On Fri, Jan 26, 2001 at 10:54:59AM -0500, Michael Lorrey wrote:
>
> A smart person would see that flooding Holland would result in many
> thousands of hectares of valuable mariculture lagoons to raise seafood
> for europe. Is mariculture more valuable a crop than tulips?
If tulips were the main produce of Holland's polders, you'd be
correct. Unfortunately, they aren't -- they're a trivial export
market. More to the point, Holland is a *very* densely populated,
industrialised modern country. Agricultural land there is put
to whatever use gets the highest return on investment (modulo
the idiocies of the CAP), but the important point is that you've
got a technologically advanced nation of five or six million
people -- all of whom live within about ten feet of sea level.
I'd rate submerging airports, research labs, and factories and
replacing them with mariculture ponds as a bad trade. (Tulip farms
are another matter.)
-- Charlie
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