The Dutch have always been wizards at controlling water. They have mastered the art of keeping water in check. But magic tricks won’t stop climate change.
With the lowlands warming up at twice the global rate, clever infrastructure may not be able to stop what’s coming. 👇
The hottest years on record
According to the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), 2023 and 2024 were the warmest years in Dutch history since measurements began in 1901.
The country is also heating up at a rate of 0.4 degrees Celsius per decade — with the last thirty years the toastiest on record.
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As Maarten van Aalst, CEO of KNMI, explains: “climate change is not longer a distant future; we are already experiencing it in our daily lives.”
Of course, global warming doesn’t just stop at a few extra days of sweating.
The real consequences are already here — more extreme weather, heavier rainfall, and flash floods turning highways into pools.
“Think of the heavy rainfall in Twente, where the water was knee-high on the A1 motorway.” says van Aalst, “it is precisely these increasing weather extremes, which we also saw worldwide in 2024, that worry us.”
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It might be time to add an inflatable life jacket to your emergency kit. 😬
We’re failing, and we’re failing hard
Back in 2015, the Paris Climate Agreement solidified the necessary world goal to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius and ideally 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Fast forward to 2024, we exceeded the 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold, as if the goal was to blow past it as quickly as possible.
In the Netherlands, temperatures escalated even faster. De Bilt, near Utrecht, recorded temperatures 2.9 degrees Celsius higher than the overall average between 1901 and 1930.
Some people argue it’s “too late to do anything.” However, the climate target is a long-term goal, not a finish line we have already tripped over.
The fight isn’t over, even if the odds aren’t in our favour. 💪
Have you noticed the weather lately?
There was no snow in the Netherlands for the second time in a row last winter — with the fewest number of frost days (when the temperature drops below zero).
Skating on canals may now become a nostalgic story we’ll tell our grandkids.
The unfortunate reality is that the global sea level has risen by 21 centimetres since the early 1900s, making the Netherlands one of the most vulnerable countries in the world.
In fact, the KNMI reports that the rate at which sea levels have risen has “more than doubled since satellite measurements began in 1993.”
And here’s the harsh reality check we might need: despite technological brilliance, there’s no magic spell to make the water stop rising. 💦
What do you do in your own life to combat climate change? Let us know in the comments below!
So it’s up to me to fight climate change, eh? Sure, why not this too, I have to do everything around here anyway. First step: Sell your car. Second, holiday in the country always, don’t leave. Third, get a solar panel and a battery and charge your phone like that, on the windowsill. Fourth: work from home half the time. Fifth: stop buying dumb things you don’t really use. Is that it? Is climate change fixed yet? No because rich people continue to pollute? Fine, embrace damnation then, see if I care, more room in the train for me, good riddance.
The Netherlands needs to plant more trees, I once read that only 11% of the country is forest. Trees store water. Also, there needs to be more regenerative farming. Only real healthy soil acts like a sponge and can hold water well. Degraded soil from monocultures lets the water run off from the surface.