In response to Geneen Marie Haugen’s essay
(HCN, 11/8/04: American — and proud of it): I’m sorry
those Dutch were rude. As a Dutch-American woman, I know that being
confronted with the Dutch sense of righteousness can be
disconcerting. The population is well known for its ever-wagging
“Little Dutch finger.”
However, Holland — in fact
the larger coastal part of the entire Netherlands — contains
one of the highest population densities in the world, and is mostly
below sea level. Without the United States committing to reducing
carbon dioxide and other emissions, the Dutch have a real reason to
resent President Bush and U.S. environmental policies (or lack
thereof) in the face of rising ocean waters.
I suggest
the Dutch can offer the United States two historical lessons. One:
This small country’s stubborn righteousness was also the
reason it waged an 80-year war with the Holy Roman Empire during
the 1500s and 1600s, insisting on religious freedom. The
Netherlands won the war against an empire on this issue, and with
it, its very sovereignty. Lesson: Religion is so important to
people that it should be left to the individual only, never the
state.
Second: the Netherlands was once the site of
coastal redwood forests, enormous wetlands rich in biodiversity;
its Waddenzee is to this day identified by the United Nations as
one of the most important wetlands on the planet. Currently, the
Dutch are very active with restoration ecology to rehabilitate what
they can. Near Rotterdam, the beavers are back. Lesson: The United
States still has some of the most intact ecosystems on the planet.
With far-thinking policy-making, we have an opportunity to ensure
we do not lose our wildlands as the Dutch have.
Jessica Clement
Fort Collins, Colorado
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Lessons from the Netherlands.
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