Google and global warming, page-6

I made a passing mention in that last post that a large number of Google searches for the word 'phoslock' over recent weeks seem to have originated from Germany.

What is driving the large number of searches for this term in Germany is unclear: it might possibly indicate that some Germans are becoming interested in the product, or in the company, and thus may be prospective customers; alternatively, it might simply be that some German investors might have started to notice this stock, and so have been searching Google for more information; or perhaps another reason besides.

So I thought I should have a closer look at this. It turns out that the German word for blue green algae is 'blaualgen'.

In Google Trends, I did a search for this term, 'blaualgen', over the time frame of the past 12 months, with the result shown below:

The spike in searches for that term over recent weeks definitely suggests that there has been some problems with blue green algae in Germany in recent weeks.

A search of the German language news sites confirms this suspicion: a large number of German news sites have reported on blue-green algae problems in many locations around that country over the past fortnight. The headline of this German news report, from last week, roughly translates to 'Blue-green algae infestations threaten many waters' which would more or less sum up the situation in Germany at present. Many lakes have been closed to swimmers, and signs like the one below have become an all-too common sight around waterways in that country:



In summary, I think it is fair to conclude that the large number of Google searches for the term 'Phoslock' from Germany is largely being driven by the scale of the recent 'blaualgen' problems, as Germans research ways to solve this issue.