Masters of the Sea

The Netherlands underwater - from Wikimedia commons

A great deal of the Netherlands is under sea level.  We all take bikes to work rather than boats because of an extensive system of dikes that hold the ocean at bay.  Taking a look at the map on the right, a good portion of the country would be underwater if the dikes were to break.  My own home would have a very different view.  Perhaps instead of people going by, I would see a school of fish (riding bikes, of course).

One thing that occurred to me is that the Netherlands probably is pretty susceptible to global warming - the seas would just rise a little bit, and life as we know it would change forever.  I asked a Dutch colleague whether this was a concern here.  Perhaps the Netherlands invests a lot of money in keeping those polar ice caps nice and frozen?

No, he said.  Global warming is not a concern here.  "The seas are rising?" he said.  "We'll just build higher dikes.  We Dutch are masters of the sea."

I suppose the whole Dutch economy would benefit... exporting their dike technology around the world.