I am an Environmental Addict

[Yurt]

What is the truth? Do you know? Or is it just the earth being herself?


Dutch, British coasts braced for storm, flooding

HEADLAND NEAR ROZENBURG, Netherlands (Reuters) - The Netherlands and Britain, facing the worst flood threat in decades, closed surge barriers and evacuated people from homes on Friday as a North Sea storm threatened to inundate low-lying areas.

Authorities compared the approaching conditions to those in 1953 when floods killed more than 2,000 people in both countries.

The massive storm surge barrier near the Dutch port city of Rotterdam was closed for the first time since its construction in the 1990s.

At 11 p.m. (5 p.m. EDT) on Thursday, the two arc-shaped steel doors of the Maeslant barrier edged into the waterway that connects Rotterdam to the North Sea.

As spectators braved rain and wind to watch from a narrow headland, it took about half an hour for the two doors to meet in the Nieuwe Waterweg, about 360 meters wide.

"We have been standing here since 8 p.m.," said student Denise from Rotterdam. "I had expected it to close a bit faster."

A Dutch transport ministry spokesman said water levels were expected to reach 2.84 meters above mean sea level.

Earlier forecasts had been for more than 3 meters. The flood of 1953 saw the water rise to 3.85 meters above sea level, the transport ministry said.


.............................


"The storm conditions are very similar to 1953," the Dutch ministry spokesman said. The government weather service forecast force nine winds for parts of the Dutch coast.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071109/...itain_flood_dc

[Gaffer]

It's just the earth doing its thing.

[Dilloduck]

There are too many boats on the ocean. The answer is obvious.

[PostmodernProphet]

Or is it just the earth being herself?

every hundred to hundred and fifty thousand years the earth goes through a cycle.....here is a graph of temperatures calculated using polar ice cores....



the five peaks you see on the graph are periods of "global warming".....the five valleys you see on the graph are periods of "ice age".....

everything we have experienced that we call "civilization" has occured in that last quarter inch of the graph since the last ice age......the real risk to us isn't in that last little lift before we hit the peak.....the real risk is that huge valley we slip into afterwards......

[Yurt]

Where is Al's posse? Come on you brave libs....

[Gadget (fmr Marine)]

I guess that fortunately for us ("civilization" as we know it), we are on a graph that none of us will actually see the next "tic." The change is so gradual that the difference in 1 human's lifetime is negligible....

Good to see some common sense here!

every hundred to hundred and fifty thousand years the earth goes through a cycle.....here is a graph of temperatures calculated using polar ice cores....



the five peaks you see on the graph are periods of "global warming".....the five valleys you see on the graph are periods of "ice age".....

everything we have experienced that we call "civilization" has occured in that last quarter inch of the graph since the last ice age......the real risk to us isn't in that last little lift before we hit the peak.....the real risk is that huge valley we slip into afterwards......

[stephanie]

I;ll try later keyboard went kaput.....

[Classact]

What is the truth? Do you know? Or is it just the earth being herself?

They had a show on the History Chanel Modern Marvels about the gates and flood walls just the other day... pretty cool and great engineering.

The North sea is a bitch on a good day! While stationed in Germany a half dozen of my friends and I drove up to Holland over the 4th of July break and took a ferry to an island a couple hours off shore... great beer and the bars were hopping! It's a good thing because there was a 40MPH wind and it was 65F... we went to the beach and got red, not from the sun but the sandblasting... locals were taking advantage of the nice weather swimming... go figure...

[glockmail]

There are too many boats on the ocean. The answer is obvious.

Water is too clean and reflecting sunlight back to space.

[darin]

[mindset=Liberal] It doesn't MATTER! We'd better start restricting freedoms and create oppessive taxation policies to further OUR power over the average man!![/liberal]

[glockmail]

[mindset=Liberal] It doesn't MATTER! We'd better start restricting freedoms and create oppessive taxation policies to further OUR power over the average man!![/liberal]

You will never see one admit that, never mind admitting that it is their true motive.