UN IPCC Falsely Says 55% of Netherlands Endangered by Global Warming Flooding

The UN IPCC AR4 report of 2007 erred in saying that 55% of the Netherlands was in danger of being flooded due to global warming.  They arrived at this figure by adding the 20% of the country that consists of below sea level polders that are pumped dry to all areas which are subject to flooding.  However, the area subject to flooding includes most of the 20% of the land below sea level already.  The Dutch Environment Minister has ordered an investigation into the quality of the climate reports they use to base Dutch climate policy on.

Even though much less than 55% of the Netherlands is subject to flooding, it is also not at all clear that all of that land subject to flooding is endangered by the rising sea levels as claimed in the UN IPCC AR4 report of 2007 either.  There is some more sloppy thinking being revealed here.  But, it no doubt seemed such a dramatic story at the time.  Not only was this dire tale likely to scare many a Dutchman into supporting the theory of catastrophic man-made global warming, but it was likely to cause many another sympathetic soul to have visions of poor little Dutch boys in wooden clogs valiantly manning every hole in every dike with a finger or an arm plugging the hole even as the water rose past his knees, then his waist, then his chest, then his neck, ........