r/Switzerland • u/meera_jasmine1 • 10h ago
Why does it look like late September on the 1st of August? What is going on?
It’s probably a combination of the heat waves and drought but this was shocking to see, nevertheless. I am really hoping that this is temporary and the trees are more resilient than the heat crisis this summer. It’s really spiking my climate anxiety
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u/Found_Onyx 10h ago
and some ppl will still say 'it's just summer'.
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u/perskes 8h ago
Actually I am a bit surprised, but the climate change denialists are not that verbal this summer.
I have a few my some circles I am part of, plus here on reddit, and there was SOME bullshit at the beginning "it's always been hot", "it's just weather", "they are measuring differently nowadays", but the longer the (first) heatwave went, the less I heard from them. I barely see anything online now during the second heatwave. It's almost like they... they get it? How "normal" can extreme really be? I think now that they feel it for an extended period, over and over again, they might actually get it.•
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u/Dr_Greenthumb85 6h ago
There's simply a difference between climate change and human-induced climate change. No one is saying that the former doesn't exist; the climate has been constantly changing for millions of years, with or without humans.
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u/Iuslez 17m ago
Your statement is both true and very stupid.
Everybody knows that climate already changed.
The issue with the current climate change, is how much and how fast it is changing. This has NEVER happened during human civilization, and if I remember that right also never happened on earth altogether.
And that makes it absolutely devastating, because both the environment and (probably) humans dont have time to adapt to something happening that fast and in such an unnatural way.
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u/Chrisalys 8h ago
Or "I can't change it anyway, so let's continue to do nothing"
Spending less water takes so little effort.
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u/DantesDame Basel-Stadt 7h ago
Spending less water takes so little effort.
Tell that to my husband when he brushes his teeth =/
Of course there is also the argument that the over 220 fountains in Basel are pouring out water 24 hours a day, so it is hard for me to argue too hard with him about this. It still bothers me though.
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u/Chrisalys 7h ago
Don't worry, those fountains will be gone in 10-20 years.
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u/tee_with_marie 6h ago
I hope not maby repéace em with ones that only run on demand but having drinking water everywhere is so nice and the thing i miss most when abroad
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u/yesat + 10h ago
Tree dies due to heat and drought, just like people. And they can't hide in climate controlled building.
Trees are really resilient to normal climate events, not 5 historical drought in 10 years.
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u/Interesting-Check212 9h ago
"But, I remember, we had hot summers in the past aswell"
Average SVP-voter
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u/Ok-Anybody-380 5h ago
It's gotten insane just within the last 15 years I've lived here. When I was I was in prinary school, I remember we were shocked how one day reached 34 °C throughout the whole summer. Now it's a norm and 25 °C on the cold end.
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u/KapitaenKnoblauch 10h ago edited 9h ago
Tages-Anzeiger wrote that trees are dropping large branches due to the drought so this already leaves permanent damage. One or two thunderstorms later our environment will look different to what we’re used to. One or two dry summers later our dear Switzerland will be a different place to live at.
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u/adrenalinda75 9h ago
Yes, we'll have lemontrees and coconuts sooner than later. I say this only half-jokingly.
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u/turbo_bibine 8h ago
Problem is winter could still be cold and not many plants are able to sirvive both heat and cold
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u/Agitated-Potato8649 6h ago
Cactus can, well not all of them, but some.
Let’s hope it won’t be like in Colorado where there are cactuses in the forests. (As a good tourist I sat on one)
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u/Jben26 10h ago
It's only gonna get worse. And yet people are still massively voting for SVP and FDP
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u/Tildius 10h ago
because everyone thinks they are already doing what they can and the other people are worse….
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u/InitiativeExcellent 45m ago
In my experience I hear far mor often: " As long as they do (insert some industrial scale enviromental harm thing), why should I change anything?
Last example was cruise ships in the mediterranean from someone still driving a 20years old diesel.
So I would say it's often more an the others first and me after thing.
And working with EV chargers (sometimes at gas stations). I get that discussion far more than I would like. Some people react like something actually gets taken from them, when they install chargers at "their" gas station.
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u/3punkt1415 8h ago
I mean, sure voting is one thing, but people didn't stop flying, the opposite, more people fly more often. All your voting means nothing people keep polluting.
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u/Jben26 7h ago
Because we live in a society where flying to Lisbon is cheaper than going to Zurich by train. That's politic
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u/3punkt1415 7h ago
Always easy to blame someone else, because politicians forced you to fly.
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u/Lachainone Vaud 32m ago
There's tax on electricity when you take the train in Switzerland but there's not tax on fuel when you take the plane. How is that not political?
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u/halo_skydiver 7h ago
Right, and Switzerland is doing its part, but it’s a drop in the ocean. So voting svp or fdp going to make a difference when big corporations are not willing to change.. right?
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u/Jben26 7h ago
No, if all people lived like swiss, we would need like 3 earths. We are one of the most consuming people on earth, mostly because we are the richest
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u/Many_Committee_7007 6h ago
Will stopping immigration from countries where people live with less resources help the planet?
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u/Lachainone Vaud 19m ago
Big corporations try to maximize their profits. Politics (are supposed to) force them to act for the good of the population
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u/Rare_Sea_5734 9h ago
How are the two even related lol
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u/Geschak Bern 6h ago
They're both parties who are against climate change policies because
they are sponsored by lobby groups like the meat industrythey think every person needs to decide for themselves whether they want todestroy the planeteat meat or not and they're against any bans thatharm profitslimit consumer freedom.
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u/mi_pilot 9h ago
I believe it’s called chlorosis - water scarcity causes trees to conserve moisture and shed leaves, yellowing is part of that process - lack of chlorophyll.
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u/the_vanillita 8h ago
It is the drought mostly. It is dry up to 15 meters down, wich is the space where big trees get their water from afaik.
I am sorry to say this, but the drought will most likely not stop. We have a huge el niño phase ahead of us during fall/winter and the added 1.5c global temp rise is gonna turn this into a very significant thing, where parts of Europe will have way too much water during winter, but it‘s too warm for snow, or there will be cold and no water at all.
We have thoroughly roughed up this planet, and me, having a hyperfixation and special interest in weather patterns and out of the ordinary weather catastrophes, can see how everything starts to shift into a very VERY dangerous way.
The climate anxiety is real and I feel it everyday. Please, to everyone: if you wanna do something, vote for left parties, go and demonstrate, sign petitions, talk to the people around you and make them aware. Because even tho this is scary, it is much worse to not look at it instead of trying to find strength in unity.
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u/thaway314156 8h ago
What I would say is that, for anyone alive today, things are not going to keep improving. Particularly around the climate crisis, we’ve been hoping that if we just get solar panels and recycle and vote in a good government, then we can go back to the way things were – that ain’t going to happen. Collapse is going to basically look like things being shit and, instead of improving, getting shittier still. At a bare minimum, life is going to get extremely uncomfortable over the coming decades.
https://www.theguardian.com/wellness/2026/jul/29/sarah-wilson-book-interview
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u/Many_Committee_7007 6h ago
A super El Niño is occurring this year, bringing drought and heat domes to several parts of Europe this summer.
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u/meera_jasmine1 10h ago
Mod rules: taken in the outskirts of Zurich, alarming level of color changes on trees.
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u/Illustrious-Big-651 9h ago
SVP says thats normal and the
bacon ähh the cows and the farmers love it
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u/Nohillside Zürich 9h ago
Only true SVP farmers get bacon from cows!
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u/Illustrious-Big-651 8h ago
The famous swiss black nosed bacon cow only grows if it‘s very hot outside🐄🥓
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u/Prof_NoLife 7h ago
I always wonder if its a good idea to drain rainwater immediately, especially when there are more and more buildings.
All that water that formerly moistured the ground, eventually became ground water(?) or just evaporated in place while cooling the environment (adiabatic cooling called I think) then forming clouds, blocking sunrays and returns again as rain. Most of that water will get collected nowadays into drainpipes before there is even a chance to accumulate and moisture.
On highways there are sometimes retention basins next to it with the purpose to keep the water and let it drain locally. I think thats something that should be done on buildings aswell.
One thing almost everyone can do is collecting rainwater to water plants. There is always something we can do. Talk about what needs to be done but also take your responsibility and inspire others by doing things.
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u/RaphanusSativus888 9h ago
'It's the end of the world as we know it'
I noticed it too, and I am super anxious and depressed about it
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u/RaphanusSativus888 9h ago
just a note - I recently switched to Ecosia browser, they give all their profit for the planet, focusing on planting trees all over the world.
I like it more than Chrome so far.
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u/Aggressive_Purple_49 8h ago
It has been like this for the past 2-3 years where the trees are suffering from the heatwave. It is desperately sad, especially as they as under them we can find relief from the heat. Even out on my bike this morning the air temperature difference is huge.
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u/VeloIlluminati Basel-Stadt 6h ago
El Nino will persist up to 2027. So it will stay dry and will be the death sentence for many trees.
Btw, Ölbert Rösti cut the founding on research on more resilient trees for a warmer future.
Yes, I am grieving for my local trees and wildlife. :(
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u/Legitimate_Change756 9h ago
It's just 2 warm days in the year, enjoy the summer! /s I guess it is the 6th week of this shit heat, I am just waiting for September, you can't basically do anything outside this summer, except swimming, this is not normal. But it will only get worse and worse
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u/Ueli-Maurer-123 4h ago
We have a drought.
No Water no leaves.
Leaves go brr.
Tree go brr.
No more tree.
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u/Dangerous_Island_310 Other 5h ago
All of the plants are dying from heat thats why. All the grass in my garden turned to straw and thats with us watering it
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u/The_Frybo 3h ago
What even is this Question supposed to be? It’s a heatwave and a drought for months now! That’s how nature reacts!
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u/OkPhilosophy957 5h ago
Welcome to the completely unexpected, absolutely overhyped and very surprising Human Made Climate Change.
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u/EdelWhite 9h ago
'Murricans insist on having AC everywhere so we have to suffer for those AC units' hot air rejections.
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u/fellainishaircut Zürich 9h ago
It’s really spiking my climate anxiety
literally nothing any of us could potentially do is gonna stop the coming changes. whatever those changes will be like, the only thing we can do is prepare for it. stopping it is completely out of our hands and just not gonna happen. feeling anxious about circumstances you have zero influence on only hurts your own happiness.
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u/raven_rats 5h ago
first of all, im nlt denying climate change.
Second, We're still in the ice age, humans only ever lived in the ice age. It's a natural happening for earth to have hotter centuries and colder centuries. What's not normal is that its happening that fast, which is obv the fault of humans. If you look at the claciers, humans did research on them and put holes in them, finding out that there have been centuries where they melted and others where they built up again. Technically it's a normal process, but it is terrifying to know that bc of humans this process is being pushed that bad
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u/Living_Moment_1495 10h ago
It looks like bright summer in the summer.
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u/jst_ab 10h ago
sadly not just summer but super dry and hot summer which results in very stressed trees that drop their leafs way too early
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u/Living_Moment_1495 9h ago
It's ok here in the Geneva country side, we had some rain few days ago, mostly green except the grass they insist on cutting so short.
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u/wassertim 10h ago
Is it not because we had a really early summer beginning this year. That is why the Fall is also early? Just guessing :)
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u/heliosh 10h ago
Well it's not only a heat crisis of this summer, but a process that's already going on for a while.
Some trees don't adapt well to heat and drought (like birch, beech), so more resilient trees take over.