In the past, when environmental conditions markedly affected the population in Europe, people wrote in stone what they were suffering. They are known as the “hunger stones”and usually their messages appeared when there was a great drought.
Like the July and August 2022 in Germany.
These rocks served to make clear the level of the rivers at the time for which they wrote the message. They are messages that can be considered sinister, especially if we think that the conditions five, six centuries ago, when they were set, were terrible.
These ominous ‘hunger stones’ are being uncovered along the Rhine River as drought hits large parts of Europe. The reappearance of the stones used to serve as a warning for famine pic.twitter.com/f0vQeSC2go
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 18, 2022
Reuters showed a video recorded on the Rhine River in Germany in the summer of this year. The “hunger stones” They reappeared due to the drought.
This situation had already occurred in 2018, a year marked by similar weather conditions.
A warning not only in Germany, but throughout Europe
The tradition is not only German, but European in general: according to paris match, have been counted so far 25 such stones, from the Czech Republic to France, in rivers such as the Rhine, the Moselle, the Weser and the Elbe.
Olaf Kohens, Dutch correspondent of RTL Nieuws, showed an image from four years ago, where a stone had the message “If you see me, cry.” According to the journalist, the inscription was engraved in 1616, serving as a water level marker.
At that time they were only warning future generations about the trouble ahead, according to Le Monde.
The French newspaper points out that a 2013 study of the same rock, carried out by Czech researchers, revealed that other years were carved on its surface: 1417, 1707, 1746, 1790, 1800, 1811, 1830, 1842, 1868, 1892 and 1893.
Research indicates that these are the years in which drought caused crop failure and famine on the banks of the Elbe.
On the right bank of the river, in the Czech town of Tuchlovice, one of these stones says: “We cry, we cry and you will cry.”
Climate change and Greenpeace’s call
In 2018, Greenpeace joined the tradition, leaving a message engraved on a stone in Magdeburg, Germany: “If you see me, the climate crisis has arrived. August 2018″.
Because this is the point: drought has always existed, but it can change the duration due to greenhouse gases, generators of the climate change. If in the past these situations occurred naturally, with the influence of pollution on the climate it has become more acute.
The messages continue, we must take action.