Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden - Comparing Environmental Policies in 16 Countries - page 73

and coordinated with leaders of the afected groups, but now they involve
direct consultation with citizens and businesses. Because business has
more resources to gather data and present its arguments, this sector has
tended to be more inluential. he hird Plan sought to address prob-
lems broader than merely cleaning up pollution such as overconsumption
and the destructiveness of economic growth. he Fourth Plan in 2003
was even more global, looking ahead 30 years, and addressing issues like
climate change, loss of biodiversity, and resource scarcity. he Fith Plan
emphasized compact cities.
he number one Dutch environmental threat is the sea. More than a
third of the land is below sea level, and the polders are subject to looding.
he worst disaster occurred in 1953, when a severe storm, coupled with
a high tide, breached the dikes in Zeeland, drowning 1835 people. Even
with reclamation, the land has a natural tendency to sink. Higher sea level
caused by global warming is a particular threat because then North Sea
storms could destroy the dikes. he government already has increased
the required height of the dikes. Increased rainfall due to warming could
cause the Rhine and Meuse rivers to lood frequently. A 1995 lood forced
200,000 people to evacuate. he government has decided to give the rivers
more room, allowing them to lood naturally, rather than trying futilely
to contain them. Over the next 50 years 222,000 acres of land will be
returned to loodplain as natural forests and marshes as in ancient time.
Another 62,000 acres of pasture will be available for temporary looding,
and 185,000 more acres of farmland will be modiied so they can tolerate
soggy conditions in the winter and spring.
In addition to the dangers from the sea, the Netherlands sufers from
more mundane forms of pollution found in all industrial countries.
Factories and power plants discharge water contaminated by nitrates,
phosphates, heavy metals, and organic compounds. he Rhine and Meuse
Rivers bring pollution from Germany, France, and Switzerland. Air pol-
lution comes from vehicles and reineries. In turn, its own dirty air wats
into Germany and Belgium, and dirty water lows into the North Sea.
Acid rain irst became an issue at the 1972 Earth Summit in Stockholm.
he Scandinavians complained that sulfur and nitrogen oxides emitted by
industries burning coal and oil from the Netherlands (as well as a swath
from England to Poland) were driting north and falling as rain that acidi-
ied their lakes. Little was done at irst. Later Germany began to feel the
efects as its own forests died back. Research showed that about 80% of the
sulfur and nitrogen oxides from the Netherlands were exported via the