Europe's Vanishing Rivers: A Warning Sign of Climate Change As the European summer descends into a sweltering heat and drought, the continent's waterways are shrinking before our eyes.
Record low river levels have exposed shipwrecks, forced inland shipping to adapt, and threatened the operation of critical infrastructure like nuclear power plants.
The images are stark: sunken vessels emerging from the Rhine, Danube, and other rivers; people walking on exposed lake bottoms and riverbeds; and water markers standing above dry stretches of what were once navigable channels.