndr-wetterexperte-boettcher-zur-duerre-das-ist-klimawandel-im-live-modus-102.html
(Note: Our featured image was created using artificial intelligence – we are currently testing this.)
