Photo by a4gpa.

If anyone wants real proof — or at least some very good anecdotal evidence — that the planet is getting incrementally hotter, they need look no further than the beer bottle shortage in Munich, in southern Germany. As Oktoberfest approaches, brewers are finding they don’t have enough bottles to supply the festival. And why is that?

Reader support helps sustain our work. Donate today to keep our climate news free. All donations DOUBLED!

Because Germany was so hot this summer that the Germans were like fuck, I have to drink a lot of beer. So all the empty bottles are sitting around in drunk people’s living rooms.

Of course Germans drink a shitload of beer every summer, and use a shitload of bottles (they use and reuse their bottles up to 50 times). But this year the shortage is markedly greater than in earlier years.

Grist thanks its sponsors. Become one.

Brewers have appealed to Munich’s drinkers to bring back empties, but the shortage continues, because people are probably still too busy sitting around drinking beer to think about how they are going to drink beer later on.