European mass media actively discuss extreme precipitation, its causes and consequences
Severe flooding caused by extreme rainfall has hit several countries in Central and Eastern Europe, including Romania, the Czech Republic, Austria and Poland. As a result of the natural disaster, there have already been recorded cases of deaths and missing people, as well as mass evacuations of residents of entire settlements. Hundreds of thousands of citizens were left without electricity, which complicates the situation in the affected regions.
European mass media are actively discussing how to respond to such disasters, highlighting several key directions. Many publications draw attention to the importance of international cooperation, especially in the context of the exchange of experience and technologies for combating natural disasters.
Kleine Zeitung – Austria. The Viennese Die Kleine Zeitung warns:
“What we are witnessing is the consequences of a changing climate caused by anthropogenic factors. The time has come for those events that scientists once predicted with high accuracy: extreme natural phenomena are becoming more intense and occur more frequently. What happened before a hundred years, now it happens more than once a decade. After all, we are talking about global warming of only 1.4 degrees. In the worst case scenario, global warming may exceed 4 degrees in this century – with all the catastrophic consequences. It is up to us to decide whether we can return reverse this trend – shall we follow those storytellers who still deny both the existence of global warming and its consequences”.
Der Standard – Austria. The consequences of climate change in Austria have almost no effect on the elections, – states the Viennese Der Standard with regret. In her election program, she warns against “climate hysteria” and intends to destroy the recent successes of climate policy. In addition, it is noted:
“Fighting everything supposedly foreign – from immigration to transgender people – in the framework of the election campaign seems more appropriate to her than the fight against global warming – despite the death of people from the heat and hurricanes, despite the destroyed houses, destroyed crops, millions in damages and chaos. Most the population seems to have developed a political immunity to the climate crisis. It seems that washed-out roads are easier to tolerate than 100 km/h speed limits on the autobahn.”
Gazeta Wyborcza – Poland. Political enmity is now inappropriate – Warsaw’s Gazeta Wyborcza believes:
“Polish politicians are probably not mature enough to go beyond party logic in the face of catastrophic events, to talk as little as possible – or even to keep their mouths shut at all. Kaczynski has apparently decided that his constituents need more constant injections of hatred than he gives them on a regular basis and feeds – regardless of the circumstances. It is bad that the politicians of the Civic Coalition party are competing to show the highest level of flooding, thereby compromising PiS, which [during its time in power] neglected the construction of flood protection structures. The priority now there is an effective evacuation of residents. … The lessons learned from what happened will have to be postponed until the water recedes.”
wPolityce.pl – Poland. Criticism of a certain policy should be possible even in an emergency situation, wPolityce believes:
“Politics in itself does not contradict aid and solidarity. After all, politics is not just endless conversations, but efficiency and the ability to act. …Currently, a completely idiotic idea has formed that politics is not about solving problems, but only about talking about them. The more heated and emotional such pseudo-debates become, the more they prove that this is the essence of politics. But in reality, it is nothing like that. It is just a dirty foam around real politics.”
Economic newspaper – Чехия. Despite all the damage, the Czech authorities coped better with the catastrophic flood than with the comparable cataclysms of 1997 and 2002, – notes Prague’s Hospodářské noviny:
“The notification system has been significantly improved. Hydrologists, the country as a whole, regions and communes exchange information quickly and notify citizens in a timely and accurate manner. Of course, mistakes are inevitable, as, for example, in Bohumin, where water arrived twice as fast as expected experts. But what will definitely not happen again is what happened in 2002, when the then mayor of Prague, Ihor Nemec, declared that ‘the situation is better than anywhere’, and a few hours later water was rushing through the tunnels of the Prague metro.”
Süddeutsche Zeitung – Germany. Munich’s Süddeutsche Zeitung is pleased to note that everything is not so bad in the country – if so many people have united in the fight against the flood:
“Crowds of volunteers stack sandbags. If necessary, they help residents move to a safe place with their belongings – or supply hot tea and coffee to rescue workers. Often there are so many volunteers that cities and district administrations create special coordination centers for them. … This is not at all the country that all kinds of skeptics, detractors and evil-doers shame in every way during talk shows and on the Internet. It is not a country of selfishness, ignorance and incompetence. It is very comforting to see such examples in the era of heated debates.”
