The initiative of the St. Petersburg climate talks, launched on the initiative of Angela Merkel, has been discussing climate change and the coronavirus since Monday - by video.
- Today, climate talks between Angela Merkel and ministers from 30 countries begin via video conference .
- It will also be about how the economy gets going to Corona .
- Two messages worry: The forests are dry. And there could soon be no ice at the North Pole.
Berlin - "The forest in Germany is threatening to become an intensive care patient in some places," wrote the AFP in an overview. The bark beetle or a small aggressive butterfly called chestnut moth has been a much easier game in recent years to get hard on the forest. The tree's defenses are weakened by the continuing drought, and the pests can lay their eggs earlier due to the ever higher temperatures.
Climate change: new study on the ice at the North Pole
And even those who do not agree with the most extreme predictions of climate fighters can be worried about the dying forests in Germany. Before the climate talks between ministers from 30 countries starting this Monday, another news item worried over the weekend. Because for one of the most important places in the world, where climate change is clearly visible, "it may already be too late," says climate researchers from Hamburg.
Climate: Gloomy prospects for the North Pole
According to calculations by an international study, the North Pole will be completely ice-free in some summers by 2050, writes heise.de. According to the researchers, mankind can only influence how many summers the ice at the pole disappears completely and how many summers are left of it.
Ice masses in the Arctic - a sight that may not exist in a few years.
© dpa / Dirk Notz
Most climate researchers assume that less ice at the North Pole leads to poorer reflection of the sun - the consequences would be increasing global warming.
Corona and climate: Angela Merkel's initiative meets online
The initiative of the St. Petersburg climate talks, which takes place annually in Berlin in preparation for the next climate conference, goes back to Angela Merkel. This year, the talks will revolve around "measures for a sustainable way out of the economic crisis * ", according to the Federal Ministry for the Environment.
The World Biodiversity Council (IPBES) sees in a statement on Monday the danger that pandemics like the corona virus could increase in the future if wild animals get closer to human settlement areas due to the destruction of the natural habitat.
Even if the transmission of the coronavirus * to humans has not yet been clarified, epidemics such as Ebola or Zika have been triggered by the transmission of wild animals to humans - biologists warn of further zoonoses.
* Merkur.de is part of the Germany-wide Ippen-Digital editors network.