The Netherlands has learnt to manage flooding. Climate-threatened countries are taking note
The deniers on both the left and right keep telling me that the 'climate change hoax' is scam to raise taxes, but this is going to cost a fortune.
Over the next 45 years, the country spent billions building the Delta Works: a network of dams, dykes, sluices and storm barriers that is unmatched worldwide. Though most of the Netherlands is either below sea level or prone to river floods, the number of people killed by flooding since 1953 is zero.
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FT - Can the Dutch save the world from the danger of rising sea levels?
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FT - Can the Dutch save the world from the danger of rising sea levels?
This is helpful, however, as dykes and water management systems are improved, for instance in the Rhineland and in the Netherlands, they have constantly to rise higher (because less water seeps out naturally), escalating the level of risk. Viet Nam has a 3000 year history of flood and dyke management, and great water engineers, plus a history of dealing with deforestation, typhoons, and flood run-off from nearby highlands -- solutions that work in Vietnam may work elsewhere. But generally, options that entail us further settling and developing riparian and coastal areas may not be the best options.
ReplyDeleteI always wanted to live by the sea as well. I was thinking if retiring to the coast. I still can as some of coastlines are very hilly.
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