Without the system of dunes, dams and dikes that have been built to protect it, half the country would be inundated. Even more alarming are the predictions of increasing rainfall and violent weather. In many ways, we can protect more easily against the rising sea, because it will be a gradual thing, and we know what to do. These storms we cannot predict,'' says Van Der Burg. Clear decisions on how to implement the treaty known as the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 are supposed to be determined in the meeting at The Hague, which ends on Friday.
European countries insist that at least half the reductions be accomplished by domestic actions.
In a report by the University of East Anglia, British scientists argued that climate change already is measurable. They warned that it will create warmer, stormier weather in some countries and more drought in others. Because European countries are so small, such changes could have a devastating countrywide impact. The storms that hit the Netherlands this year pelted Britain, France and Italy even harder and left much of the midlands and south under water, flooding the historic city of York. The floods shut the country down for several days when trains could not run.