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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Dutch--famously smart, famously frugal, and famously below sea level--are spending billions
We in the rich world can gear up for it. But the worst effects--and the first people to feel the impact--are in the tropics. These are the poorest people...the half of humanity trying to live on $2 a day...the hungry billion trying to live on $1 a day. Helping them in the face of global warming is not a matter of sympathy; its a matter of justice.
I believe anyone who denies that the climate is changing on this planet--and that it will have a devastating impact--is either ignorant or evil. I know evil is a strong word. But there are powerful and wealthy people who know in their hearts that climate change will wreak havoc on poor and hungry people...people theyll never have to face in person. They know that human economic and industrial activities are contributing to climate change. And they are embracing lies about it--and discrediting caring people who are telling the truth about it--because of their own financial interest. These people are part of an evil on this planet in the 21st century that (if measured in the amount of human misery caused by their actions) may surpass even the most evil forces of the 20th century.
Posted by Rick Steves on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ricksteves?ref=stream
Make sure you view his photos with this post. The description one reads, "Huge boats are moving sand from far out at sea into shorelines to bolster the already massive dikes that enable the Dutch to sleep soundly (and dryly) at night."
niyad
(112,065 posts)dutch engineers to create some more viable protections.
HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)For example, Florida's bedrock is porous limestone. Rising sea level will just bubble up from the ground in areas below sea level.
Eleanors38
(18,318 posts)as a viable economic model for those who stay. Perhaps the Dutch as well.
HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)They enhanced the value of shrimp by adding oil to them.
Eleanors38
(18,318 posts)djean111
(14,255 posts)It's not easy, Ovink told CNNs Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday. It's very hard. It is a change between your ears and eyes. It is a change of culture and therefore a change of the heart, which is always harder than an engineering change, or harder than an investment decision. You really have to change the way we go about water.
Ovink, a former Dutch water-management official, is now working on the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, serving as Special Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
Adapting for higher oceans is not so much about fighting the water, Ovink says; its about working with it.
I think the idea is to shunt the water instead of trying to keep it out - I think there is a park in New Jersey that is set up like that, but i cannot remember where I read about it, sorry.
Eleanors38
(18,318 posts)bettyellen
(47,209 posts)so the run off will fill get collected there. That is in Hoboken, and they had asked for firms to propose designs. The mayor did end up getting some Sandy money, despite Gov Christie.
lunasun
(21,646 posts)He has seen the impact of climate change worldwide
Uncle Joe
(58,029 posts)Thanks for the thread, MelissaB.
oldandhappy
(6,719 posts)The powerful and wealthy people do not want to do what is best for all the people. They want only what is good for themselves.
Stryst
(714 posts)So they don't have to see the evil they've inflicted on their own people.
MisterP
(23,730 posts)ReRe
(10,597 posts)... underestimate the intelligence of evil, that is, if I understood your response correctly.
truebluegreen
(9,033 posts)designed their flood control system with a 10,000-year flood in mind...ours can't even withstand a lousy Category 2 hurricane.