Climate change in Germany
The Rhineland is historically a heavily industrial and population-dense area which includes the states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland Palatinate, and Saarland. This region is rich in iron and coal deposits and supports one of Europe's largest coal industries. In the past, sulfuric acid emissions from Rhineland coal plants contributed to acid rain, damaging forests in other regions like Hesse, Thuringia, and Saxony.
Franconian languages
Not all Dutch dialects are contained in the Rhineland; moreover, historical Franconian, which comprises other aspects of the language of the Franks, was spoken also in the lowlands. Dutch is spoken between the Rhineland and the North Sea. A second definition extends the range of Franconian to include the lowlands to the west, to the east all the way to Bamberg in East Franconia, and to the south as far as, and including, Alsace, far from the Rhineland. In all, in this definition, the Franconian language area consists of the Low Countries (Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg), parts of France (e.g. the Dunkirk district and half of Lorraine), and West-Central Germany (around Aachen, Cologne and Trier), as well as all of the former Franconia. In addition to these continental dialects, Franconian includes two overseas dialects: Afrikaans spoken in South Africa and the Pennsylvania German language spoken in North America.