Let's Not Forget the Climate

Who is prepared for the Climate changes we are facing?

Burnt neighbor barn above.

Recently I was reading an article that was asking how prepared people in different countries in Europe were for environmental catastrophes. It says that fewer than four in ten people in Europe, the continent warming the most rapidly, feel they are prepared for climate disasters. Fewer than one in ten feel that they are prepared about their city’s climate disaster plans. Either places will be drier or more wet. That is the effect of climate change. Since European cities were often planned a long time ago, the infrastructure is often older and needs to be updated to accommodate changes.

I would say that I am somewhat informed about both my city’s emergency war plan, there is none, and emergency climate disaster plan, which is that there is not much of one. One of the biggest issues for my German city is that it is coastal and therefore has to prepare for storm surges and rising sea water less than intense heat. It has taken a while for them to realize that these two sources of water are both a problem. Incessant rain that warmer climates have is a different water issue than water rising up over the water basins and flooding the streets, although they may both happen together. These are things we need to prepare for.

Right now I am not as prepared as I could be, because the best preparation would be a floating home, like many people in the world live in. However, I also should have a quick blow up rubber raft on my top floor. It is on my list of things to get when I can afford it. There is an inn in a different part of the city that has total waterproofing including windows, like an aquarium or a ship, and when the water rises above the ground level, one can sit in the restaurant and see the water outside, above the window level.

When my husband and I decided to retire in Germany, his home country, and my other country as a dual citizen, we decided to get a house in a northern German city for political and environmental reasons. I invite you to guess which city I am living in. If you do please post it in the chat.

Our city had a Social Democratic-Green-Left coalition government when we bought our house, and currently still has a Social Democratic government. The mayor has stayed the same. The alliance of these parties prioritizes the environment, a political position that was important to us. Now we have a better take on what this means in reality. Priorities also mean funding the initiatives. That is where the plans may not be realized very soon.

Our city, is divided by a river. We live on the Left Bank side, facing west. There is an old city center on the other side of the river, which was rebuilt in parts that did not survive the Second World War. When we bought our house on the side away from the city center, we looked at the flood plans to make sure our home was not in a flood plain. It was not, but now I realize these plans need to be updated. Otherwise, we knew being not so far from the river, and between two dikes, we could have flooding. So far, we have avoided this. After the plumber fixed a leaking pipe our half basement has remained dry.

Our city is unlike some bigger cities in that it chose to build more single or 2 family houses than multifamily apartment buildings in the 19th Century. Different sizes of houses were built for people in the surrounding communities, with bigger houses for wealthier people and smaller for the working class. Most of the houses have set the main level above the street level by half a floor, and the garden half a level below street to protect from flooding in the main part of the house. Ours is a working class house in a community where shipbuilders used to live.

The house belongs to a group that are not raised up, although it has a similar architecture. It was built in 1907, and we have the originals plans because we bought from the original family. The woman who owned it had been born in the house and died in the house 82 years later. Her son’s sold it to us because they live elsewhere. It has a ground floor that is only a couple of steps up, and therefore does risk flooding, however it is central between two dikes, which the city is in the process of raising since the last heavy rain, as part of a long term planning including considering the Arctic melting and the oceans rising. Our community housed ship builders when it was first built, so gardens were considered important to people being able to grow foods. Our house also has some smaller sheds in back that were formerly chicken coops. People were fairly self sufficient.

Because the city is less dense it is more spread out than many cities. It can do that because it is not so big.

One of the things that my city is doing is that it is trying to use the sponge city model. There is an area in the city center, where they plan to remove the old cobblestoned streets and make it into a green space. That is supposed to be a pilot project. There is a plan to remove some ugly post war 1960s buildings and make them green. Not just to have better flow, and more uses, and more neutral climate control, but that greenery growing on the top and outside of the building will be part of this climate control and better air quality and feel. Removing buildings however is not green, but may be cheaper than greening a poorly designed building.

Another thing our city is doing is making biking easier. It is already a much more bikeable city than some with bike paths on most streets that are built into the sidewalks, but there are places where the path leads into the street and biking with cars, buses or a tram behind you can be nerve wracking. The biking is going to be facilitated with 3 bike and pedestrian bridges that cross the river, so that bikers, scooters, and pedestrians can get around the city more easily without having to share a bridge with the cars, buses, or trams. While we are a German city, we have a biking culture somewhat like the Netherlands. People bike all year round, and again, there is no bad weather, just bad clothing. It is standard for people to have good rain clothing, which includes rain pants. One also sees people biking in the snow. When I or my daughter biked with rain pants or in our US city of Chicago, people thought they were snow pants. My daughter was faced with the disbelief that there was such a thing as rain pants, year after year, even in high school.

The Sponge city concept is not just to have more green spaces, but also to have permeable concrete on roads, so that water does not sit and pool. This is very important. So, this will all cost a lot of money. In the meantime, I know that if my home gets flooded out we do have insurance. In the immediate I can some money from my city for emergency help, and overnight accommodations. Not that I know where I would go. Depending on the amount of damage we might go stay with friends in another part of the city if they are still able to accommodate people. There is also money for accommodations. I do have an emergency alarm app on my phone that should notify me if there is flooding in my city, and other emergencies. In case of flooding I am supposed to call the fire department to rescue us. I also know that a lot of people have wet vacuums, or wet/dry vacuums to help them if water backs up into the house or floods over the baseline into the house.

However, the hope is that one has prevention. So, the water department will come and give you an assessment of your house that is individual is scheduled. Since our house is being remodeled, we have discussed some of these things with the people working on the house. However, we started off with a substandard architect, and while that is another story, suffice it to say that he did not set the best planning in place for us. However, we still have a house with a heating/cooling pump, solar panels and a generator. We have entirely new piping, and most of our walls are new and made of loam, an ancient clay based material that is supposed to absorb toxins from the air and help regulate noise and temperature. It is also a non-toxic material. The way that heat pumps work is that you need large surface heating. Except for our main bathroom which has floor heating we choose to have thermal wall heating. So each room has so many centimeters of pipes in the walls, that make the room a pleasant temperature, which we can control in each room at a wall dial. We can also control them remotely by computer.

In order to get rebates for such work, which is a pittance compared to what it costs, you have to start your remodeling project with an energy consultant. They calculate the energy standards of the federal government and in our case, also our city government and he also divided our project up between the two agencies to try to get us maximum rebates. They also inspect and submit the numerous papers to all the contractors and then to the government. However, there are also deadlines, which we have had to extend. We missed one in part of the remodeling because of circumstances tied to our first architect. In addition to putting in the electric heating system, and solar we also had our walls rebuilt, and we put in insulation and a new roof. Our house is part of a double house half, and so we insulated the outside in the side and back, and in the front we did interior insulation because our house has original ornamentation on the front that we did not want to lose. The insulation goes to about a foot below the surface of the house and is for the roof too. The material used is made by a company called Steico and it is really effective. We have also used wool insulation and natural chalk paints, and natural primer too. Our new external doors and windows are all insulated too.

Our shell got its test when a barn across the street from us went up in flames. It was a huge, old barn, and blazed into the night. The fire brigade told us to stay inside and shut our doors and windows. Some were there until the next day around noon. Except for my front entry hall, where I had left the door open when I went out to see what was going on and which I can shut off from the rest of the house, there was no smoke smell in my house even though the smell outside lasted for over 3 weeks. Just the smell of the burnt wood was filling the air for at least 2 weeks even though we fortunately had lots of rain.

Because the house is well insulated, we can not heat it in the winter for 2-3 days and the temperature inside will be okay. However, our city does not have a lot of very cold days in the winter. It has a sub-oceanic, humid and rainy climate. In the winter it rarely drops below 30 degrees Fahrenheit, and in the summers it can go up to the 80s, even the 90s, but it tends to be more in the 70s.

Around our house are pavers making a walkway and leading to where the rear deck was, and into the back yard. The slabs directly against the house had to be taken up to put up the outer insulation so I said do not put them back. I want as little pavement as possible around my house, so that the grass and plants can absorb the water, or dirt can. The water pipes go into the canal and if there is any problem we will have the pipe to the street pipes be enlarged, but right now the amount of water it can hold is far, far beyond the amount our household can use at once even if we washed dishes, and laundry and showered in each bathroom at once. However, one wants to have the city check that water cannot back up.

I checked on a climate prediction chart and in the year 2050, our city is not predicted to have dangerously hot summers. However, one reason that we got a heating and cooling pump is so that we can adjust for the temperature being too hot if needed. We are also looking into getting geothermal energy. A friend here told us about a pilot project where in the city they are going to run geothermal lines in the streets, so houses can be connected to it. For that it should heat and cool the house without additional energy and then a heat pump can make up needed differences between the temp that they have for home use, which is not as deep as they dig for commercial use. Right now this project is in a pilot. So, I will be following that. Germany wants to be as energy independent as it can. All renewable methods help ensure this.

In addition too the electrical home that has some climate controls, I have tried to get appliances that are A or A+ is rating. Miele is a dominant brand in my home, because I am in Germany. I am also using a low impact soap in my dishwasher and washing machine, and use very little of it. We are required to recycle pretty much everything. In our kitchen we have bins for plastic and metals, organic compost, paper and then the rest. However, I also have a bin for glass, which I take when it fills up to the glass recycling place about 2 blocks from me, right next to the old Bunker that needs an upgrade. For some bottles we can take them to the store and get money back. All of the waste from the remodel had to be sorted and taken away. There is still stuff that needs to go, and will be a project before the summer comes.

While we are trying to lower our carbon footprint and avoid climate disasters we know we know we are not totally protected from environmental catastrophes. We are trying to do our part to lessen our environmental impact and work on making our home safer. We do have a car here, and if we need one will join a car sharing program. For now, we use public transportation and take the trains when we can to travel. That is not possible to return to the US. We also rely on friends who have cars to help us transport big ticket items. We do fly to the US and back, although I am not the only one who worries about the safety of aviation under Musk. I do have a nephew who is working on his PhD, in sustainable aviation engineering. I look forward to making transatlantic journeys in the future that do not cost our environment so much.

A final clue I will give you about where I live is that we are a destination on what is known as the Fairy tale highway. Once someone guesses my city, I will add my other resources to this article. It should not be too hard.

https://www.euronews.com/green/2025/03/12/what-is-climate-whiplash-new-report-reveals-dangers-of-flooding-and-drought-in-european-ci