by Udo Pollmer / October 5, 2018

In midsummer 2018, the German river Elbe had low water. Young activists unrolled posters in the riverbed to show the world their indignation at the glorious weather. The words "Climate Change!" were emblazoned boldly on the banner. If, instead of standing around bored, they had curiously inspected the riverbed, they would have made some enlightening discoveries: Hunger stones, for example.

"The Elbe," wrote the Teplitz Newspaper in 1876, "offers a sad sight as a result of...

...the continuing drought, the like of which has not been seen since 1842: the hunger stones protrude everywhere and the meter level at the Dresden Elbe bridge is no longer touched by the water at all." A large stone bears the inscription: "Whoever once saw me will weep. Whoever sees me now will weep."

When in those days the drought came, first the old people starved to death, because they were not given any more food, then the children. The survivors were marked by suffering. To document this, famine stones lie at the bottom of many rivers.

The oldest is located in the Spreewald. On it is written "If you see this stone again, you will cry, so shallow was the water in 1417." The list of known hunger stones is almost endless. In some cases, as many as 7 years of drought occurred over a two-decade period. A drying up river was a common sight before the times of so-called climate change. Today this is so far from the experience world of the citizens that they can turn to luxury questions like: how many sexes are there, is it allowed to use farm animals, or do diets make slim?

When the earth burned

The most devastating drought hit Europe in 1540. Already in winter, temperatures in Italy were like those usually experienced only in July. After that, it hardly rained at all in central Europe for 11 months at subtropical temperatures. The drying forests easily caught fire from lightning, settlements with their half-timbered houses fell victim to the flames. When the wells dried up, dirty water was drunk - with epidemics in its wake.

The weather is dependent on our central star, the sun. Its activity is subject to considerable fluctuations. Some are considered anomalies, others are associated with numerous cycles, ranging from 11 years to several millennia. If the maxima or minima of several cycles coincide, the effect is comparable to a spring tide. The caprioles of the sun are the most important reason for drought catastrophes.

In the case of bad harvests and famines caused by cold and continuous rain, finding the cause is easier. When the Laki volcano erupted in Iceland in 1783, the northern hemisphere was enveloped in a cloud of smoke. It became cold, winters lasted endlessly, and severe floods followed. It also became cold and wet in 1816 - a year earlier Tambora had erupted. After Krakatoa exploded in 1883, the weather events were repeated.

What ash volcanoes spew is distributed in the atmosphere and reflects the sun's rays back into space. Then it gets colder. This is what happened in 2011 after the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland the year before. After the huge ash cloud had distributed itself evenly in the upper atmosphere, the summer became noticeably cooler.

Weather witches

Since people tend to look for someone to blame for their fate in their desperation, disasters have always been followed by pogroms. The fact that a dry riverbed today has as little impact on the supply situation as floods do, is due to the ohso climate-damaging inventions such as artificial fertilizers, crop protection products (pesticides), global trade and the still indispensable diesel engine. Since then, the days of burning weather witches and infidels have also gone.

Are we prepared for when the sun is going crazy or the earth's crust cracks somewhere? Then the mood really is one of the end of the world. Do we have enough reserves (of water/food)? Are the national / international storage facilities well filled and equally well protected against pests and looters? Will there be an adequate allocation of these goods? These are the questions people will ask themselves before every meal. Bon appétit!

Literature

Anon: Kleine Chronik. Teplitzer Zeitung vom 30. August 1876, S.1 

Bressan D: This 1783 Volcanic eruption changed the course of history. Forbes.com vom 8. Juni 2015 

Witze A, Kanipe J: Island on Fire: The extraordinary story of Laki, the volcano that turned eighteenth-century Europe dark. Profile-Books: 2014; 224

Sigurdsson H et al: Encyclopedia of Volcanoes. Academic Press, London 2000

Dagget D: The great climate change witch hunt. Blog vom 20. Feb. 2015

U.S. Forest Service : Natural Climate Cycles. USDA, Climate Change Ressource Center. https://www.fs.usda.gov/ccrc/climate-basics/climate-primer/natural-climate-cycles

Robock A: Stratospheric control of climate. Science 1996; 272: 972-973

Zeilinga de Boer J, Sanders DT: Volcanoes in Human History. Princeton University Press, Oxford 2002

Corliss WR: Mysterious Universe: A Handbook of Astronomical Anomalies. The Sourcebook Project, Glen Arm 1979

Düwel-Hösselbarth W: Ernteglück und Hungersnot. Theiss, Stuttgart 2002

Rahmsdorf S: Timing of abrupt climate change: A precise clock. Geophysical Research Letters 2003; 30: e1510

Margolina S: Die letzte große Erzählung des Westens. Cicero.de 18. Aug. 2018

Copyright: EU.L.E. e.V.
Originally published in October 2018: => Hungersteine: Zeugen eines naturverbundenen Lebens
English editor: Josef Hueber, Eichstätt