A Continent in Transition: Europe’s Extreme Heat Reveals Hidden History
Natalie Newquist, staff writer
Europe is facing another summer of extreme heat, but the effects of rising temperatures are reaching beyond record-breaking weather. As drought causes rivers across the continent to shrink, previously hidden historic relics are beginning to emerge. “That’s why we are dealing with all the products we are now, because through combustion, mineral mining, overuse of resources, we’re using those resources up faster than they can be renewed. So long term, to solve those effects in Europe and everybody worldwide, we really have to come together and do something.”, says Sofia Parker, the president of the Climate Leaders Acting Worldwide club at Johns Creek High School.
Europe is the world’s fastest warming continent, and travelers note an astonishing temperature surge in these last few years. “You would definitely not expect Lille (France) to be hot in the summer. And it was ridiculously hot, like uncomfortably hot.” Madame Rozei, the French teacher at Johns Creek High School and a frequent European traveler explains that Europe is at higher risk than the U.S. because, “many places in France don’t have air conditioning because traditionally they don’t need it… their attitude toward air conditioning is different. People feel like air conditioning is actually bad for you. They are going to have to adapt, they built a lot of buildings at a time when the climate was cooler in the summer”.
For historians, extreme heat and drought lowered the river levels, exposing a previously underwater world of historic relics thought to be lost forever. These relics shocked historians and scientists worldwide.
On the northern side of the Danube River in Bulgaria, remains of a mammoth’s lower jaw, tusks, and a rib bone were uncovered due to the rapid evaporation of the river, caused by an ever-changing European climate.
Similarly, in the same shrinking river, remains of a skeleton cargo ship, the “Fulton”, were found in Croatia. The Fulton was a Hungarian cargo ship that transported passengers, cargo and mail. Its final voyage was in 1937 when it sank while transporting coal down the Danube.
Further downstream in Serbia, the falling water levels have exposed even more significant pieces of European history. Reportedly up to 200 Nazi warships resurfaced revealing decades of history and German artifacts. On the Serbian and Romanian border, a ship’s hull was visible on a sandbank that is normally underwater. Other vessels were partly submerged; some still thought to be filled with weapons and valuables. These ships belonged to Adolf Hitler’s Nazi fleet that the German military deliberately sank towards the end of the war to slow down the Soviet advance. Historians say up to 200 German warships were sunk and scattered across the river in September 1944 and are being carefully searched for valuable artifacts. These warships are rumored to contain over 10,000 pieces of unexploded live ammunition making it extremely dangerous and difficult to get to these relics.
The effects of the Danube’s record-low water levels extend beyond the discovery of historical relics. The Danube River has also been used to cool down the “Paks Nuclear Power Plant” in Hungary. Because of its record low water levels, it was unable to provide water to cool the plant, and it had to be shut down. Romania faced a similar problem with its Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant, where reactors were shut down because of the river’s unusually low levels. The falling water levels are not only uncovering Europe’s past, but also threatening the infrastructure that millions of people rely on today.
As Europe continues to experience rising temperatures and prolonged periods of drought, its changing environment is revealing more than just the effects of climate change. The relics emerging from their rivers offer a rare connection to the past, but their appearance is also a reminder of the changes happening in the present. From mammoth remains to centuries old shipwrecks and World War 2 vessels, these discoveries show how a warming climate can transform a continent in its entirety. What is being uncovered beneath Europe’s rivers is history, but the reason it is resurfacing belongs to the present.