=German voters who flocked to the September 2021 federal parliamentary elections indicated they’re now convinced climate change is now a reality in the country. Preliminary voting results denied Armin Laschet a chance to succeed Angela Merkel as Germany’s new Chancellor. The recent disastrous events made clear that the country needs a leader who will seriously address the problems wrought by climate change.
In recent months, Germans experienced disasters in different forms, from fatally serious flooding to devastating wildfires and deadly heatwaves. The July 14 and 15 flooding incidents that devastated North Rhine – Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, killed as many as 224 residents across Germany and Belgium.
Although the Christian Democratic Party’s (CDP) candidate visited the disaster zone together with Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate Olaf Scholz, media cameras caught images of Laschet laughing while President Frank Walter Steinmeier was delivering a tribute to the flood victims. The seeming lack of genuine concern was the turning point for undecided voters. Considering that residents of worst-hit areas were already frustrated and angry over the government’s slow response to help the people out of their predicament.
Effects of Climate Change have been Affecting Germany’s Tourism Industry
Livelihoods provided by Germany’s tourism industry are the most affected by climate change. The Bavarian Alps landscape for one has been undergoing changes caused by the increasingly warm temperatures during the past decades.
Where temperatures of minus 20 degrees Celsius would have been enough to sustain the Alps’ snow-clad mountains, today, the minus 10 degrees Celsius temperatures can’t even bring sufficient amount of snowfall that winter sports resorts need to satisfy and delight arriving visitors.
While many have shifted their focus on becoming the destination resort for cross-country bikers and hikers, the effects of climate change continues to diminish the Bavarian Alps’ attraction to visitors. As the permafrosts are already melting under the increasingly warm temperature, the rocks have been losing stability.
Such conditions have led to increased incidences of landslides that have caused cycling and hiking trails to disappear; frustrating many bikers and hikers enroute to the fairy tale Neuschwanstein Castle, the most famous of the remaining castles in the Alps’ Eastern Allgau.
Yet the most devastating effects of climate change on tourism were the summer floodings in Ahr Valley last July The flooding disaster practically wiped out many of the country’s most visited tourist destinations. The assessment is that it will take years before the region can recover, as many of the hardest hit spots are the vineyards that have long stood the test of time until the rivers unexpectedly overflowed that surged and flooded the region.
Many consider the deadly Ahr Valley flooding a wakeup call for people to take the calls for mitigation actions and reform of environmentalists more seriously, which the German voters manifested by voting for Olaf Schloss