WEBVTT

1
00:00:03.560 --> 00:00:13.640
Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Colin Lutha
and I'm Meganolette. Spotlight uses a special

2
00:00:13.960 --> 00:00:22.879
English method of broadcasting. It is
easier for people to understand no matter where

3
00:00:23.199 --> 00:00:39.679
in the world they live. A
city sits on the edge of the North

4
00:00:39.960 --> 00:00:47.799
Sea. It is very old.
Some of the buildings show this age,

5
00:00:48.479 --> 00:00:59.200
but many are surprisingly modern. High
glass structures mix with ancient churches, and

6
00:00:59.439 --> 00:01:07.879
many canals run between these buildings.
The Rhine River flows through the center of

7
00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:15.840
the city. The city is beautiful, it is like nowhere else in the

8
00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:26.680
world. This city is called Rotterdam. It is the largest city in the

9
00:01:26.879 --> 00:01:34.680
country of the Netherlands, and this
city has a rich history that goes back

10
00:01:36.040 --> 00:01:44.560
over eight hundred years. But Rotterdam
also has a problem. It is sinking.

11
00:01:45.439 --> 00:01:52.959
In fact, much of the Netherlands
is sinking. But why today's spotlight

12
00:01:53.400 --> 00:02:06.840
is on this sinking country. The
Netherlands has a long history of working with

13
00:02:07.280 --> 00:02:15.080
water. Over one third of the
country is below sea level. In eight

14
00:02:15.319 --> 00:02:23.240
hundred BC, much of the land
was not land at all. It was

15
00:02:23.599 --> 00:02:34.280
under water, but soon people began
moving earth into water that was not very

16
00:02:34.520 --> 00:02:45.080
deep. They built large mounds higher
than the water, called terps. These

17
00:02:45.520 --> 00:02:54.199
terps let them build towns and villages. It let them expand toward the sea.

18
00:02:57.520 --> 00:03:01.759
Over the years, the Dutch have
develop eloped many ways of keeping water

19
00:03:02.280 --> 00:03:10.599
out of the land. They built
huge walls across lakes and the sea coast.

20
00:03:12.680 --> 00:03:21.240
These walls, called dykes, helped
them control the water. They kept

21
00:03:21.439 --> 00:03:30.560
farmlands from flooding. The Dutch also
pumped water out of some areas. The

22
00:03:30.719 --> 00:03:38.639
dykes made sure the water would not
come back and people could settle there safely.

23
00:03:39.800 --> 00:03:46.159
The Dutch have been able to claim
a lot of land using these methods.

24
00:03:49.400 --> 00:03:55.639
In the nineteen sixties, they even
created a new area. It is

25
00:03:55.719 --> 00:04:09.159
called Flevoland. Working with water is
very important to the Netherlands' success. It

26
00:04:09.439 --> 00:04:16.279
helped the country to grow. It
is still a very small country, but

27
00:04:16.639 --> 00:04:30.920
today it is the seventeenth largest economy
in the world. But removing water often

28
00:04:31.120 --> 00:04:40.160
has a downside. Much of the
Netherlands is built on peat, a special

29
00:04:40.279 --> 00:04:48.600
kind of thick, decaying plant material. Usually peat rests on top of water.

30
00:04:49.720 --> 00:04:58.120
When the water is gone, it
can act like soil, but peat

31
00:04:58.519 --> 00:05:06.040
is not very solid. When people
put weight on it, it shrinks when

32
00:05:06.079 --> 00:05:15.040
they build on it. The land
slowly sinks. This is a process called

33
00:05:15.360 --> 00:05:24.199
subsidence. Land subsides naturally in every
place on Earth, but the process is

34
00:05:24.480 --> 00:05:32.160
very slow. Normally, land will
sink only three micrometers a year, that

35
00:05:32.519 --> 00:05:39.639
is about the thickness of a piece
of paper. But in the Netherlands it

36
00:05:39.800 --> 00:05:48.800
is happening very quickly. In some
places the land is sinking over two centimeters

37
00:05:48.839 --> 00:05:58.199
each year. For the people of
Rotta Dam, this is a very big

38
00:05:58.399 --> 00:06:08.240
problem. Neat buildings there are very
old, some were built hundreds of years

39
00:06:08.360 --> 00:06:16.839
ago. They do not have good
foundations. When the ground subsides, those

40
00:06:17.079 --> 00:06:26.920
foundations can break. If people do
not do something, the buildings may fall

41
00:06:27.199 --> 00:06:35.959
over. But there is another reason
why the country sinking is a problem,

42
00:06:36.839 --> 00:06:46.480
climate change. All over the world, sea levels are rising. This means

43
00:06:46.839 --> 00:06:56.319
that more areas of the Netherlands will
be below sea level and they will be

44
00:06:56.639 --> 00:07:04.120
more at risk from flooding. Whole
cities will be in danger. It will

45
00:07:04.240 --> 00:07:15.600
become harder and harder to keep them
above water. But the people of the

46
00:07:15.680 --> 00:07:25.079
Netherlands are not giving up. Instead, they are making plans for the future.

47
00:07:26.199 --> 00:07:33.759
Some believe that the old methods will
still work. The Dutch could continue

48
00:07:34.040 --> 00:07:43.319
to build dikes and pump water,
but as sea levels rise, the cost

49
00:07:43.560 --> 00:07:59.959
of this method will go up as
well. Instead, the Dutch are doing

50
00:08:00.040 --> 00:08:07.759
something different. They are not completely
keeping the water out. They are letting

51
00:08:07.879 --> 00:08:16.879
some in. They call this the
Room for the River program. In this

52
00:08:16.959 --> 00:08:26.759
program, the Dutch ask people to
leave some low areas near rivers, or

53
00:08:26.399 --> 00:08:35.759
they repurpose public places. If there
is a flood, these areas will fill

54
00:08:35.080 --> 00:08:45.279
first. They will keep water out
of larger cities and towns. Hans Doctor

55
00:08:45.759 --> 00:08:50.919
is a Dutch ambassador. He spoke
to Haret's news service about the effort.

56
00:08:54.200 --> 00:09:03.000
That's the idea of living with the
sea, living with the water. In

57
00:09:03.159 --> 00:09:09.559
the past we tried to keep the
water out as much as we could.

58
00:09:09.600 --> 00:09:20.000
Now we join it much more to
our living areas. The Room for the

59
00:09:20.240 --> 00:09:28.840
River's project is part of a larger
movement in the Netherlands. Subsidence and climate

60
00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:39.440
change are already happening. The country
will get lower and water levels will rise.

61
00:09:41.240 --> 00:09:50.120
It will be impossible to stop the
water completely. So the Dutch are

62
00:09:50.279 --> 00:10:00.240
changing their lives. They are trying
to live with the new situation. In

63
00:10:00.320 --> 00:10:09.960
some places these changes have already begun. Stan Flea Wreckers is a farmer from

64
00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:16.440
the Netherlands. The government bought his
farm as part of the room for the

65
00:10:16.679 --> 00:10:26.679
river project, but flear Wreckers did
not want to move, so the government

66
00:10:26.080 --> 00:10:35.639
built a large terp in the area. Flear Wreckers moved his farm onto the

67
00:10:35.799 --> 00:10:41.320
terp. Now, when the area
floods, there is water in his old

68
00:10:41.440 --> 00:10:50.600
farmland, but he is living high
above it. Many more people may soon

69
00:10:52.000 --> 00:11:00.159
live like flear Ackers. The Dutch
may build the land up instead of keeping

70
00:11:00.240 --> 00:11:07.720
the water out, or they may
make their homes with new building standards.

71
00:11:07.840 --> 00:11:16.919
Some people may even build their houses
on columns or pillars. These tall posts

72
00:11:18.399 --> 00:11:26.000
will hold the building above the ground. When water comes, it will go

73
00:11:26.559 --> 00:11:33.399
under. The land will still flood, but the flood will not harm anyone.

74
00:11:35.279 --> 00:11:43.039
In Rotterdam, buildings are already made
to hold or be above water.

75
00:11:45.399 --> 00:11:52.080
These efforts are very expensive, but
in the Netherlands it may be worth it.

76
00:11:54.159 --> 00:12:05.960
Flea Wreckers spoke to the magazine Politico. It is not as expensive as

77
00:12:05.000 --> 00:12:11.039
when a village is flooded. We
spend a lot of money in Holland on

78
00:12:11.240 --> 00:12:16.279
water management. We have to do
it. If we do not, we

79
00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:20.679
will be flooded. There will be
no factories, no people will live here.

80
00:12:22.720 --> 00:12:31.279
It will all be gone. Many
other countries will soon need to think

81
00:12:31.519 --> 00:12:41.639
about these solutions themselves. As climate
change gets worse, many other cities will

82
00:12:41.720 --> 00:12:50.960
be in danger of flooding. Cities
like Bangkok, Jakarta, and New Orleans

83
00:12:50.440 --> 00:13:01.240
are already dealing with the problem.
No country can solve climate change by themselves.

84
00:13:01.080 --> 00:13:09.720
Everyone must work together to handle the
issue. But many countries may look

85
00:13:09.960 --> 00:13:18.080
to the Netherlands as an example.
They have a long history of dealing with

86
00:13:18.320 --> 00:13:31.879
water. That history may be just
what the future needs. Do you live

87
00:13:31.919 --> 00:13:41.039
in a place threatened by climate change? What is your country doing to address

88
00:13:41.159 --> 00:13:50.440
it? You can leave a comment
on our website or email us add Radio

89
00:13:50.639 --> 00:14:00.240
ad Radio English dot net. You
can also comment on Facebook at Facebook dot

90
00:14:00.240 --> 00:14:09.519
com slash Spotlight Radio. The writer
of this program was Dan Christman. The

91
00:14:09.679 --> 00:14:18.399
producer was Dan Christman. The voices
you heard were from the United Kingdom and

92
00:14:18.720 --> 00:14:28.159
the United States. All quotes were
adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight.

93
00:14:30.279 --> 00:14:37.399
You can listen to this program again
and read it on the internet at

94
00:14:37.639 --> 00:14:48.600
www dot Radio English dot net.
This program is called The Sinking Country.

95
00:14:48.840 --> 00:14:58.279
You can also get our programs delivered
directly to your Android or Apple device through

96
00:14:58.480 --> 00:15:05.519
our free affect Sial Spotlight English app. We hope you can join us again

97
00:15:05.120 --> 00:15:20.799
for the next Spotlight program. Goodbye,