Climate Adaptation

Yesterdays tour took us to the new part of Amsterdam. They do not have land so they are creating islands to build houses. In Dutch terms saying houses can mean multi-family housing. We toured the Delta Works at the beginning of the week. I was a little amazed that the only conversation about adaptation to the rising sea level has been harden the shoreline. The water managment schops are restoring the streams to make them meander more which retains the water but that has been it. When we toured the islands I asked what is defending this land and it is another dike system similiar to the one that we saw at the beginning of the week. Ironically, at this time they are discussing the increase in sea level so there is a debate as to how high they should make the dike system. It was astonishing to see the extent of property in an area so vulnerable and they are adding more islands. realizing that they don't have hurricanes I can understand but we never had a chance to talk to a real climate change scientist to discuss the potential impacts. They have storms that come from the northwest and that is what destroyed the Netherlands in 1953= De Rampe. I have cool pictures of what the Netherlands would look like today if they did not have dikes. It would be even smaller...you can put four Netherlands into Florida.

We are off to a farewell party now and flying out very early tomorrow morning.

The month has been amazing and the cultural/vocational experiences are a plenty.