Imagine living in a country that by all logic should be underwater—but somehow isn’t. That’s the Netherlands for you, a place where human engineering, creativity, and sheer stubbornness are keeping the sea at bay. From massive dikes and storm surge barriers to canals so clever they look like something out of a sci-fi movie, the Dutch have literally rewritten the rules of survival. It’s like watching people play chess with the ocean—and winning. But for how long? Dive in with us as we explore how this country manages to stay dry against all odds. Animation is created by Bright Side. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/
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00:00You know what? The Netherlands deserves a resilience Nobel, and I can prove it.
00:05Exhibit A. About a quarter of the country is below sea level, and half of it sits just three feet above.
00:12The highest point down south only reaches about a thousand feet. That's like the height of the Eiffel Tower.
00:19Exhibit B. It's the seventh lowest country on the planet and one of the most densely populated.
00:25Nearly four million people live below sea level, and yet they're totally fine.
00:30No scuba gear needed to get to work.
00:33Exhibit C. It's located right next to the North Sea, with massive rivers pouring into it from all over Europe.
00:40The Rhine, the Meuse, and the Scheldt rivers, all of them empty into the sea through the Netherlands.
00:46Now, with all that going on, this country should be under the ocean by now.
00:51And yet, it's not. In fact, they're not just staying afloat.
00:55They are expanding. But how? Well, I'm going to tell you.
00:59This is what the Netherlands looks like today.
01:02But this is what it looked like back in the 14th century.
01:05Now, compare these two, and you'll see that most of the land we see now used to be underwater.
01:12Take Skephal Airport. It's the fourth busiest in Europe, and probably the one you flew into, if you've ever been to Amsterdam.
01:19It was built on what used to be a lake, the Haarlemmer Lake, to be exact.
01:24But they drained it back in 1852, and now the airport sits over 13 feet below sea level.
01:31This isn't an isolated case, though.
01:33For the past 2,000 years, people there have been fighting tirelessly to push the ocean back and keep the water out of the land.
01:42They started by building things like canals, huge, winding waterways that channel excess water away from low-lying areas.
01:49And then there are the windmills.
01:52Yep, I'm talking about those classic cute Dutch windmills that are a tourist landmark.
01:57But they're not just for pictures.
01:59These things actually use wind power to pump water out during heavy rains or floods, sending it into the right channels where it can be safely drained.
02:08Most people in the Netherlands also depend on dikes to keep the water at bay.
02:12But these massive barriers act like the country's giant walls, stopping water from flooding into the land.
02:19But if something goes wrong, like if the water rises higher than the dike or the dike gets damaged, then people living nearby are in serious danger.
02:28But hey, at least their wooden shoes would float.
02:30Oops, never mind.
02:32But for now, let's say the rewards totally make the risks worth it.
02:36I mean, thanks to all these efforts over centuries, the Dutch have managed to reclaim 20% of their land from the sea.
02:43The biggest difference is wonderfully clear in Rotterdam.
02:47What started as a small settlement along a peat river back in the 14th century is now a city with the largest seaport in Europe.
02:55Check out this whole section here.
02:57This piece of land, for example, was added in just four years.
03:01So, how did they make land out of nothing?
03:04Well, in this case, they used these huge dredging ships, the same kind they used to build those insane palm islands in Dubai.
03:12These ships suck up sand from the ocean floor like a giant vacuum cleaner and then spray it onto certain areas to create new land.
03:20Once they had enough sand piled up and shaped just the way they wanted, they had to make sure it wouldn't get washed away by the sea again.
03:27So, they brought in around 20,000 massive stone blocks and placed them all around the edges, like building a giant protective wall.
03:36No doubt the Netherlands is one of Europe's most innovative countries when it comes to tackling rising waters.
03:42One of their biggest successes is probably the maize laundering, a storm surge barrier in South Holland.
03:48This engineering marvel was built in the 90s with one goal in mind, to take the full brunt of tidal surges from the sea.
03:56So, whenever the water is expected to rise 10 feet or more, this barrier automatically closes.
04:03And just like that, it protects 1.5 million people.
04:07That doesn't mean it closes all the time, though.
04:10In fact, it's pretty rare.
04:12In 25 years, this barrier has only closed twice.
04:15But with ocean waters rising twice as fast now as they did in the 20th century, experts think this barrier is going to be closing a lot more often in the future.
04:26The good news is, it's built to keep protecting the country for the next 100 years.
04:30And it can handle a 16-foot rise in ocean water before they will even need to think about making any major changes.
04:38Okay, we get it.
04:39The Netherlands is doing an awesome job keeping the water out.
04:42But what if, one day, they just can't handle it anymore and end up flooded?
04:48What could things look like by the year 2100, for example?
04:52Well, this is how much of the country could be underwater in a worst-case scenario.
04:57It would push people to move further inland, more to the east and south of the country.
05:02That would be a huge challenge, though.
05:04If that happened today, authorities would have to squeeze over 18 million people into a much smaller area.
05:10So they'd have to think up some serious urban solutions.
05:13Those cute, cozy little Dutch houses, you know, the ones with two or three floors, would be replaced by massive skyscrapers just to fit everyone in.
05:23So farming might go vertical.
05:25People would start growing food in tall buildings instead of sprawling fields.
05:30And most every rooftop would have some kind of green space, like a garden or a park,
05:34so people can still enjoy nature even if they're stuck in the middle of a busy city.
05:38To protect historic buildings, places like Amsterdam would have huge raised dikes surrounding them.
05:45But even with all that, life would still change big time.
05:49People wouldn't really live on the ground floor anymore, since it would be too risky with the flooding.
05:54Those lower levels would stay empty, and they would start building new rooms or living spaces up top.
06:00They'd also be raised walkways, connecting everything, kind of like a whole new ground level in the sky.
06:06Boats and small water transport would become normal for getting around.
06:11And experts even think we'd still have super-fast trains running through big dikes to connect all the cities.
06:17So yeah, even in a crazy apocalyptic scenario, the Netherlands would still survive a massive flood.
06:24They'd just need to adapt.
06:25But what's fascinating is that water isn't just something the Dutch fight against.
06:31It's also something they completely rely on, especially when it comes to business and trade.
06:36Because the Netherlands sits right on the North Sea and has all these rivers, like I mentioned at the beginning of the video, remember?
06:44It became this natural hub for shipping and trading centuries ago.
06:47It's like Europe's gateway for goods.
06:51And since the Netherlands is the world's second-largest exporter of foods and agricultural products by value, that's critical for them.
06:59Take the port of Rotterdam, for example.
07:01It is huge, one of the biggest and busiest ports in the world and easily the largest in Europe.
07:07It's like the ultimate pit stop for cargo ships coming in and out of the continent.
07:11So much stuff moves through there – containers, oil, cars, food, you name it.
07:17Water makes it super easy to move things around.
07:20Not just within the Netherlands, but to places like Germany, Belgium, and France too.
07:26Barges on the rivers are essentially the Dutch version of 18-wheeler trucks.
07:30So yeah, while they've worked hard to keep the water out, they've also made it work for them economically in a big way.
07:37Now, let's talk about Dutch chocolate.
07:39Wait, I've run out of time. Maybe later. Bye for now.
