Anders Sandberg wrote:
> Charlie Stross <charlie@antipope.org> writes:
>
> > 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.)
>
> Also, the dutch are more populous and wealthy than us swedes - they
> are going to win the tug-o-war and then go on ski trips to the lovely
> Stockholm glaciers :-)
>
> On the other hand, I would not mind living in the Netherlands.
>
> It is a lovely example of just how beautiful a human-created
> environment can be. I love flying over it, seeing the polders,
> channels and population centers as an intricate puzzle of human
> ingenuity. I got the same feeling when I visited Venice, which is also
> a good example of a highly artificial environment. Both places have
> their problems and drawbacks, but they also show that humans can
> create wonderful environments. It just takes time.
>
> --
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension!
> asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/
> GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
If the foundations of the buildings are sealed, then if there was chronic
flooding then coffer dams could be built around the buildings and it would be
a large Venice. Needless to say, this would disrupt regular traffic.
Other area of the world are also near sea level. If the sea rose twenty-five
feet, then the tides would be quite different, not to mention flooding all the
coastal wetlands that currently do exist. Some islands would cease to exist.
Ross
-- Ross Andrew Finlayson Finlayson Consulting Ross at Tiki-Lounge: http://www.tiki-lounge.com/~raf/ Confucious says, "My name is Confucious."
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