The Divine Mrs. M and I will seemingly confront climate change in a very personal way come October. We are scheduled to cruise the Rhone River in France. But unless that country experiences a very wet September, parts of the river may not be deep enough to float our boat, leading to a truncated itinerary.
Not only are the rivers in France at a low ebb after an extremely dry winter and spring, they are also used to cool the nuclear reactors which supply much of the nation's electricity. Until recently, many of the reactors discharged the warmed water back into the rivers, but without a waiver the reactors' management will be unable to pour extremely hot water back into already warmed waters. With Russia withholding natural gas supplies due to fallout from the Ukraine war, much of Europe is in an energy squeeze.
We may be riding buses instead of cruising and may be grateful there is an alternative available to us. Tourism may become another casualty of climate change.
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