Eva Premk Bogataj

The Vajont disaster was not a failure of concrete, but of judgement. A long-read essay on the 1963 catastrophe, Tina Merlin, Monte Toc, the failed model, and the fatal gap between knowledge and decision.

Dogs have died within minutes after swimming in lakes that looked perfectly clean. Across Europe — from Berlin and Bavaria to Switzerland and the French Alps — scientists are increasingly linking these deaths to toxic cyanobacterial mats growing on the bottom and along the shore, invisible to standard bathing-water monitoring. This article examines what these cases reveal, why “excellent” water quality may still hide a lethal risk, and how European authorities have responded.

Lake Bohinj is still clear—but no longer stable. This article shifts the perspective from post-collapse lake restoration to early-warning systems in oligotrophic Alpine lakes. Through cases like Tovel, Attersee, and Königssee, it shows how subtle biological shifts begin long before visible degradation—and why monitoring without decision-making creates only the illusion of protection.