Glaciers Melt into Waterfalls Amid Scorching Heat... Warnings of Food Shortages Due to Drought

[Anchor]

While South Korea is also suffering from severe heatwaves, the heat in Europe this summer is truly at the level of a climate disaster. Glaciers are melting and cascading like waterfalls, while droughts are compounding concerns, even raising warnings of food shortages.

Here is correspondent Kwon Yeongin in Paris.

[Reporter]

This is the Pasterze Glacier in Austria, the largest glacier in the eastern Alps.

As the killer heatwave melts the glacier, it has formed a massive waterfall.

[Markus Lakunor / Austrian National Park Ranger : For it to be 30 degrees Celsius here. This is by no means normal weather for this mountainous region. The glaciers here are bound to melt even faster.]

Austria has been breaking record high temperatures day after day, with the capital Vienna reaching 41°C (106°F) and the eastern region hitting 41.2°C (106°F).

Slovakia also saw temperatures soar to a record high of 41.4°C (107°F), and Italy issued its highest heatwave alerts for all 27 cities registered under its heatwave monitoring system for the first time in history, effective today (the 6th).

Droughts coupled with the heatwave are also severe.

Water levels in the Danube River, which crosses Europe, are breaking record lows day after day.

Hungary, which has used Danube river water as cooling water for its nuclear power plants, has suspended operations at three of the four units at the Paks Nuclear Power Plant, which supplies more than 50% of the nation's electricity, and the remaining single unit is also on the verge of suspension.

With nighttime lighting restricted to essentials due to the power crisis, the beautiful night view that was once a symbol of the capital Budapest has also disappeared.

The Krsko Nuclear Power Plant in Slovenia, which supplies electricity to Slovenia and Croatia, has also decided to lower its output as the flow of the Sava River, its cooling water source, has decreased.

[Zeljko Popic / Croatian Resident : In the 55 years I've lived here, this is the first time the river level has dropped so low that old bridges and things down there have been exposed. But where did all the fish go?]

In Germany and France, river waters have dried up, reducing cargo traffic on major canals to below one-third of normal levels.

Damage to crops is also severe.

In the case of the United Kingdom, which declared that half the country is in a state of rapidly developing flash drought, forecasts suggest that grain harvests will hit their lowest levels since statistics began in 1984.

The World Food Programme has warned that global food shortages are a concern through 2027 due to heatwaves and droughts.

(Video取材: Kim Sinai, Video Editing: Lee Seung-yeol)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.