Has The Human Race Hit A Brick Wall?

Europe’s Scorching Summer Puts Unexpected Strain on Energy Supply.

Factory Shutdowns, Showers for Pigs: China’s Heat Wave Hits Economy.

Pacific Northwest temperatures climb to over 100 degrees.

ASERAL, Norway — In a Nordic land famous for its steep fjords, where water is very nearly a way of life, Sverre Eikeland scaled down the boulders that form the walls of one of Norway’s chief reservoirs, past the driftwood that protruded like something caught in the dam’s teeth, and stood on dry land that should have been deeply submerged.

“You see the band where the vegetation stops,” said Mr. Eikeland, 43, the chief operating officer of Agder Energi, pointing at a stark, arid line 50 feet above the Skjerkevatn reservoir’s surface. “That’s where the water level should be.”

“We are not familiar with drought,” he added with a shrug. “We need water.”

It has been a summer of heat and drought across Europe, affecting nearly every part of the economy and even its normally cool regions, a phenomenon aggravated by man-made climate change. France has been scarred by vast wildfires, and its Loire Valley is so dry the river can be crossed in places on foot. The Rhine in Germany is inches deep in parts, paralyzing essential commerce and stranding riverboat cruises. Italy is drier than at any time since 1800, and the growers of its iconic rice used for risotto now risk losing their harvest.

But perhaps the drought’s most surprising impact can be found in Norway’s usually drenched south, where sheep have gotten stuck in exposed mud banks and salmon have lacked enough water to migrate upriver. Hydropower reservoir supplies — responsible for 90 percent of Norway’s electricity as well as electricity exports to several of its neighbors — have sunk to the lowest point in 25 years, causing shortages that have driven up both prices and political tensions.

The summer’s extreme heat and devastating drought, coming on top of Russia’s weaponization of natural gas exports — in response to European Union sanctions for its war in Ukraine — have all combined to expose the vulnerabilities of Europe’s energy system in unexpected places and unanticipated ways.

In France, the warmed rivers have threatened the use of nuclear reactors. In Germany, the Rhine is too low to transport the coal to which the country is resorting in order to make up for lost Russian gas. And in Britain, the driest July in almost 90 years ignited wildfires around London and left thousands of northern homes without electricity.

In addition to the Russian gas cuts, a spike in demand as the economy emerges from the pandemic, a failure to add other renewables like wind to its energy portfolio, and the worst drought in years have sent Norway’s electricity prices to record levels, especially in the more heavily populated south.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store told the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, during a visit to Oslo that while Norway would keep its commitments for delivery of electricity to the E.U. market, it could not spare any extra exports of gas.

And Germany needs more gas. The severe drought there has reignited talk of investing in nuclear power and has dried up the waterways crucial for transporting coal.

Germany’s coal-fired power plants dot the Rhine’s banks from Duisburg in the West to Karlsruhe close to France, but the shallow water level means that large, coal-bearing cargo ships can carry only about a third of their capacity.

Last week, Uniper, a major utility, announced that it would have to lower output from two of its coal-burning power plants because not enough coal could be brought up the Rhine to fire them at full potential.

The most severe drought on record in France has also cost the country’s energy production, as nuclear plants responsible for more than 70 percent of the country’s electricity had to cut down activity temporarily to avoid discharging dangerously warm water into rivers.

Many of France’s 56 nuclear plants were already offline for maintenance issues. But the rivers that cool reactors have become so warm as a result of the punishing heat that strict rules designed to protect wildlife have prevented the flushing of the even warmer water from the plants back into the waterways.

France’s nuclear power regulator granted temporary waivers this month allowing five plants to continue discharging warmed water into rivers out of what it called “a public necessity.”

Faced with China’s most searing heat wave in six decades, factories in the country’s southwest are being forced to close. A severe drought has shrunk rivers, disrupting the region’s supply of water and hydropower and prompting officials to limit electricity to businesses and homes. In two cities, office buildings were ordered to shut off the air conditioning to spare an overextended electrical grid, while elsewhere in southern China local governments urged residents and businesses to conserve energy.

The rolling blackouts and factory shutdowns, which affected Toyota and Foxconn, a supplier for Apple, point to the ways that extreme weather is adding to China’s economic woes. The economy has been headed toward its slowest pace of growth in years, dragged down by the country’s stringent Covid policy of lockdowns, quarantines and travel restrictions, as consumers tightened spending and factories produced less. Youth unemployment has reached a record high, while trouble in the real estate sector has set off an unusual surge of public discontent.

The intense heat is expected to significantly reduce the size of China’s rice harvest because it has caused long periods of drought, drying up rice paddies that are irrigated by rain, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

The intense weather is affecting other agriculture as well. In the eastern city of Hangzhou, tea farmers preparing for the fall harvest have covered their crops with nets in an effort to shield them from the scorching heat.

Humans were not the only ones oppressed by the heat. Pandas in zoos lay on sheets of melting ice. Pigs being transported by truck in the southwestern city of Chongqing became dehydrated, prompting firefighters to hose them down. Chickens rejected their feed and struggled to lay eggs in the heat, causing the egg prices to surge across the country, according to state media reports.

In Chongqing, a sprawling metropolis in southwestern China with around 20 million people, the heat has been compounded by a severe drought, parching 51 rivers and 24 reservoirs and disrupting the water supply of more than 300,000 residents. Several other provinces are also experiencing droughts that are expected to worsen in the coming weeks.

With scant rainfall, the Yangtze River, the world’s third-longest river, has receded to a record low, with water levels falling by 16 to 20 feet compared with the same period last year.

The drought has severely strained electricity supplies in Sichuan, a province heavily dependent on hydropower. The capacity of Sichuan’s hydropower plants has fallen by half, Zhou Jian, deputy chief engineer of the State Grid Sichuan Electric Power Control Center, said on state television.

To conserve energy, subway stations and trains in Sichuan’s provincial capital, Chengdu, turned off overhead lights to conserve energy, while office buildings there as well as in Dazhou, a neighboring city, were asked to stop using air conditioning. The province also issued an order to factories to suspend operations from Aug. 15 to 20, and Toyota and Foxconn, a supplier for Apple, were among companies that confirmed that their factories would comply.

“Following this trend, future extreme heat waves will affect even larger areas and impact more population,” said Xiaoming Shi, an assistant professor in the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology’s environment and sustainability division.

“Everyone, from individuals to city governors and developers, should prepare for the new norm of extremes and be aware that those new extreme events can be dangerous,” he said.

Heat Returns to the Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest is facing another summer heat spike, with temperatures likely to rise into the triple digits this week across parts of the region and in Northern California.

Heat advisories from the National Weather Service have been issued for Wednesday and into the weekend. The Pacific Northwest is one of the few remaining parts of the United States where many buildings are not air-conditioned, increasing the risk of heat-related illnesses.

In California, higher-than-average temperatures are expected throughout the week in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, with a heat advisory in effect at least through Friday night.

The worst of the heat will be on Tuesday and Wednesday, with highs that could reach 109 degrees in the Sacramento Valley and 106 in the foothills — seven to 15 degrees above normal for this time of year, according to the Weather Service.