environment Archives - understand-culture

Warnings Before the Ahr Flood

In mid-July 2021, a flood in the Ahr valley killed 134 people. Warnings had gone out days earlier. The European Flood Awareness System, EFAS, said its forecasts showed a “high” probability of flooding in the Rhine area as early as 9 and 10 July. From 10 to 14 July, it sent more than 25 warnings for parts of the Rhine and Meuse basins to the national authorities. A meteorologist of the German Weather Service said its models had captured the rainfall well days ahead, and that the first pre-warnings went out three days in advance. On the afternoon of 14 July, the state environment office forecast a level at the Ahr well above the previous record of 3.7 meters. Around 9:30 p.m., it named an expected level of almost seven meters. The municipality of Altenahr had asked the district early to raise the disaster alarm. The district first refused and pointed to data that still had to be checked. It declared the disaster only around 11 p.m. and ordered the evacuation of buildings within 50 meters of the river.

A survey by the University of Potsdam later asked 1,315 people affected by the floods. In Rhineland-Palatinate, 29 percent said they had received no warning at all. Of all respondents who had been warned, 85 percent had not expected very severe flooding. The researcher Annegret Thieken said: Ein großes Problem bestand darin, dass die Warnmeldungen das Ausmaß der Flut nicht ausreichend widerspiegelten. A major problem was that the warnings did not reflect the scale of the flood well enough.

Three Years Before a Hunting Lease

Passing the hunting exam is not the last step for a German hunter. Under the Federal Hunting Act, only a person who holds an annual hunting license may lease a hunting ground, and that person must already have held one in Germany for three years. Young people aged 16 and 17 can receive only a Jugendjagdschein, a youth hunting license. It allows them to hunt only in the company of a parent or guardian, or of a supervisor whom the guardian has appointed in writing. The law adds: die Begleitperson muß jagdlich erfahren sein, the companion must be experienced in hunting. Holders of the youth license may not take part in group hunts, the Gesellschaftsjagden.

A Chainsaw Course for Firewood

Germans can buy firewood that they cut themselves in a public forest, as a Selbstwerber, a self-harvester. Bavaria’s official service portal lists what is usually needed for a permit. The applicant needs proof of private liability insurance and proof of a chainsaw course recognized by the agricultural trade association, the Berufsgenossenschaft. The applicant also needs certified protective gear: a helmet with ear and face protection, gloves, a signal jacket, cut-protection trousers and cut-protection boots. In Saxony’s state forest, anyone working with a chainsaw must provide proof of competence. The state forest company’s sales terms add that firewood may not be cut by a person working alone.

Ten Years for One Drift

On 20 September 2019, the German research icebreaker Polarstern set out on the MOSAiC expedition. The plan was to let the ship freeze into the Arctic ice and drift with it for a year. The federal government described the departure in one sentence: Nach zehn Jahren der Vorbereitung war es soweit, after ten years of preparation, the time had come. The expedition cost 140 million euros. About 600 scientists from different fields took part. Six icebreakers were to supply the ship, and a runway for supply aircraft was to be built on the ice floe. On 4 October 2019, the ship was frozen into a floe and its main engines were switched off. From then on, it moved only with the ice, inside a drift corridor that had been calculated in advance.

Forest Dieback

In 1981 the news magazine Der Spiegel ran a series on acid rain under the title Das stille Sterben – Säureregen zerstört den deutschen Wald, the silent death: acid rain is destroying the German forest. A soil scientist from Göttingen was quoted as saying the first great forests would die within five years. A new word entered German, and French as well: das Waldsterben, the dying of the forest. Policy followed. The ordinance on large combustion plants came into force on 1 July 1983. Unleaded petrol and the catalytic converter followed. In 2004 a forestry economist noted that the forecasts of that time had proved untenable. Environmental groups answer that the forest survived because of what was done. In 2013 the Bund Naturschutz in Bavaria called it fatal to deny these successes.

The Permanent Forest

In 1922 the forest scientist Alfred Möller of Eberswalde published Der Dauerwaldgedanke, the idea of the permanent forest. Its core is the Stetigkeit des Waldwesens, the continuity of the forest as a living whole, above all by giving up clear-cutting. Möller’s example was the Bärenthoren estate, where Friedrich von Kalitsch had managed a pine forest this way since 1884. Von Kalitsch said: Ich mache niemals Kahlschläge und durchforste meinen ganzen Wald persönlich auszeichnend. I never clear-cut, and I personally mark the trees for thinning in my whole forest. Möller called clear-cut forestry Holzackerbau, timber farming. Under the German Empire, the usual practice was to plant single-species stands of spruce and pine and to harvest them after a few decades. A presentation on the website of the Brandenburg forest administration puts the idea in one line: Stetigkeit ist das Gegenteil von Plötzlichkeit. Continuity is the opposite of suddenness.

The Yellow Bag

In Germany, packaging waste goes into the Gelber Sack, the yellow bag. It is collected for private recycling systems, not by the city’s waste service. The city of Würzburg says so plainly: Der Gelbe Sack fällt nicht in die Zuständigkeit der Stadtreiniger. The yellow bag is not the responsibility of the city cleaners. A private firm is commissioned to collect it, and complaints go to that firm. When yellow bags were left lying on Stuttgart’s streets in January 2023, the city explained that it was nicht Auftraggeber der Abholung, not the party that had ordered the collection.

Bottle Bank Hours

German towns post set hours for throwing glass into bottle banks. In Nuremberg it is Monday to Saturday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. In Aachen it is Monday to Saturday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Langen in Hesse asks people to use them from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Bocholt gives 7 a.m. to noon and 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. In Haßloch in the Palatinate, putting glass in on Sundays and public holidays is forbidden.

An Exam Before You Fish

Anyone who wants to fish in Bavaria needs a Fischereischein, a fishing license. To get one, the angler must pass the state Fischerprüfung, the fishing exam. The preparatory course lasts at least 30 hours. The exam takes 60 minutes and has 60 questions. A candidate who gets more than a quarter of them wrong fails. In Lower Saxony, anyone who takes on a first dog after July 1, 2013, needs a Sachkundenachweis, proof of expert knowledge. The owner passes a theory test before getting the dog and a practical test within the first year. Only recognized examiners may hold the tests. The hunting exam is popularly called the grünes Abitur, the green high-school diploma.

A Ministry Founded After Chernobyl

In the spring of 1986, environmental protection in the federal government was divided among the ministries of the interior, agriculture and health. The Chernobyl reactor disaster led to the founding of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Reactor Safety on 6 June 1986. The ministry still exists, under changing names.