Cracked soil, grains too small in the ears, faded leaves.
Farmer Andreas Schreiber walks through his wheat fields in northern Thuringia: "It's all drought damage."
Far too little rain has fallen in spring so far, almost nowhere in Germany is it as dry as here.
With each additional day without precipitation, Schreiber becomes more nervous: "If I now distribute the last fertilizer, spend the last money per hectare, then I ask myself: does it all still make sense?"
The farmer is taking small steps to prepare his fields against the water shortage, as he told SPIEGEL Daily reporter Regina Steffens for this podcast episode.
While the farmer thinks from year to year, Nico Frischbier has his sights set on the coming decades: »I think many regions in Germany will develop into such climatic conditions«.
As a forest scientist, he tries to set up a strategy for the forest of the future.
Non-native tree species such as the Lebanon cedar or the oriental beech grow on a test area.
Will these trees soon replace pine and spruce?
With how little water can agriculture and forest survive?
About this podcast
SPIEGEL Daily appears every morning on SPIEGEL+ and on Audible.
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We're also rounding up the best moments from past episodes for the weekend.
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