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Green

New Climate Alert: "Low Country" Netherlands Facing Major Sea-Level Rise

The Dutch meteorological institute has released an alarming report in a country that is particularly prone to flooding.

New Climate Alert: "Low Country" Netherlands Facing Major Sea-Level Rise

Underwater city center in South Limburg

Meike Eijsberg

In its native Dutch language, the Netherlands is called Nederland, which means "low countries" and for good reason: approximately one-quarter of the coastal nation is below sea level, and more than half is susceptible to flooding.

This makes, even more, alarming a new report of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) that sea levels off the Dutch coast will rise between 1.2 and 2.0 meters by the end of this century if the planet does not succeed in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, Dutch national broadcaster NOS reported this week.


The expected sea level rise is an upward revision, as the institute had previously concluded that the maximum sea level rise would be one meter. The updated findings, released just days before the opening of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, are based on the latest report by the UN climate panel IPCC.

Royals visit those affected by floods in the Netherlands

Utrecht Robin/Abaca via ZUMA

COP26: Northern Europe to Caribbean

According to Steven van Weyenberg, the State Secretary for Infrastructure and Water Management, "the urgency had been underestimated. The climate crisis is already with us," Amsterdam-based daily het NRC reports.

The rising sea level is not the only risk mentioned in the report; so is the increase in dangerous weather events. Responding to these changes must become a top priority of the government, says Rogier van der Sande, chairman of the Union of Waterboards, an association of 21 governmental boards that govern regional water management in the Netherlands.

A sense of urgency

Van der Sande pointed to major flooding this summer in Limburg, North Holland and Friesland regions to show that "extreme weather is already causing problems today."

De Volkskrant newspaper also mentioned the report's research on the Caribbean islands that are special territories of the Netherlands, where the strength of hurricanes will increase.

This same risk also applies to small neighboring countries and other island nations that tend to have more at stake (and risk) in the upcoming COP26 talks, but less political power. For Dutch meteorological expert, Sybren Drijfhout, the summit cannot be another missed chance to make bold choices: "I hope the countries have this sense of urgency when they gather in Glasgow for the climate summit."

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Future

Why The U.S. Trade Blockade Can't Stop China's Sprint For All-Powerful AI

If computing power becomes a major tool for superpowers like China and the U.S., then what does the latest U.S. technology blockade mean for the race to a more powerful AI? Honk Kong-based daily The Initium looks at the nuclear race of our time, with chips as the modern-day equivalent of enriched uranium.

Technicians examine mobile phone chips at a manufacture plant in Jiujiang, east China's Jiangxi Province​

JIUJIANG, Dec. 12, 2010 Technicians examine mobile phone chips at a manufacture plant in Jiujiang, east China's Jiangxi Province

Hu Guolin/ZUMA
Yang Lu

-Analysis-

The latest restrictions introduced by the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security to regulate exports of advanced technology represent not only a milestone for U.S.-China relations, but also a watershed for the current state of science and technology in the world.

The U.S. Advanced Computing/Supercomputing Interim Final Rule and the corresponding Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment Interim Final Rule, which were announced on Oct. 16 of this year, are much more restrictive compared to the previous export rules released on Oct. 7, 2022.

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One of the major players affected by these rules is NVIDIA, an American tech firm that designs and sells graphics processing units (GPUs) — processors that can go through many pieces of data simultaneously, making them useful for machine learning, gaming, and cryptocurrency mining. The company found a gap and launched a new China-specific version of the chip.

But the U.S. Commerce Secretary issued a warning for NDVIA and declared that the cut lines of control in the future will move frequently, and the room for companies to maneuver will only get smaller and smaller. This means that the overall performance of NVIDIA chips that Chinese users can buy will only get worse in the future.

With ChatGPT being a major turning point, the future of AI development will be divided into two different paths: the GPU rich, and the GPU poor.

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