Devastation from climate change not only presents itself in historic droughts, heat waves and fires, it presents itself in massive hurricanes and devastating floods. In his press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday, President Biden expressed his condolences for the lives and property lost in this week's extreme flooding in Germany. Floods of the kind that have brought death and devastation especially to Germany and Belgium, but also Luxembourg and the Netherlands, were only supposed to happen once in a hundred years; now they're coming more frequently as the atmosphere, heated by burning fossil fuels, evaporates water and then releases rain in torrents. This year has been especially damaging for European flooding.
This week's floods have killed at least 120 people, with hundreds more unaccounted for.We've collected a few photos of the massive destruction that is a foreshadowing of life to come unless immediate action is taken to break the world's addiction to fossil fuels. Many more photos here, and here show the scope of the huge tragedy (Stu Savory at Eunoia has pics of the flooding in Germany).
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| Wreckage in the Vesdre River in Verviers, Belgium/Yves Herman/Reuters |
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| Cars Tumbled Into Ravine, Erbstadt-Blessen, Germany/Sacha Steinbach/EPA-EFE |
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| Ahr River flood in Insul, Germany/Michael Probst/AP |
