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The fish floating by the German banks near the eastern town of Schwedt are believed to have washed upstream from Poland

Thousands of fish have washed up dead on the Oder river running through Germany and Poland, sparking warnings of an environmental disaster as residents are urged to stay away from the water.

The fish floating by the German banks near the eastern town of Schwedt are believed to have washed upstream from Poland where first reports of mass fish deaths were made by locals and anglers as early as on July 28.

German officials accused Polish authorities of failing to inform them about the deaths, and were taken by surprise when the wave of lifeless fish came floating into view.

In Poland, the government has also come under heavy criticism for failing to take swift action.

Almost two weeks after the first dead fish appeared floating by Polish villages, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Friday that “everyone had initially thought that it was a local problem”. 

But he admitted that the “scale of the disaster is very large, sufficiently large to say that the Oder will need years to recover its natural state.”

“Probably enormous quantities of chemical waste was dumped into the river in full knowledge of the risk and consequences,” added the Polish leader, as German Environment Minister Steffi Lemke urged a comprehensive probe into what she called a brewing “environmental disaster”. 

– ‘Atypical’ –

Standing by the riverbank, Michael Tautenhahn, deputy chief of Germany’s Lower Oder Valley National Park, looked in dismay at the river on the German-Polish border. 

“We are standing on the German side — we have dead fish everywhere,” he told AFP. 

“I am deeply shocked… I have the feeling that I’m seeing decades of work lying in ruins here. I see our livelihood, the water — that’s our life,” he said, noting that it’s not just fish that have died, but also mussels and likely countless other water creatures.

“It’s just the tip of the iceberg.”

The Oder has over the last years been known as a relatively clean river, and 40 domestic species of fish make their home in the waterway.

But now, lifeless fish — some as small as a few centimetres, others reaching 30-40 cm — can be seen across the river. Occasionally, those still struggling to pull through can be seen flipping up in the water, seemingly gasping for air.

Officials believe that the fish are likely to have been poisoned. 

“This fish death is atypical,” said Axel Vogel, environment minister for Brandenburg state, estimating that “undoubtedly tonnes” of fish have died.

Fish death is often caused by the distortion of oxygen levels when water levels are too low, he explained.

“But we have completely different test results, namely that we have had increased oxygen level in the river for several days, and that indicates that a foreign substance has been introduced that has led to this,” he said.

Tests are ongoing in Germany to establish the substance that may have led to the deaths. 

Early reports had suggested indications of extremely high levels of mercury. But another batch of preliminary results released on Friday evening showed unusually high levels of salt. 

Authorities said they were unconclusive, and that further test results on heavy metals and mercury were pending. 

In Poland, prosecutors have also begun investigating after authorities came under fire over what critics said was a sluggish response to a disaster.

Tautenhahn said the disaster would likely carry consequences for years to come. 

“If it is quicksilver, then it will also stay here for a long time,” he said, noting that mercury does not disintegrate but would then remain in the sediments.

NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins spoke to AFP from the International Space Station on August 1, 2022

If you had the choice, would you rather go to the Moon or Mars?

The question is utterly theoretical for most of us, but for US astronaut Jessica Watkins, it hits a bit differently.

“Whichever comes first!” Watkins says with a laugh, in a lengthy interview with AFP from her post on the International Space Station (ISS).

At 34, Watkins has many years ahead of her at the US space agency NASA, and could very well be one of the first women to step foot on the Moon in the coming years, as a member of the Artemis team preparing for upcoming lunar missions.

Missions to Mars are off in the future, but given that astronauts often work into their 50s, Watkins could conceivably have a shot.

Either way is just fine, she says.

“I certainly would be just absolutely thrilled to be able to be a part of the effort to go to another planetary surface, whether it be the Moon or Mars.”

In the meantime, Watkins’ first space flight was a history maker: she became the first Black woman to undertake a long-term stay on the ISS, where she has already spent three months as a mission specialist, with three months to go.

The Apollo missions that sent humans to the Moon were solely staffed by white men, and NASA has sought over the years to widen its recruitment to a more diverse group of candidates.

The agency now wants to put both women and people of color on the Moon.

“I think it is an important milestone for the agency and the country, and the world as well,” Watkins says. “Representation is important. It is true that it is difficult to be what you can’t see.”

The Maryland native added that she was “grateful for all of those who have come before me… the women and Black astronauts who have paved the way to enable me to be here today.”

– Geologist at heart –

Born in Gaithersburg in the suburbs of Washington, Watkins grew up in Colorado before heading to California to study geology at Stanford University.

During her doctoral studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, her research focused in part on Mars and she worked on NASA’s Curiosity rover, which just celebrated 10 years on the Red Planet. 

Watkins still has a soft spot for Mars. In fact, she has published a scientific study on the planet during her stint on the ISS.

“I would certainly call myself a geologist, a scientist, an astronaut,” she says.

Watkins remembers the moment that she realized space and planetary geology — the composition of formation of celestial bodies such as planets, moons and asteroids — would be her life’s work.

It came during one of her first geology classes, in a lecture about planetary accretion, or when solids gradually collide with each other to form larger bodies, and ultimately planets.

“I remember learning about that process… and realizing then that that was what I wanted to do with the rest of my life and what I wanted to study,” she recalls.

“The notion of being able to be a part of an effort to actually do field work on the surface of another planetary body is super exciting, and I look forward to being a part of it.”

The Artemis program, a successor to Apollo, is aimed at slowly establishing a lasting human presence on the Moon. The end goal is to set up a base that would be a forward operating station for any eventual trips to Mars.

The first uncrewed mission under the Artemis banner is set to take off for the Moon at the end of August.

Watkins is one of 18 astronauts assigned to the Artemis team, to either provide ground support or eventually take flight.

Officially, every active NASA astronaut (there are currently 42) has a chance to be selected to take part in a lunar landing.

– ‘Push the limits’ –

While previous mission experience may weigh heavily in NASA’s choices for personnel for the first crewed Artemis flight, Watkins’s academic background certainly should boost her chances of being chosen.

Being good-natured and having a healthy team spirit are also key for space flight teams, who spend long periods of time confined in small spaces.

Watkins says her colleagues would call her “easygoing,” and her time playing rugby taught her the value of working on a team.

So how does she define being an astronaut?

“Each of us all have that sense of exploration and a desire to continue to push the limits of what humans are capable of. And I think that is something that unites us,” she says.

Watkins says she dreamed of going to space when she was young, and always kept it in the back of her mind — without ever thinking it could be a reality.

“Don’t be afraid to dream big,” she says. “You’ll never know when your dreams will come true.”

Clean energy is one of the tentpoles of US President Joe Biden's massive climate and health proposal

Hundreds of billions of dollars for clean energy projects, cheaper prescription drugs and new corporate taxes are a few of the key items in US President Joe Biden’s massive investment plan, which Congress has now passed.

Here’s a closer look at the signature elements of the package, which represents a big political win for the Democratic president heading into November’s crucial midterm elections.

Biden said he will sign it into law next week.

– $370 billion for clean energy, climate –

The legislation marks the biggest investment in US history in the fight against climate change.

Rather than attempting to punish the biggest polluters in corporate America, the bill put forward by Biden’s party instead offers a series of financial incentives aimed at steering the world’s biggest economy away from fossil fuels.

Tax credits will be given to producers and consumers of wind, solar and nuclear power. 

It allots up to $7,500 in tax credits to every American who buys an electric vehicle. Anyone installing solar panels on their roof will see 30 percent of the cost subsidized.

Around $60 billion will be allocated for clean energy manufacturing, from wind turbines to the processing of minerals needed for electric car batteries. 

The same amount will go towards programs to help drive investment in underprivileged communities, notably through grants for home renovation to improve energy efficiency and access to less polluting modes of transportation.

Huge investments will go into making forests less susceptible to wildfires and protect coastal areas from erosion caused by devastating hurricanes.

The bill aims to help the United States reduce its carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030, as compared with 2005 levels.

– $64 billion for health care –

The second major aspect of the legislation is to help reduce the huge disparities in access to health care across the United States, notably by reining in skyrocketing prescription drug prices.

Under the new plan, Medicare — the nation’s health insurance plan for those aged 65 and older, or with modest incomes — will be permitted to negotiate prices of certain medications directly with Big Pharma for the first time, likely yielding far better deals.

The plan requires pharmaceutical companies to offer rebates on certain drugs if the prices rise faster than soaring US inflation.

It also extends benefits under Barack Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act — known colloquially as Obamacare — until 2025.

– Minimum corporate tax of 15% –

Alongside these huge investments, the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” seeks to pare down the federal deficit through the adoption of a minimum corporate tax of 15 percent for all companies with profits exceeding one billion dollars.

The new tax aims to prevent certain huge firms from using tax havens to pay far less than what they theoretically owe.

According to estimates, the measure could generate more than $258 billion in tax revenue for US government coffers over the next 10 years.

The US House of Representatives is expected to pass President Joe Biden's sprawling climate, tax and health care plan

US lawmakers on Friday adopted President Joe Biden’s sprawling climate, tax and health care plan — a major win for the veteran Democrat that includes the biggest ever American investment in the battle against global warming.

Passage in the House of Representatives along strict party lines came after approval of the bill in the Senate by a razor-thin margin, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote.

Biden quickly hailed the adoption of his plan, which includes a $370 billion investment aimed at bringing about a 40 percent drop in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

“Today, the American people won. Special interests lost,” the president tweeted in the minutes after the vote.

“With the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in the House, families will see lower prescription drug prices, lower health care costs, and lower energy costs. I look forward to signing it into law next week.”

The vote is a clear victory for Biden on one of his top policy priorities less than three months before November’s crucial midterm elections, with his Democratic Party’s control of Congress in the balance.

It also should help restore a semblance of US leadership in the fight to cut carbon emissions.

In her final comments before the vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the legislation “a robust cost-cutting package that meets the moment, ensuring that our families thrive and that our planet survives.”

The package includes the largest ever commitment to fighting climate change by the world’s biggest economy, which is also one of the planet’s worst polluters.

Climate activists rejoiced after the 220-207 vote, which earned the support of all Democrats, even progressives who had lamented that it did not go far enough. 

The president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, Johanna Chao Kreilick, called the legislation “a game changer and reason for hope.”

The so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” also would provide $64 billion for health care initiatives and ensure lower costs for some drugs, which can be 10 times more expensive in the United States than in some other rich nations.

Conservative lawmakers have criticized the bill as wasteful spending, and no Republican lawmakers supported it. 

“Democrats are jamming through Congress a bill spending hundreds of billions of dollars our country doesn’t have, on far-left policies our country cannot afford,” Republican lawmaker Lee Zeldin tweeted. 

– Tax credits for clean energy –

Rather than attempting to punish the biggest polluters in corporate America, the bill instead proposes a series of financial incentives aimed at steering the country away from fossil fuels.

It would provide Americans with a tax credit of up to $7,500 when purchasing an electric car, plus a 30 percent discount when they install solar panels on their roofs.

The legislation would also provide millions to help protect and conserve forests, which have been ravaged in recent years by wildfires during record heat waves that scientists say are linked to global warming.

Billions of dollars in tax credits would also go to some of the country’s worst-polluting industries to help their transition to greener methods — a measure bitterly opposed by progressive Democrats who have, however, accepted this as the best option after months of inaction and frustration.

But they long ago had to give up their ambitions for free preschool and community colleges and expanded health care for the elderly.

– Corporate tax –

Biden came to office with promises of sweeping reforms, but has repeatedly seen his hopes dashed, revived and dashed again. 

The 50-50 split in the Senate, with Harris as the tie-breaker, has effectively given a veto to moderates such as Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who used that power to block Biden’s much more expansive Build Back Better plan.

But in late July, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer managed to engineer a compromise with Manchin, whose state’s economy depends heavily on coal mining.

To help offset the plan’s massive spending, it would reduce the US deficit through a new 15 percent minimum tax on companies with profits of $1 billion or more — a move targeting some that now pay far less.

That measure could generate more than $258 billion in tax receipts for the government over the next 10 years, by some estimates.

Weather forecasts suggest France's third heatwave this year will be broken by storms over the weekend

A huge fire that has devastated swathes of southwestern France appeared contained on Friday as French and foreign firefighters worked flat out, but blistering temperatures made victory uncertain, local authorities said.

The 40-kilometre (25-mile) active fire front in the Gironde and Landes departments around Bordeaux had “not progressed for 48 hours”, Gironde firefighting chief Marc Vermeulen said on Friday afternoon.

Some residents in two Landes districts were to be allowed home in the evening, and a highway section leading to neighbouring Spain was to be reopened for the first time in two days, local officials said.

Deputy prefect Ronan Leaustic told reporters earlier in the day that the fire had not developed, but the weather conditions were pushing officials towards “extreme vigilance”.

Temperatures stood at 39 degrees Celsius (102 Fahrenheit) in the fire zone, just like the day before.

No new evacuations had been ordered on top of the 10,000 people already asked to leave, Leaustic added.

But “temperatures continue to rise and the water table keeps falling”, he said.

EU members including Germany, Poland, Austria and Romania have pledged reinforcements totalling 361 firefighters to join the roughly 1,100 French ones on the ground, along with several water-bombing planes from the European Union fleet.

– ‘Helping you guys’ –

Many of the newcomers went into action on Friday.

“It doesn’t matter which country we’re in, we’re firefighters, we are able to help people around the world,” said Cristian Buhaianu, who commands a 77-strong firefighting contingent from Romania.

At the Merignac air base, near the southwestern city of Bordeaux, where Canadair planes and other firefighting aircraft are stationed, a Greek pilot said scenes of devastation like the ones seen in France were commonplace in his home country.

“We see this every year in Greece, and right now we see this in France,” the pilot, 36-year-old Anastasis Sariouglou told AFP. “We have the feeling of helping you guys and it’s nice.”

Around 20 firefighters also flew over to help from French Polynesia.

In the hard-hit area around the village of Hostens, the thick smoke seen on Thursday gave way to blue skies and occasional clouds.

France has been buffeted this summer by a historic drought that has forced water use restrictions nationwide, as well as a series of heatwaves that experts say are being driven by climate change.

The blaze near Bordeaux erupted in July — the driest month seen in France since 1961 — destroying 14,000 hectares and forcing thousands of people to evacuate before it was contained.

But it continued to smoulder in the tinder-dry pine forests and peat-rich soil.

Officials suspect arson may have played a role in the latest flare-up, which has burned 7,400 hectares (18,000 acres) since Tuesday.

– ‘Forced to adapt’ –

Fires in 2022 have ravaged an area three times the annual average over the past 10 years, with blazes also active in the Alpine Jura, Isere and Ardeche regions this week.

The Ardeche fire “is far from under control, because the site is very difficult to reach”, said Jean Jaussaud, a local emergency services commander.

European Copernicus satellite data showed more carbon dioxide greenhouse gas — over one million tonnes — had been released from 2022’s forest fires in France than in any summer since records began in 2003.

On Friday, 19 departments were still at the highest orange heat alert level set by weather authority Meteo-France.

This year’s summer resembled predictions for “an average summer in the middle of this century” under pessimistic climate change scenarios, Meteo-France expert Jean-Michel Soubeyroux told AFP.

Maurin Berenger, a winegrower from the southwestern Lot department, said temperatures had been “unprecedented”.

“We’ve been forced to adapt, we work from very early in the morning or even at night. I started at 3:00 am last night, and people with farm hands start at 6:00 to avoid the heat”.

Weather forecasts suggest France’s third heatwave this year will be broken by storms over the weekend.

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Footprints from the late Ice Age some 12,000 years ago were discovered in the US state of Utah when researchers driving past in a car noticed the distinct depressions in a dried river bed

Footprints laid down by Ice Age hunter-gatherers and recently discovered in a US desert are shedding new light on North America’s earliest human inhabitants.

Dozens of fossilized prints found in dried-up riverbeds in the western state of Utah reveal more details about how the continent’s original occupants lived more than 12,000 years ago — just as the frozen planet was starting to thaw.

The fossils could have remained unnoticed if not for a chance glance out of a moving car as researchers Daron Duke and Thomas Urban drove through Hill Air Force Base chatting about footprints.

“We were talking about, ‘What would they look like?'” Duke told AFP. “And he said, ‘Kind of like that out the window.'”

What the men had found turned out to be 88 distinct prints left by a mixture of adults and children.

“They vary between just looking like discolored patches on the ground and… little pop-ups, little pieces of dirt around them or on them. But they look like footprints,” Duke said.

The discovery was followed by a painstaking few days of very careful digging — with Duke sometimes lying on his belly — to ensure that what they were looking at was as old as it appeared.

“What I found was bare feet of people… that had stepped in what looks to be shallow water where there was a mud sub-layer,” Duke explained.

“The minute they pulled their foot out, the sand infilled that and has preserved it perfectly.”

Duke, of the Nevada-based Far Western Anthropological Research Group, had been in the area looking for evidence of prehistoric campfires built by the Shoshone, a people whose descendants still live in the western United States.

He had brought Urban over from Cornell University because of his expertise in uncovering evidence of ancient humans — including the discovery of human tracks in New Mexico’s White Sands National Park that are thought to be up to 23,000 years old.

– ‘Awestruck’ –

The new fossils add to a wealth of other finds from the area — including stone tools, evidence of tobacco use, bird bones and campfire remains — that are starting to provide a more complete record of the Shoshone and their continuous presence in the region beginning 13,000 years ago.

“These are the resident Indigenous people of North America; this is where they lived, and this is where they still live today,” Duke said.

For him personally, finding the footprints has been a professional high point.

“Once I… realized I was digging a human footprint, I was seeing toes, I was seeing the thing in immaculate condition… I was just kind of awestruck by it,” he said.

“Nothing beats the sense of discovery and awe that maybe as an archaeologist, you are actually chasing your whole career.”

And sharing the discovery with the distant descendants of the people who made the prints was immensely rewarding, Duke said.

“You realize the same thing is happening — what the connection is to such a distant past and to something so human, I think it gets to everybody in one way or another eventually.”

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has stoked regional tensions

Ethiopia announced Friday it has completed the third filling of its mega-dam on the Blue Nile, a new milestone that could raise further tensions with downstream neighbours Egypt and Sudan.

The development comes a day after Ethiopia said it had launched electricity production from the second turbine at the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) in the northwest of the country.

“Today as you see behind me, the third filling is complete,” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said from the dam site in images broadcast on state television.

“The Nile is a gift of God given to us for Ethiopians to make use of it.”

The massive $4.2 billion dam, set to be the largest hydro-electric scheme in Africa, has been at the centre of a regional dispute ever since Ethiopia broke ground on the project in 2011.

There is still no agreement between Ethiopia and its downstream neighbours Egypt and Sudan about the GERD’s operations despite talks held under the auspices of the African Union.

Cairo and Khartoum view it as a threat because of their dependence on Nile waters.

But Ethiopia deems it essential for the electrification and development of Africa’s second most populous nation.

It was one of Africa’s fastest growing economies in recent years until war broke out in northern Ethiopia in November 2020 between federal government forces and Tigrayan rebels.

– ‘Gifted nations’ –

There was no immediate reaction from Egypt or Sudan about Friday’s development.

But Egypt, an arid nation which relies on the Nile for about 97 percent of its irrigation and drinking water, last month protested to the UN Security Council that the third filling was under way.

Abiy nevertheless sought to reassure Egypt and Sudan over the impact of dam.

“When we set out to build a dam on the Nile, we said from the beginning that we did not want to make the river our own,” he said on Twitter. 

“We hope that just like Ethiopia, the other gifted nations of the Nile, Sudan and Egypt, will get to utilise their share.” 

On Thursday, he had called for negotiations to reach an understanding on the dam but insisted the third filling was not causing any water shortages downstream.

The process of filling the GERD’s vast reservoir began in 2020 and it now contains 22 billion cubic metres of water out of a total capacity of 74 billion. 

“Compared to last year, we have reached 600 metres which is 25 metres higher than the previous filling,” Abiy said Friday.

– Almost complete –

Ethiopia first began generating electricity from the GERD in February. Currently, the two operational turbines, out of a total of 13, have a capacity to generate 750 megawatts of electricity.

It is ultimately expected to produce more than 5,000 megawatts, more than doubling Ethiopia’s current output.

Project manager Kifle Horo said Thursday that overall the dam was now more than 83 percent complete and that the goal was for it to be finished in the next two and a half years.

The structure is 145-metres (475 feet) high and 1.8 kilometres long, straddling the Nile tributary in the Benishangul-Gumuz region of northwestern Ethiopia, not far from the border with Sudan.

The project was initiated under former prime minister Meles Zenawi, the Tigrayan leader who ruled Ethiopia for more than two decades until his death in 2012. 

The UK government has officially declared a drought in several parts of England

The UK government on Friday officially declared a drought across swathes of England, following months of record low rainfall and unprecedented high temperatures in recent weeks.

At a meeting of the National Drought Group, the government’s Environment Agency said the “drought trigger threshold had been met” in parts of southwestern, southern, central and eastern England.

Drought was last officially declared in England in 2018.

The agency has released a report noting that England had its driest July since 1935.

The Met Office, the UK’s meteorological authority, said the period from January to June this year saw the least rainfall in England and Wales since 1976.

That summer saw the use of drastic measures such as roadside standpipes and water rationing.

This year’s exceptional weather comes as France is also experiencing a record drought and battling huge wildfires.

The UK government said the move to drought status was based on factors such as rainfall, river flows and levels of groundwater and reservoirs and their impact on public water supply.

“We urge everyone to manage the amount of water they are using in this exceptionally dry period,” National Drought Group chair, Harvey Bradshaw, said in a statement.

The Environment Agency and water companies “will step up their actions to manage impacts” and press ahead with their published drought plans, including measures like hosepipe bans.

It stressed that “essential supplies of water are safe.”

– ‘Extreme heat’ –

England and parts of Wales are severely parched and three water companies — Welsh Water, Southern Water and South East Water — have all imposed hosepipe bans, while several others are set to follow suit.

Every month of the year except February has been drier than average, according to the Met Office.

Satellite images from July released by NASA showed dried-up brown areas extending across most of southern England and up the northeastern coast.

The source of the River Thames has dried up, and now starts from a point several miles downstream.

Meetings of the National Drought Group are convened by the Environment Agency, which monitors water levels in rivers and ground water.

The group is made up of senior decision-makers from the government and water companies, along with other affected groups such as farmers.

Water minister Steve Double said the government had “made it clear” to water companies that “it is their duty” to maintain essential supplies.

“We are better prepared than ever before for periods of dry weather, but we will continue to closely monitor the situation, including impacts on farmers and the environment,” he added.

– ‘Leaks’ –

But critics have pointed to the billions of litres lost daily by the private water firms, whose top management are paid millions of pounds annually and which regularly pay out dividends to shareholders.

“They should actually get their fingers into action,” said Claire Connarty, 61, as she visited a plant nursery in Kent, southeast of London — where a hosepipe ban came into force Friday.

“They’ve got leaks all over the place but then they tell us to limit our water (use).”

Fellow shopper Barry Martin, 62, was more sympathetic, noting that leaks were inevitable and that he was trying to limit his own waste — including by having buckets in his shower to catch excess water. 

“I try not to waste,” the retiree told AFP, adding that as he is on a water meter it helps keep his bills down as well as to preserve an increasingly precious resource. 

The Met Office on Tuesday issued an amber warning of “extreme heat” in parts of England and Wales Thursday to Sunday, predicting possible impacts on health, transport and infrastructure.

Temperatures were expected to peak in the mid-30s Celsius on Friday and the weekend, after which some showers and thunderstorms were forecast.

Temperatures were not expected to hit the record levels seen in July, when a temperature of 40.3 degrees Celsius (104.5 degrees Fahrenheit) was recorded in Lincolnshire in northeastern England on July 20, during an unprecedented heatwave.

The National Climate Information Centre said that such high temperatures in the UK were only possible due to human-induced climate change.

French wine regions from the southwest to the northeast are suffering through heatwaves

Forced to start picking grapes much earlier than normal because of torrid temperatures, winemakers across France are worrying that grape quality will suffer from the climate-induced stress.

The exceptionally dry conditions spread from the rugged hills of Herault along the Mediterranean, where picking is already underway, to the normally verdant Alsace in the northeast.

Waves of extreme heat this summer accelerated grape maturation, meaning harvests had to begin one to three weeks early or more — in Languedoc-Roussillon, some growers even started in late July.

“We were all a bit surprised, they began maturing very rapidly these past few days,” said Francois Capdellayre, president of the Dom Brial cooperative in Baixas, outside Perpignan.

He said the shears came out on August 3 for the region’s typical muscat grapes, followed by chardonnay and grenache blanc.

“In more than 30 years I’ve never started my harvests on August 9,” said Jerome Despey, a vineyard owner in the Herault department.

– Stressed out –

Like other farmers, French winegrowers have been grappling for years with increasingly common extreme weather including spring freezes, devastating hailstorms and unseasonably heavy rains.

But this summer’s combination of a historic drought — July was the driest month on record since 1961 — and high temperatures are taking a particular toll on vineyards.

Only 10 percent of France’s winegrowing parcels use artificial irrigation systems, which can be difficult or prohibitively expensive to install.

And while grape vines are more hardy than many other crops, with roots that descend deep into the ground over years of growth, even they can withstand only so much.

When water is scarce, the vines suffer “hydric stress” and protect themselves by shedding leaves and no longer providing nutrients to grapes, stunting their growth.

In Alsace, “we haven’t had a drop of rain in two months,” said Gilles Ehrhart, president of the AVA growers’ association.

“We’re going to have a very, very small harvest” after picking begins around August 26, he said. 

And when temperatures surpass 38 degrees Celsius (100 Fahrenheit), “the grape burns — it dries up, loses volume and quality suffers” because the resulting alcohol content “is too high for consumers,” said Pierre Champetier, president of the Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) for the Ardeche region south of Lyon.

Champetier began harvesting Monday, when “40 years ago, we started around September 20,” he said.

Now he worries that global warming will make such premature harvests “normal.”

– Quality at risk –

Some winemakers are still holding off in hopes of rain in coming weeks, such as red grape producers in Herault, where harvests should begin as usual in early September. 

In Burgundy, which two years ago saw its earliest harvest debut — August 16 — in more than four centuries of keeping track, picking will start at cellars in Saone-et-Loire around August 25.

But just south in the Rhone Valley, “the heatwave has accelerated maturation by more than 20 days compared to last year,” according to the Inter-Rhone producers’ association.

They nevertheless hope grape quality will hold up, as do Champagne growers in the northeast, where harvesting will begin late August — though yields are set to fall nine percent year-on-year because of a brutal spring cold snap and hailstorms.

Bordeaux plans to kick off on August 17 with the grapes for the region’s sparkling wines — appreciated by connoisseurs but just one percent of overall production. 

Next will come “dry whites, sweet whites and then the reds,” said Christophe Chateau of the CIVB producers’ group, though the precise dates will be set only next week.

But he warned that even rainfall from storms forecast across France starting this weekend will “not be enough” to ensure a “beautiful vintage.” 

Globall 2022 is currently the four highest year for wildfire carbon emissions

Blazes that have torched tens of thousands of hectares of forest in France, Spain and Portugal have made 2022 a record year for wildfire activity in southwestern Europe, the EU’s satellite monitoring service said Friday. 

Amid a prolonged heatwave that saw temperature records tumble, the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) said that France had in the last three months reached the highest levels of carbon pollution from wildfires since records began in 2003.

It follows Spain registering its highest ever wildfire carbon emissions last month.

CAMS said the daily total fire radiative power — a measure of the blazes’ intensity — in France, Spain and Portugal in July and August was “significantly higher” than average.

The service warned that a large proportion of western Europe was now in “extreme fire danger” with some areas of “very extreme fire danger”.

“We have been monitoring an increase in the number and resulting emissions of wildfires as heatwave conditions have exacerbated fires in southwestern France and the Iberian Peninsula,” said Mark Parrington, CAMS senior scientist. 

“The very extreme fire danger ratings that have been forecasted for large areas of southern Europe mean that the scale and intensity of any fires can be greatly increased, and this is what we have been observing in our emissions estimates and the impacts it has on local air quality.”

CAMS released satellite imagery showing a plume of smoke from the huge in southwestern France extending hundreds of kilometres over the Atlantic. 

France has received help battling the latest blaze — which is 40-kilometres (25 miles) wide and which forced some 10,000 people to evacuate the region — in the form of 361 firefighters from European neighbours including Germany, Poland, Austria and Romania.

Globally, 2022 is currently the fourth highest year in terms of wildfire carbon, CAMS said.

Scientists say heatwaves such as the exceptional hot and dry spell over western Europe are made significantly more likely to occur due to manmade climate change.