By Anna Idziak
Imagine seeing the walls of your house ripped out because of the current. Your belongings, memories, and home are lost. Your day-to-day life shifts drastically. Thousands of people in central Europe found themselves in this situation in September. During this period a lot of rescue workers, governments and volunteers came together to alleviate the effects of the flood and try to save as many lives and homes as possible. At a higher political level, EU funds have been made available for the countries affected by Storm Boris to help repair the damages. In Poland, the floods mobilised aid as well as a political dispute about the crisis response.
Beavers vs. Tusk
In the wake of the floods the Prime minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, declared a battle against beavers. He claimed that beavers were damaging the embankments which worsened the impact of the floods. To prevent this from happening in the future he implemented measures that would allow the eradication of beavers in embankment areas. When the situation calmed down he retracted his words and followed the recommendation of numerous experts; the embankments should be isolated and protected with wires, instead of expunging beavers.
Even so, this warrant against beavers met with a lot of conflict. Beavers have become the stars of a lot of Polish memes due to videos with a humorous delivery of the word “bober” which translates to “beaver”, this certainly did not strengthen the Prime Ministers’ argument that beavers are dangerous for our embankments. Besides, beavers actually lend a helping hand in preventing floods because they build dams that can slow down the flow of water and improve water quality. Also, beavers store water which is useful in times of drought, which we are experiencing more of every year.
Climate breakdown at source
This brings us to the actual cause of the floods: climate breakdown. Due to the climate crisis, extreme weather such as heatwaves and extreme rainfalls are becoming increasingly likely. Therefore, our safeguards against natural catastrophes will be progressively inadequate and this is what proved to be true in central Europe. There is a sentiment in central Europe concerned with establishing more and even bigger embankments, but this begs the question, when will it be enough? As our climate is deteriorating, we would have to keep on building higher dams and investing millions to protect our lives. This is unfeasible because there will be a growing risk of an even bigger flood that our dams will be unable to hold. Would we then proceed to build dams that are 600 metres high and make them higher each year just to save ourselves? The only solution to this is to stop the climate from breaking down even more.
Why would the government condemn beavers?
Nonetheless, why would a government official put the blame on animals for such horrendous circumstances? Perhaps it was to look strong and decisive in these precarious times, especially in the face of critique from the opposition. Maybe it was to have something physical to hold accountable instead of accepting that these natural weather disasters are the consequences of our governments’ actions. Most probable, it was a combination of both.
The Polish government does not want to address the problem at its core, so it chose to blame beavers as an easier way out. Instead of focussing on stopping climate breakdown and pushing for this at an international level with the EU, it blamed guiltless mammals and concentrates on building bigger embankments. Indeed, defences against floods are needed, but if we do not tackle climate breakdown now, it will cost us even more money and lives in the future. Moreover, I do not think that killing innocent beavers would make the flood victims feel remotely better or bring them back their homes.
Photo by Nathan Cima via Pexels
