Thanks for thinking about us.
Like Rob and his family, we're fine. We've had unusually long and heavy rains for July (it's only mid-July, yet the downfall in two weeks has already doubled the figure of precipitation usually reserved for a full month since recording began). But we live in what used to be a swamp and the forest is right across the street, nature hasn't forgotten what to do with all that water. We've had way too little rain in 2019 and 2020, the forest suffered big time (trees tipping over in masses), but now water reserves were replenished quickly. Not living close to a larger river sure helps. It's nice, I understand why people move there, but water is merciless.
That people lose their houses and property, bitter as that is, we've had that before, all that can be replaced, we're a well-to-do country. That hundreds of people die, however, is tragic and a first.
Weather has certainly become more radical in, say, the last five years here. A certain type of weather sticks around a lot longer than it used to, but when changes come, they are abrupt and harsh. We've had storms in recent years here, I've never experienced before in Germany. Stuff flying through the air like in some tornado or hurricane movie.
I'm not one of those people who think that all global warming is man-made - never forget that about 20 km from where I live, dinosaurs roamed in such masses, they are still finding their bones there today. And we had a small ice age in the middle ages, we're still coming out of it.
Climate is constantly changing in all parts of the world, always has. But it's supposed to change gradually, not radically as it does now. So our (and world-wide) fossil energy consumption must contribute. Germany used to be a classic "harsh winter country", but now birds have stopped migrating because our winters are no longer life-threatening to them (the herons that used to travel southward now hang around my pond in winter and eye me - and my fish - mischievously!) We have all kinds of new animal and plant species that have crossed invisible "temperature borders" that always used to be there. We have parrot populations in parks, they survive our mild winters easily by now and increase in size. I'm not saying all this is horrible, species come and species go, nature adapts, eco systems change, but it sure is a sign that something is happening.
