Maybe the Europeans are just smarter?
Floating a new idea...
Holland has given up fighting back the sea in favour of communities afloat.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard reports.
Catastrophe strikes. Melting ice and a freak storm combine to send monster waves crashing through the coastal barriers of the Netherlands, flooding the western provinces where millions live in drained polders below sea level. The Hague becomes uninhabitable. The low-lying suburbs of Amsterdam return to marshland or open water.
Thanks to the twin effects of global warming - rising seas and heavier rain - this nightmare scenario is now more likely than ever. According to some estimates, it could happen before the end of the decade.
After conquering ever more land from the sea, the Dutch are being forced to surrender great chunks of it back to nature. Plans are being drawn up for 89,000 hectares of farmland to be returned to river flood plains. A major construction program of floating homes has started.
"We will have to relinquish space to water and not win space from it, in order to curb the growing risk of disaster due to flooding," a recent study by Holland's water management ministry concluded.
Pieter van Geel, the Dutch Environment Secretary, said: "Half of our country is below sea level, and so beyond a certain level it is not possible to build dikes any more. (more)
What???? You mean you dont just give up and abandon a city? You mean other countries have been in discussion about solutions to PREVENT catastrophe? Who Knew!
Holland has given up fighting back the sea in favour of communities afloat.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard reports.
Catastrophe strikes. Melting ice and a freak storm combine to send monster waves crashing through the coastal barriers of the Netherlands, flooding the western provinces where millions live in drained polders below sea level. The Hague becomes uninhabitable. The low-lying suburbs of Amsterdam return to marshland or open water.
Thanks to the twin effects of global warming - rising seas and heavier rain - this nightmare scenario is now more likely than ever. According to some estimates, it could happen before the end of the decade.
After conquering ever more land from the sea, the Dutch are being forced to surrender great chunks of it back to nature. Plans are being drawn up for 89,000 hectares of farmland to be returned to river flood plains. A major construction program of floating homes has started.
"We will have to relinquish space to water and not win space from it, in order to curb the growing risk of disaster due to flooding," a recent study by Holland's water management ministry concluded.
Pieter van Geel, the Dutch Environment Secretary, said: "Half of our country is below sea level, and so beyond a certain level it is not possible to build dikes any more. (more)
What???? You mean you dont just give up and abandon a city? You mean other countries have been in discussion about solutions to PREVENT catastrophe? Who Knew!
posted by Queenies Daughter at 12:12 PM
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