What a stir it was when journalists from Hamburg’s magazine “Stern” even crossed the doomsday horizon of climate activists. Journalists warned in all seriousness that Lake Garda would dry up and supported the apocalypse in northern Italy with an outrageous calculation.
Because the previous water level of one meter at a certain lake level was only 40 centimeters in spring 2023, the authors of the story concluded that three-fifths of Lake Garda’s water had disappeared due to the climate crisis.
Actually, this huge body of water is up to 346 meters deep. Even after reducing the water level by 60 cm, the depth of 345.40 meters remained. Any student would have noticed that not only 38 percent of the water was left due to climate, as Stern had further estimated.
It was the famous cabaret artist Dieter Nuhr – a trained high school professor – who exposed the writers’ mathematical dyslexia and packaged it into a nice suggestion: “I recommend an editorial trip to Lake Garda to the entire Stern editorial team “Whoever reaches the other shore with dry feet in water deeper than 345 meters can call himself Jesus.”
How can this be possible? Quite simply: like many others, Stern journalists equated the water level of Lake Garda with its water depth. However, the level is only an artificial measurement that shows when and how much water can be taken from Lake Garda if necessary. Italy’s largest lake serves as a water reservoir and supplier for the agricultural sector.
And now the good news: The water level has risen significantly since the spring. Frequent and heavy rainfall has been good for Lake Garda. It now has the same amount of water as it did in 2002. The water level has increased from 40 centimeters at the beginning of the year to more than 1.20 metres.
Only for Stern journalists and other climate fanatics: No, Lake Garda is now more than a meter deeper.
