Today, we had a large portion of the morning free, giving me the chance to go for a walk with my friend Umur and explore what else Rotterdam has to offer. I really enjoyed having the opportunity to see parts of the city I usually wouldn’t explore and to find portions of the Rotterdam day to day life I otherwise would never observe. After we returned to the hotel, we had the chance as a group to explore a museum dedicated to dam building and dealing with the natural disasters the Netherlands faces (namely a devastating flood in 1953). It was a good chance to engage with both Dutch culture and sustainability measures implemented in the past that have changed the course of Dutch society.
To start the day, me and Umur walked to the city’s marina, on our way passing through several Rotterdam neighborhoods. I was struck by the amount of high-density housing in the city, a stark contrast to the traditional American single-family home. Further, I saw a large amount of solar panels on said buildings, with almost every one of the large complexes having a large solar array. I find the commitment to sustainable housing efforts in the Netherlands both commendable and practical, as it definitely saves cost to implement renewable energy and dense housing in a country with an ongoing housing issue. We arrived at the Marina and had the chance to see several water taxi areas, another instance of Dutch public transit conforming to the city’s infrastructure and reducing emissions, and several pieces of Dutch art, once again showing how the cities in this country prop up their creatives. The amount of maritime history in Amsterdam and Rotterdam have struck me as someone who is not particularly near a coast back home, and I really love how this translates to large boatyards like the one we saw at the Marina today. After this, we had the chance to go to a cafe that only used biodegradable silverware and cups, showing how even at the street-level sustainability shapes Dutch life.
We then took a bus ride to the museum we visited as a group for the day, on the way passing a few more windmills to add to the already large total encountered in my time in the Netherlands so far. Given the cost efficiency and return on investment from wind-powered energy, I am not surprised how it has been implemented so broadly here. I would love to see a solution made for the difficulty to install this type of energy in dense population centers, as the more that renewables can be switched to the better. We also passed several farms with livestock lining the green landscape. I would love to see how broadly sustainable farming practices have been put into place in the Dutch countryside, as the country’s position as the number two exporter of agricultural products gives it a sizeable importance in leading the way in agricultural sustainability.
We arrived at the museum and explored a self-guided tour telling the story of the 1953 floods and the impact they had both then and enduring until today. I was absolutely shocked at the extent of the devastation, both human and animal (180,000 chickens died!). I found it sobering how the forces of nature could so quickly upend the lives of tens of thousands of people in an area of the globe I wouldn’t necessarily associate with ecological devastation. Further, I found the personal tidbits about the lives of those devastated by the crisis, both before and after it raged for several months on the Dutch countryside, helped humanize the experience. It was upsetting to see how many young children lost their lives, and the urgency of the Dutch government to better implement flood protection matters after the fact are easily justifiable when seeing the distinct human cost this crisis caused. A large timeline of floods affecting the Netherlands since the year 800 further emphasized how these efforts work to answer questions that have plagued the Dutch people for so long. The rest of the exhibit illustrated emergency response efforts at the time, how they have evolved to better employ modern technology, and how climate change is worsening the ecological threat posed by these natural disasters. People will always be placed in the path of natural disasters, and I feel a trip like this helps embolden the minds of the future to work to solve the issues associated with climate change and natural disasters. Speaking of which, tomorrow is our climate workshop in Delft, and I am very interested to see what kind of problems and solutions are discussed to address the pressing climate issues of our time.