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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.

He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.

In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.

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I would like to go a little bit beyond the sensational headlines about the recent European floods. The facts are very nasty: almost a hundred dead from Germany to Russia, thousands of homes flooded in many countries, damages reaching tens of billions of dollars. Although too horrible to digest, these facts hide the problems that can't be calculated.

Reading the papers talking about the UN-precedent (since World War II, even since the French Revolution) deluge following only a week-long torrential rains in Europe I asked myself about the climate changes in this continent and how these changes benefited the civilization growth there. As a matter of fact there is no other continent on our planet that gained more than Europe by the forces of the nature. If somewhere in the world the nature is a stepmother, in Europe it's a real loving mother.

Many Western Europeans (especially British, French, Germans, etc.) live for generations without knowing what the real summer or winter could be. Forget about annual hurricane (East Coast), flooding (India) or tornado (Tornado Alley) seasons, Europe was protected from all this. People in many parts of West Europe don't know what the earthquake is (unlike the West Coast and Japan), they have seen volcano only on TV; in other words they don't have to be afraid of the nature. There isn't even a desert in Europe as some natural tourist attraction. Only green grassland and cozy towns all look around. Maybe that's the reason why the un-religious feelings are so deeply rooted on the continent*.

Thus the recent natural disaster in Europe was completely unexpected. People in Europe suddenly realized that their countries are exposed to the wild forces like any other region in the world. The basement, which they thought to be the safest place in the building suddenly became the most dangerous and not without reasons. The city infrastructure plans have been put under reconsideration.

There are at least two ways out from this mess hysterical and rational, and I'm afraid that the European politicians amidst this tragedy could choose the less rational option. It consists of blaming the US for green-gas effects, the global warming and thus indirectly for the recent flooding. To make politics from the people's tragedy was always an European pattern so I'm sure they will at least try to do it again.

The second option consists of accepting the inevitable thing, i.e. that the world climate is changing constantly and Europe can no longer benefit from its unique place as it did during the centuries. To accept the fact that the nature can be also a stepmother and to prepare better for its next enrage.

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* - There is a social theory linking the deeply rooted religious feelings among the Americans with the community spirit uniting people against the enraged forces of nature.

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