Lessons From Below Sea Level

"Holland and California share another concern: Global warming is ratcheting up the risk of catastrophic floods."

"California's water problems are largely focused in an area called the Sacramento Delta. It's a flood-prone triangle of land just northeast of the San Francisco Bay area. Climate change is going to make flooding worse, but deciding on a plan to do something won't be easy. Part of the reason is that there are a lot of federal agencies with opinions."

"Jeffrey Mount, a geologist at the University of California, Davis, says building higher walls to keep back the flood waters won't work. It would be ruinously expensive and is probably not the way to keep up with the sea level rise climate change is bringing. In considering solutions, California could benefit from the example of the Netherlands."