The Netherlands is at forefront of adapting to climate change, write ANTHONY FAIOLAand JULIET EILPERIN
WITH THE Copenhagen summit starting today, chances remain uncertain for a historic breakthrough in the fight to prevent climate change, but the Netherlands is leading a fight of a different kind: how to live with global warming.
As sea levels swell and storms intensify, the Dutch are spending billions of euro on “floating communities” that can rise with surging flood waters, on cavernous garages that double as urban floodplains and on re-engineering parts of the coastline as long as North Carolina’s. The government is engaging in “selective relocation” of farmers from flood-prone areas and expanding rivers and canals to contain expected swells.
The measures are putting this water world of dikes, levies and pumps that have kept Dutch feet dry for centuries ahead of the rest of the world in adapting to harsher climates ahead.
Critics describe some of the efforts in the Netherlands, where officials expect to spend $100 a person per year on climate-proofing over the next century, as alarmist — perhaps too much, too soon. But other experts see the climate defence system as a model for other nations — including the United States, where officials are seeking Dutch advice for how to protect New Orleans and other low-lying coastal cities.
As nations from Britain to Bangladesh come up with survival strategies, the Dutch approach underscores a shift in thinking among scientists, planners and politicians, who only a few years ago viewed talk of adapting to climate change as akin to environmental surrender.
Although almost everyone agrees that setting lower emission targets will be vital at the two-week summit in Copenhagen, a growing chorus of experts now argues that it might already be too late to prevent temperatures from rising for the next 50 to 100 years.
Nations both rich and poor are moving as never before to plan for the era of global warming.
Most, like the United States, are in the early stages. This summer, the Obama administration established a Climate Change Adaptation Task Force.
It is exploring everything from how to integrate climate change planning into federal operations, to helping local communities respond to its future effects.
Bangladesh, one of the world’s most flood-prone countries, has adopted a 10-year action plan, seeking international assistance for early warning systems for cyclones as well as new storm shelters and drainage systems. The tiny Indian Ocean island nation of Maldives is ramping up sea walls and exploring houses on stilts, while warning it might need to buy land in Sri Lanka, Australia or elsewhere to relocate its population. A new British plan seeks to further reinforce defences against the rising Thames river while bluntly stating some existing communities may have to be moved. Arid countries such as Egypt, meanwhile, are preparing for even drier times. With the aid of the Dutch, they are experimenting with an irrigation system using moisture sensors to grow crops using 50 per cent less water.
“A few years ago, people thought you were a defeatist if you talked about adaptation to climate change,” said Malcolm Fergusson, head of climate change at Britain’s Environment Agency. “We say that mitigation is important but so is adaptation, and the two go together.”
No country, however, has gone as far as this nation of 16 million with a land mass two-thirds under sea level that exists largely by the grace of water engineering. Because flooding is an ever-present threat, all Dutch children must learn to swim with their clothes on by age 6; the government provides universal flood insurance to homeowners.
The dike and levy system underwent a major refortification after devastating floods in 1953 killed nearly 2,000 people.
In Rotterdam, city officials opted to invest in new parks, city squares and parking garages now under construction that effectively double as Rotterdam’s drainage system, filling with water during heavy floods to keep streets, buildings and homes above water.
In east Amsterdam, one of three new floating communities going up across Holland looks like an aquatic suburbia.
The homes are built on floating platforms of reinforced concrete and literally rise with floodwaters, offering a glimpse into how lifestyles may change as coastal areas adapt.
David Goulooze (40), a software salesman, and Mirjam Stoll (29), a teacher, were among the first residents when the homes, starting at about €400,000, began selling last year. Although little different in appearance from any sleek, modern house on land, the hanging light fixtures in the couple’s dining room gently rock even in good weather.
Goulooze and Stoll still find themselves getting seasick now and again.
“We know that the worst of climate change is a long way off, but we feel like pioneers,” Goulooze said. “The Dutch have this in their genes. Everything is a fight against the water. We just have to start fighting harder.”