Switzerland Today
Dear Swiss Abroad,
It’s enough to make one weep into one’s pint: climate change is threatening beer production in Europe, according to researchers in Switzerland. Here’s more on that and other news and stories on Tuesday.
In the news: The second-largest wind turbine in Switzerland, the creation of a taskforce on the Middle East, hands-free phone calls while driving.
- The first wind farm in canton Vaud was officially opened in Sainte-Croix today after decades of opposition. The second-largest wind turbine in Switzerland after Mont-Crosin in the Bernese Jura (16 wind turbines) will go into operation in November. It will cover the annual electricity consumption of the 6,100 households of Sainte-Croix and local businesses.
- Two days after Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel, Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis announced the creation of a taskforce on the Middle East. In view of the volatile situation, the government must be able to act quickly and in a coordinated manner, he said yesterday. This is the objective of the new taskforce headed by the head of the ministry’s Middle East and North Africa (MENA) division, Maya Tissafi.
- Only 5% of the Swiss population consider making hands-free phone callswhile driving to be very dangerous, according to a survey. And only 69% say they never get behind the wheel after consuming alcohol.
Climate change is threatening beer production in Europe. Both the quantity and quality of hops are decreasing due to rising temperatures and drier summers, according to a study.
Immediate adaptation measures are needed to stabilise the beer sector, the study’s authors from Switzerland, the UK and the Czech Republic wrote in the paper published today in the journal Nature Communications.
For the study, the researchers evaluated data on the yield and alpha content of beer hops between 1971 and 2018 from the main growing regions in Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovenia. According to the study, in the roughly 50 years from 1970 to the present the annual hop yield per hectare has declined by an average of around 200 kilograms. The alpha content of the hops, by which quality was measured in the study, has fallen by 0.6%. The alpha content is responsible for the bitter taste of the beer.
The researchers expect a further decline in yields of around 4% to 18% and a decrease in alpha content of 20% to 31% by 2050. They expect the strongest declines in the southern cultivation areas. These include the cultivation areas in southern Germany, which extend to the Swiss border, as well as cultivation areas in Slovenia.
The reason for this is the rising temperatures and more frequent droughts, said Ulf Büntgen, co-author and researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL).
According to Büntgen, the temperature changes have brought forward the start of the hop growing period by an average of 20 days. These so-called phenological changes shifted the critical ripening period to the warmer part of the season, which had a negative impact on alpha content.
Beer is the third most consumed beverage in the world after water and tea, the researchers pointed out. “It will be necessary to expand the area under aroma hops by 20% compared to the current acreage to compensate for a future decline in alpha content and/or hop production,” they wrote. In order to continue producing high-quality beer, traditional beer hop cultivation methods need to be adapted to mitigate the negative effects of climate change in Europe, the authors said.
Monique Heymann is one of the almost 23,000 Swiss citizens in Israel and is involved in the Council of the Swiss Abroad. In an interview with SWI swissinfo.ch, she describes the last few turbulent days.
“On Saturday morning I was woken up at 6.30am by the rocket alarm. It’s not pleasant to wake up like that, but we already know what to do,” says Heymann, who lives in Jaffa, the Arab part of Tel Aviv.
“From the time the alarm goes off, we have one-and-a-half minutes to get into a bunker. But there’s no such shelter in the old building where we live. We go into the stairwell, crouching as far away from glass as possible. The stairwell is the most stable part of a building. When the Iron Dome shield intercepts the missile, you hear a boom. Then you’re supposed to wait another ten minutes. On Saturday morning we experienced a few alarms, then three more in the evening. Since then it has been quieter.”
Israel has vowed to take “mighty revenge” after a surprise attack by militant Palestinian organisation Hamas on Saturday left its streets strewn with bodies. Israeli media said 900 people were killed in the attacks and most were civilians, while nearly 700 Gazans were killed in Israeli retaliatory strikes, according to Gaza officials, with entire districts in Gaza flattened. The picture shows a building in Tel Aviv.
Almost 23,000 people with Swiss citizenship live in Israel, but Heymann says she hasn’t heard of anyone thinking of leaving. “But my colleague in the Council of the Swiss Abroad seems to have received a lot of calls. For me, going back wouldn’t be an option either. Like most Swiss people in Israel I’m a dual citizen. In 2014 I immigrated with the help of Aliyah, the Israeli state service that supports all Jewish people to move to Israel and obtain citizenship. So I’m not thinking about returning to Switzerland, but I also see myself as Swiss, as a Swiss Abroad. That’s why I’m also involved in this community.”
When asked what she says to her friends and acquaintances in Switzerland and elsewhere who are looking for ways to help, Heymann says coming forward is the only thing people can do. “You can write to us and think of us. In Israel we support each other mentally. But I also get a lot of messages from Switzerland and a lot of people get in touch with my parents who live in Switzerland. That’s also good for my parents. The sympathy is very great.”
Click here for the latest news on the Israeli-Palestinian war from a Swiss perspective.
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