The Netherlands is a coastal nation and faces similar threats to Louisiana, like rising seas, stronger storms and a sinking coast. Over the past thousand years, the Dutch have built giant floodwalls and levees to protect them from the North Sea, just like officials continue to do in Louisiana.
But climate change is bringing new threats, and the Dutch are trying some unusual approaches. They are rebuilding land with the power of nature, using some tools that we could use here in Louisiana.
On a freezing cold, grey November day on the coast, waves from the North Sea crash on the shore. Yet kite-surfers find the weather perfectly acceptable. Several of them battle the wind in dry suits in a small lagoon where the waves are smaller. It’s a favored location for the sport. But over the next several decades this whole beach will wash away, just like it was engineered to do.
