Flooding

In July of 2021, massive rainfall caused devastating consequences for Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, and a couple of other countries nearby. It is thought that the flooding was caused by global warming, since warmer temperatures have led to tragic downpours in other places in the world.

196 people were killed (though the numbers vary, and will most likely keep rising).

Thousands of people were injured.

Hundreds are still missing.

Evacuations from the flooding caused people to lose their homes, their jobs, their lives.

This catastrophic occurrence could become more common if temperatures keep rising, and if major companies, countries, and politicians remain ignorant and arrogant. Not only do heavy downpours and flooding cause problems for humanity such as breaking down highways, killing people, and destroying homes, but the impacts on nearby ecosystems take heavy hits.

Habitats are destroyed, and animals die and are left with no homes as well. Floodwater is often filled with trash, and polluted, and as floods head downhill and into other bodies of water, that water also becomes polluted. Farms can be destroyed by the surge of water, or by any type of sediment that comes to rest on crops. When rivers reach their full capacity, and breach over the banks, they are destroyed (the banks). Water can overflow from dams, causing even more flooding, Some floods are caused by the overflow or breakage of dams from the heavy rainfall.

It's most likely to happen again too as the temperatures warm, and the climate around the world starts to show its possibly permanent changes. More people will lose their lives, whether that means their actual lives, the people they love, the places they grew up in, and their jobs, if this continues in the future. But this isn’t just about the future of flooding.

It’s about the present.

Right now, across the world, companies make false promises to better themselves to help the climate. A fine example of this would be H&M.

A snip of H&M’s sustainability section on their website

H&M is a fast fashion company that many models want to be able to model for to help build their career. Any place that is fast fashion can’t really be eco-friendly, even with their promises of “change” and their ability to be transparent. They probably have won the majority of people over by now. The problem is that since they are a fast fashion company, their aim is to produce things that either celebrities wear, or are things that are in fashion. It’s not bad to produce things in and of itself that are in fashion, but it is bad to produce things are are in fashion quickly, and cheaply. Stores like Fashion Nova, SHEIN, ROMWE, Forever21, and any store that produces a ton of new clothes each day, and has thousands of different options on their website, can be considered fast fashion, especially when they’re really cheap.

Companies also make promises that will be too late to actually do any good (of course they should still do them, but move up the time frame!). Promises like 2040, 2050, etc. all mean they are continuing their harmful practices when climate change is going to be irreversible around 5-10 years before then. But, of course, they have reputations to uphold, and money to make. The world basically spins on money at this point. Moving up their time frames too is a little bit implausible since it takes time to find new partners, create the contracts, agree on things, find sustainably sourced materials, etc. It all takes time that we don’t have. And companies are one of the biggest aids to climate change.

So to be able to reduce the risk of extensive and deadly flooding, companies need to be able to take responsibility for and stop being selfish. Because soon there won’t really be anything to be selfish for at the current rate.

So is it about the present, or is the hope for the future? Can’t it be both? You can certainly advocate and raise awareness of corruptness and of climate change right now. And you can certainly hope for a future where responsibility and carefulness is prioritized. And you can do both at the same time. They fall hand in hand. The present is the pathway to the future. You can’t just pave your way there without fixing the present too.

BBC. “Deadly Floods Surprise Europe.” NASA, NASA, https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/148598/deadly-floods-surprise-europe .

H&M. “Sustainability: H&M Us.” H&M, https://www2.hm.com/en_us/hm-sustainability/lets-change.html .

Hayes, Adam. “How Fast Fashion Works.” Investopedia, Investopedia, 20 Aug. 2021, www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fast-fashion.asp .

“How Does Flooding Affect Humans and the Environment?” Internet Geography, 2 Oct. 2019, www.internetgeography.net/topics/how-does-flooding-affect-humans-and-the-environment/ .

Loveday Morris, Jennifer Hassan. “At Least 95 Dead and Some 1,300 Missing as Flooding Rages across Europe.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 21 July 2021, www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/07/15/germany-flooding-buildings-collapse/ .