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View of the partly-frozen river Spree in front of the parliamentary building, Paul-Loebe-Haus, in Berlin, as the German capital experiences icy weather conditions. \u2014 AFP<\/p>\nAS a winter cold snap grips Germany, Berliners have been slip-sliding on ice-\u00adcovered footpaths, driving a heated debate on whether the capital should use environmentally damaging salt to melt away the hazard.<\/p>\n
Snow, sleet and occasional icy rains have frozen over to cover much of Berlin in thin slabs of ice, which hospitals report have led to a spike in falls and injuries.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve already fallen about 10 times for sure,\u201d said Italian student Francesca Vero\u00adnese, who was considering buying crampons because navigating Berlin footpaths had become \u201cvery, very dangerous\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Berlin fire department reported a daily record of 2,270 emergency calls, media reported.<\/p>\n
View of the partly-frozen river Spree in front of the parliamentary building, Paul-Loebe-Haus, in Berlin, as the German capital experiences icy weather conditions. \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n
While German municipalities used to allow citizens to sprinkle salt on frozen walkways, this was banned years ago, in favour of just gravel, as the corrosive salt is known to attack the roots of trees.<\/p>\n
Hamburg and other cities have now temporarily suspended the salt ban \u2013 but in Berlin, legal action by an environmental group stopped this recently. A court upheld a ban on people sprinkling salt outside their homes and businesses.<\/p>\n
Melanie von Orlow, Berlin head of the environmental group Nabu Berlin, which filed the case, defended the salt ban.<\/p>\n
\u201cRoad salt is a major environmental problem,\u201d she said, adding that \u201ctrees die off after prolonged exposure\u201d.<\/p>\n
Salt also damages buildings, vehicles and other objects, she said, and presents \u201ca problem for animals. Pet owners notice it on their paws. It\u2019s simply corrosive\u201d.<\/p>\n
The court ruling sparked much political infighting, with the Greens party accusing the conservative mayor, Kai Wegner, of having failed to prepare for the winter hazard, and the far-right AfD labelling it a \u201cslap across the face\u201d for city officials.<\/p>\n
Most Berliners have been left concentrating on getting to and from work with\u00adout injury, and some can barely contain their anger.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, salt has become a political issue,\u201d fumed Marc Ruediger, a playground ins\u00adpector.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s disgraceful, it\u2019s embarrassing for a European capital that we can\u2019t solve this problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an emergency, so I\u2019d just spread it (salt). And if they say it\u2019s not good for the trees, well … people could die.\u201d<\/p>\n
Retiree Werner Strub agreed that \u201cthe conditions are so unusual that you can make an exception, because hospitals are full of people with fractures\u201d.<\/p>\n
Even a prominent Greens MP, Ricarda Lang, criticised the court ruling as \u201cmadness\u201d on X, writing that \u201csome elderly people no longer leave their homes because they are afraid of injuring themselves\u201d.<\/p>\n
With more ice rain forecast, the German Weather Service, meanwhile, has advised pedestrians to keep safe by wearing non-slip shoes and adopting a \u201cpenguin walk\u201d with small steps. \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AS a winter cold snap grips Germany, Berliners have been slip-sliding on ice-\u00adcovered footpaths, driving a heated debate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[112,7257,190,7258,620,7259,7260,7261,7256,7255,301],"class_list":{"0":"post-8943","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-berlin","8":"tag-berlin","9":"tag-environmental-damage","10":"tag-germany","11":"tag-injuries","12":"tag-legal-action","13":"tag-nabu-berlin","14":"tag-political-infighting","15":"tag-safety-measures","16":"tag-salt","17":"tag-starextra","18":"tag-winter"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}