Cempaka Belanda: Rising sea levels: A tale of two cities (Rotterdam)

"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)

"The Timing of the Great Shift" – Mar 21, 2009 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“ … Here is another one. A change in what Human nature will allow for government. "Careful, Kryon, don't talk about politics. You'll get in trouble." I won't get in trouble. I'm going to tell you to watch for leadership that cares about you. "You mean politics is going to change?" It already has. It's beginning. Watch for it. You're going to see a total phase-out of old energy dictatorships eventually. The potential is that you're going to see that before 2013.
They're going to fall over, you know, because the energy of the population will not sustain an old energy leader ..."

"Update on Current Events" – Jul 23, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: The Humanization of God, Gaia, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Benevolent Design, Financial Institutes (Recession, System to Change ...), Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Nuclear Power Revealed, Geothermal Power, Hydro Power, Drinking Water from Seawater, No need for Oil as Much, Middle East in Peace, Persia/Iran Uprising, Muhammad, Israel, DNA, Two Dictators to fall soon, Africa, China, (Old) Souls, Species to go, Whales to Humans, Global Unity,..... etc.)

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …”

Friday, November 27, 2009

Rising sea levels: A tale of two cities (Rotterdam)

By Michael Hirst, BBC News, Rotterdam

Rotterdam does not feature highly on lists of must-see sites in the Netherlands.

Heavily bombed by the Germans during World War II, Europe's busiest port lacks the rustic charm of Amsterdam.

But city authorities are aiming to turn it into an international showcase for water management, making a virtue out of what was once its biggest threat.

Although the story of Hans Brinker shoving his finger in the dyke to stop it from bursting is a myth, Dutch expertise in this field is not in question.

With much of its land mass below sea-level, the country has been battling the sea for centuries, using dykes and windmills to control the flow of water.

Risk remains

Daniel Brakman remembers the last time Dutch sea defences were breached - in 1953.

In pictures: What to do with water?

"I was a young boy, I was home with my brother and my sister and there was water around our house as far as the eye could see," says the 63-year-old hairdresser.

The storm surge killed nearly 2,000 people and inundated swathes of land.

It prompted the Dutch to develop a delta plan which means Rotterdam now lies behind several hundred kilometres of dykes.

A network of sluices, locks and barriers give it some of the world's best sea defences, which would only be breached by a one-in-10,000-year storm.

But while the impressive Maeslant barrier, for example, could withstand a several-metre surge in water levels, the risk remains that a major flood could breach the defence system, affecting around half the Dutch population.

"A one-in-10,000-year protection level sounds very good… but it's just statistics, and that event could happen tomorrow," says Piet Dircke, professor of Urban Water Management at Rotterdam University.

Country at risk

Hurricane Katrina - which wreaked havoc on New Orleans in 2005 - was a clarion call against complacency, says Mr Dircke, who is also director of water programmes with the global engineering firm Arcadis.

The Netherlands has established a plan to bolster its flood protection system by making it:

Bigger, with higher sea barriers
More natural, through schemes to widen rivers, reinforce the coastline with sand and start building floating homes
Smarter, using technology to provide an early warning system and evacuation plan

Rising sea levels are not the only problem facing the country. Increased urbanisation is putting pressure on sewage systems and increasing the risk of flooding, and the country is subsiding at an even faster rate than the sea level is increasing.

"We're getting more water out of Germany from the river Rhine, more from heaven, water out of the sea and out of the soil, so water's coming from four sides and we have to have answers for all four aspects," says Rotterdam's Vice-Mayor Lucas Bolsius.

All of these sources of water will be monitored by a new system, being developed by IBM, to collect and analyse real-time data, in order to evaluate flood threats.

For example, there is a plan to install sensors on dykes to raise the alarm when a barrier is about to be breached, allowing the government to give a 24-hour warning of the need to evacuate.

Live laboratory

As it works on these innovations, Rotterdam is essentially developing a live laboratory to put them to the test.

MAESLANT STORM SURGE BARRIER

Gates are the length, and twice the weight, of the Eifel Tower
When closed, 22m-high barrier straddles 300m-wide river
Completed in 1997 at cost of 450m euros
Expected to close once every 10 years, frequency doubling by 2050

With many modern ships unable to pass through the shallower waters in the city centre, the shipping industry is moving westwards, with its new deep-water port stretching over a distance of 40 km (25 miles) towards the North Sea.

This is leaving a 4,000-hectare area around the old docks where government departments are pooling their resources with universities, engineering and IT firms to develop sustainable energy technology. The city plans to halve its carbon emissions by 2025, and to reduce net emissions to zero in due course.

On a river-tour, water manager John Jacobs showed off theResearch, Design and Manufacturing campus, a hive of creativity based in one disused shipping wharf.

"It's an excellent example of how a port city can change its focus to tackle the challenges of climate change," says Mr Jacobs.

The site is now home to a clutch of vast greenhouses containing workrooms and lecture theatres where scientists and students work together with businesses and engineers to develop eco-friendly products from hi-tech bicycles to footwear made with sustainable materials.

Adapting to change

Rotterdam's ultimate goal is to make itself climate-proof - able to withstand whatever the weather throws at it - by 2025.

In addition to hi-tech water management systems, the city is also exploiting "soft technology" such as water plazas, green roofs and multi-purpose storage facilities.

Water taxis may one day ply between floating housing developments

More ambitiously, it plans to develop a 50-hectare (120-acre) floating housing development, with a neighbourhood of environmentally friendly houseboats.

The showcase for this development is a floating pavilion under construction that will be completed in time for the start of the Tour de France in Rotterdam next July.

Rotterdam hopes to share its knowledge, exchanging ideas on low-cost methods of flood protection with both developed delta cities and developing countries - like Mozambique - that face a similar threat from water.

"The question will be how can you transfer this technology to other areas, how can you make it suitable for countries in other climates and economic situations," says Piet Dircke.

Related Articles:

Dutch sea defences: time to act is now

Rotterdam's plans to cope with rain and rising seas

Rising sea levels: A tale of two cities (Maputo)
Delta Commissie Website (Video)
Welkom op Deltawerken Online