[pp.int.general] Big Brother in NL?

[Ole Husgaard]

Thanks to both you and Rainier for replying. We may move slightly
off-topic, but this is interesting to me because I have seen bad things
happening because of dikes breaking in Denmark in my time. We live in a
place mostly consisting of islands, where dikes would not be affordable
except for the major islands.

coretx skrev:
> Funny, that a Danish man coins the typical "dike" respons.

Hehe, I was not sure if my spelling of dike was correct, and I did not
want anybody to think about the water breaking through lesbians :)

> Some people jokingly say, that if the sea level rises, the Danish,
> Germans and Flemish will have extra trouble.
> Because of dutch dikes, and pumping water outside of our borders.

Denmark has a few dikes in the south-western area, and I have seen bad
things happening because of what happened when they broke because of
high tide and storms.

I am glad that you had no major dike breaks since 1953. The effect would
be really bad according to the link you gave:

> http://www.internetweer.nl/zonderdijken.htm

While I agree that 2 or 5 meters would be manageable for you, it would
still pose a large risk for you. Reinier may not get his feet wet living
on the 8th floor, though he may get unexpected visitors from people
living lower if bad things happen :-(

How do you manage the risk? Keeping the dikes safe against terrorists
(who need huge amounts of explosives for blowing up a dike anyway) is
not enough. How about simple dirt-drilling rodents - they can do far
more damage? Do you have more than one line of defence against the sea
pouring in?

For us in Denmark, because of our larger coast line compared to our land
area, just a 2 meter rise in sea level would be a major problem. I would
be among the majority of danes suddenly living below the sea line, or
having to relocate.

Best Regards,

Ole Husgaard.