Away from that; this piece is in part preparation for an upcoming thing I'm doing that required knowledge of the threat to the Netherlands along the lines of Desertification and Land Degradation, so with any luck I'm better prepared to pretend I know what I'm talking about. Enjoy the piece, have a lovely day, and see you tomorrow at eight AM for more!
The Lower Countries by Mackinley Clevinger, April 26, 2016
The Netherlands, in many languages, roughly translates to ‘the lower countries,’ and it is certainly aptly named. Roughly twenty-percent of its land is below sea-level, and fifty-percent not even a meter above the waterline, which makes its presence as a country bordering the North Sea a rather tricky feat to manage, but one that the Netherlands has done so to stunning success.
The safety of the Netherlands’ infrastructure has been key to both themselves and much of Europe, as it has served as a vital part of the economy in that region of the world for centuries, and continues to do so today. However, the Netherlands is always in threat of destructive floods, either from the North Sea or its various lakes and rivers, like in 1953 when a storm tide from the North Sea killed nearly two-thousand people and flooded large regions in its southern regions.
To combat this threat, they began a civil project that continues to undergo revisions, repairs, and upgrades every year known as the Delta Project, which ensures that their defenses against flooding hold fast against the very worst that the weather can throw at them, and since its introduction it has reduced incidents of flooding immensely in the Netherlands.
Climate Change is a process that is always ongoing, but has, in the last century, been sped up by human intervention. This has been proven conclusively, and any further arguing about it being a valid issue or not only gives us more time to dig ourselves deeper into a hole that we can’t get back out of. It’s caused by excessive greenhouse gas emissions and other human activities that alter the natural weather patterns, and has been slowly building up to impact humanity’s way of life for some time now.
An aspect of Climate Change that is well known is Global Warming, wherein gasses such as Carbon Dioxide enter the atmosphere and trap heat from the sun that would normally have been released into the cold vacuum of space in a cycle of warming and cooling that maintains the Earth’s temperatures. When the heat stays on Earth, the planet warms up, and an increased temperature means a lot of things for the planet.
Heat is a form of energy, so more heat in the planet means more energy in a contained system that has to use it one way or another, leading to natural weather events such as storms or hurricanes to be that much stronger, which is bad for humans. On top of that, an increase in temperature will also melt our polar ice caps, raising ocean levels and threatening not just to make land uninhabitable by writ of being underneath the water, but also infecting fresh-water sources with saline sea-water.
Now, the main issue when it comes to storms on coastal locations is that the water gets onto land where it shouldn’t be. Increasing the height of water and making the storms pushing it stronger means that safety measures taken against flooding in a normal environment won’t work against these ‘super’ storms powered by Climate Change, and regions once safe against natural disasters will be open to being ravaged by the full force of nature.
The Netherlands, as mentioned before, is such a coastal location that has taken extreme measures to protect itself against flooding and natural disasters that would damage much of their land. The Delta Works is the collection of construction projects initiated after the flooding in 1953 to not just protect themselves from flooding now, but to protect against future instances of extreme flooding by building dams, dikes, and storm surge barriers. The project is so enormous in size that it has been declared one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.
The Netherlands is aware of the threat posed by Climate Change, and their yearly efforts to review and better the Delta Works has prepared them for the worst, certainly, but there is only so much you can do to ready for a projected rise in sea-level of over a meter when the majority of your land is already at or beneath the current levels, especially when you take into consideration that a bad storm can raise the sea-levels by as much as five meters before factoring in Climate Change effects.
Besides flooding, the presence of a vast amount of sea-water so near to land used for agriculture and fresh water stores means that there is a serious threat of salt-intrusion, which would render the land unusable for farming and the water unsuitable for drinking. A rise in sea-levels would only worsen the matter, and slowly chip away at the land the Netherlands can safely use.
The Netherlands is combatting the threat that Climate Change poses them in two ways: First, by physically putting a barrier between themselves and a rising ocean-level, and second by trying to stop Climate Change before it reaches a point where there is nothing anyone can do to stop the inevitable damage that it will bring to all the countries of the world.
Reducing carbon emissions and promoting environmentally safe alternatives to power production are a few things the Netherlands has done within their own country to combat the – more than growing – clearly present threat of Climate Change, alongside pushing and supporting methods within the European Union and United Nations to safeguard the world against a problem that we are creating.
Even if the Netherlands managed to completely eliminate all of their contributions to Climate Change, it wouldn’t be enough to save them from future flooding and environmental disasters. Climate Change is not a local phenomenon; it affects every region of the Earth, albeit in different ways. The continued pollution of the planet by the rest of the world would serve as a death-sentence to the Netherlands, and the only way for them to save themselves is to encourage the rest of the world in pulling back from ruining the planet for everyone.
The Netherlands is perhaps the most prepared country for the oncoming disasters of Climate Change, but they’re going to be hit by more than just the North Sea flooding them. Droughts, internal flooding, salt intrusion, and the world around them worsening every year as life as we know it becomes harder and harder to maintain. They can’t raise the height of the land, or lower the sea-level; all they can do is try to reduce Climate Change and watch the water steadily creep up higher against their dams.
Despite being the most at-threat country for rising water-levels, the Netherlands may be the last country to be flooded in the later stages of Climate Change, but it won’t be able to hold out forever. The path the world is traveling on now is going to lead to one of Europe’s most vital and historic countries to be devastated, and unless action is taken sooner rather than later (and it may already be too late,) the world is going to follow in that devastation.