Climate Change Killing Forests In Germany–Latest Fake News
By Paul Homewood
The FT had this extraordinary story the other day, which immediately set the BS button flashing:
The claim is that the weather in the last year has been extremely dry, and that this is because of climate change.
The idea that one year’s weather has anything to do with climate change is in itself nonsensical, but let’s check the data.
Erfurt is close to the Harz Mountains, and has one of the longest rainfall records in Germany, dating back to 1827. According to KNMI, the monthly data below, which goes up to September 2018, shows no sign of a drier climate.
Using the data from KNMI, we can plot annual rainfall. The trend line is flat, and dry years are well distributed across the record.
http://climexp.knmi.nl/data/pa10554.dat
As for the last year, the German Meteorological Service gives monthly data for nearby Giessen-Wettenberg:
https://www.dwd.de/EN/ourservices/cos/hesse.html
Rainfall has been below average, particularly last autumn, but certainly not unprecedented.
In the last twelve months, rainfall has totalled over 500mm, but the driest year on record was 1976 with 325mm.
https://www.dwd.de/EN/ourservices/cos/hesse.html
As for the idea that a bit of hot weather can kill off forests, we only need to remind ourselves that hot, dry summers in Germany were common place in the Middle Ages.
The FT article does offer one clue as to what is going on:
In nature, trees grow in areas that suit them for very good reasons. That is why beech and oak have thrived in the Harz for centuries, and why spruce and pine have not.
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Reblogged this on Climate- Science.press.
Interesting, thirty plus years ago we were being blamed for causing the acid rain that was falling. This was in Austria to be fair but not that far from the Harz region. Just down the road was an aluminium smelting plant.Another dodgy story to add to the rest.
Another example of the “Grim” Fairy Tales?
Paul, one thing that you can guarantee is that they have lost less “Forest” than that destroyed by building Wind Farms.
“In nature, trees grow in areas that suit them for very good reasons. That is why beech and oak have thrived in the Harz for centuries, and why spruce and pine have not.”
Even more top the point, in nature trees only grow where their seed can germinate. If you start raising trees in nursery beds and then transplant them into the wrong location, the direct connect between germination site and thriving is lost. The transplanted tree will grow, but the site conditions are often sub-optimal particularly if great care was not taken to match the species to its correct habitat.
Sorry but utterly wrong.
Trees that grow from seed in the ground are called ‘regen’ and whether this happens can be hit and miss. I have seen areas of felled scots pine with an enviable regen growth and yet in the same area and same soil, the cleared scots pine is not regenerating and is growing silver birch instead which is not a desirable crop. The vast majority of planted trees are from nursery sources. Apart from their use for construction, the spruce might also be for biomass and so another change caused by climate change legislation.
Gerry,
The point I am making is that in nature trees do not germinate in one place and then up sticks and move to somewhere else. We do that when we try and cultivate nursery trees and then assume that by transplanting we have removed all of the challenges to successful growth. Soil disturbance, fire clearance, light levels. moisture content, acidity, depth of the litter layer, moss cover, root competition, the list of challenges to successful germination is long and complex.
Are these not the same forests that were destroyed by ACID RAIN years ago ???
It has to be one (or more) of: climate change, Brexit or Trump – obviously 😆
As opposed to clearing German forests for windmills and transmission lines, and burning German Forests as bio-fuel. The delusional insanity runs deep with greens. Sickening.
Up in flames: How biomass burning wrecks Europe’s forests.
Click to access Up%20in%20Flames.pdf
Is Germany killing the environment to ‘save’ it.
https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-renewable-energy-policy-takes-toll-on-nature-conservation-a-888094.html
There’s dozens of similar articles/reports of various ages.
Thought exactly the same when I saw the title of this post
nice one
Who knows they may start the old acid rain thing again, they are obviously up for anything that takes a while to refute but which, in the meantime, gains credence among the woke folk.
I cannot reconcile the image of so-called heat-damaged trees in the foreground with the verdant seemingly lush growth in the background. It seems more like a deliberately cleared space or even a linear ride-like feature. Given the circumstances of the huge growth of windmills in German forests, it would not be surprising if private owners were to exploit the largesse such windmill farm developments offer, and even prepare their properties to help win a lease contract, or some such thing. Should local resistance to such developement win, of course the owner would have every reason to deflect any blame for foolhardy action on to other reasons; global warming has it all.
It is a great shame that media reports such as this are not being followed up by bloggers such as those on this site from the same country with a journalistic background, who could possibly investigate the actual local circumstances to find out the real background to the media report, possibly by speaking to local people. Local news media reports may also give a different slant on things.
The lightening maps online show that quite a lot of storms have been producing thunder and lightening all through the summer so far in Europe. (https://www.lightningmaps.org) If they aren’t getting any water they must be getting dry storms?
As the Sun is changing gear into Solar Minimum, warm air is being drawn up from Africa, the jet stream was doing loops through the Spring and Summer. This accounts for the tremendous storms. I’ve been watching it on https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/isobaric/250hPa/orthographic=-0.69,50.96,988