Global warming
Bavaria’s glaciers are disappearing at a faster rate than expected. This now means that all of the state’s glaciers are expected to disappear within 10 years, 20 years earlier than originally anticipated. In the last ten years, the glaciers have shrunk by roughly a half. The shrinking glaciers will have far-reaching consequences for the whole alpine region, as it will affect drinking water supplies, as well as a possible increase in landslides and rockfalls and climate change threatening the 60 percent of Germany’s animal and plant species that live there.
The Bavarian Alps. Photo: Wolfgang Zimmel via Pixabay
Climate crisis
The federal constitutional court has this week ruled that the climate protection law of 2019 is unconstitutional as it partly violates German basic law, known as the Grundgesetz. The key part of the ruling is that young people have a right to a future and the current climate laws do not sufficiently protect that future. The government now has until the end of 2022 to update the laws to comply with the ruling.