Germany's forests are burning, there are new headlines almost every week, we are experiencing a sad record year.
So do we need more fire-fighting planes and a fleet of helicopters to fight the fires?
I asked forest fire expert Alexander Held that.
His answer was as clear as it was surprising: a lot doesn't help much.
It's much more important to be fast.
Instead of a huge fleet of fire-fighting aircraft, when there is an acute risk of forest fires, a small aircraft that is ready with a full tank of fire-fighting water is much more helpful, Held told me in an interview: "We don't need more air support, the first attack from the air simply has to be faster".
Speed was also crucial during the catastrophic flooding on the Ahr over a year ago.
Instead of issuing quick early warnings when the water rose in the headwaters, those responsible waited far too long.
The dawdling cost 184 lives.
Reconstruction instead of prevention, that often seems to be the unofficial motto.
“It is incredibly expensive to act as sluggishly as Germany is doing,” confirms Germany's most well-known disaster researcher, Martin Voss.
In this case, however, it was not about fires or floods, but about the pandemic.
You remember?
Here, too, a similar pattern can be seen among the Germans who are reluctant to respond to disasters: first wait until the child has fallen into the well.
Now a hard Corona autumn is just around the corner.
To my surprise, the coalition seems to be agreeing on a few guidelines to be ready for action.
What makes me particularly happy: The toolbox could finally also include the systematic testing of wastewater for virus particles as an early warning system, as has long been done successfully in many other countries.
For years I've been writing my fingers sore about the pandemic clarity from the cesspool.
Now Germany is getting going on this point.
Better late than never, because the next threat is already waiting: Susanne Lackner, a professor at the TU Darmstadt, wrote to me on Monday that her team had also succeeded in detecting monkeypox viruses in sewage treatment plants in Hesse.
Stay alert!
Your Hilmar Schmundt
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They would achieve what the state-funded large-scale research has been failing for decades.
Two German start-ups are also involved.
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- at least in Austria.
Here is a current study on this in »Nature Biotechnology«.
Lithium production in Germany: The treasure in the Upper Rhine Graben.
Lithium is coveted and expensive as the »white gold of the energy transition«.
It could soon also be obtained in Germany using new methods.
But citizens' initiatives are mobilizing against it - for fear of earthquakes.
Renewable energy in Bavaria: Is Söder the sun king or an impostor?
If Markus Söder has his way, Bavaria is a shining example in the energy transition.
In almost all statistics, he sees the Free State nationwide ahead.
His numbers in the fact check.
Monkeypox case in 9-year-old in the Netherlands: can anyone, anywhere?
So far, monkeypox has spread mainly among men who have had many sexual contacts.
But more than 80 children are also ill.
High case numbers increase the risk of the virus becoming indigenous - and for more dangerous mutations.
Space travel: »Voyager 1« suddenly transmits mysterious signals.
23.4 billion kilometers – no space probe is further away from Earth than »Voyager 1«.
But recently she has only been sending gibberish.
IT experts at NASA are wondering: What's going on out there?
Heat waves: Can you prepare for them?
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picture of the week
It almost
looks like a wintry snowshoe hike when researchers are out and about near the village of Fuente de Piedra in the southern Spanish province of Málaga.
In late July, volunteers took stock of the flamingo population for which the lagoon is famous.
Until 1950 it was used for salt production, today it is a protected wetland.
The mating season of the birds is from March to May, now the number of chicks is being logged to better understand the population dynamics.
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