304 – Holland Warms To France

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Global warming is a complex phenomenon – so much so that some scientists still dispute it’s even happening. One indication of this complexity is the fact that its consequences are distributed quite unevenly, sometimes counter to the global trend, in other instances ahead of it.

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A recent report by the Royal Dutch Weather Institute KNMI, quoted in the NRC Handelsblad (dd. 31 July), shows that average temperature in the Netherlands has risen twice as fast as the average global temperature.

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As a consequence, average temperatures in some Dutch cities now resemble those of French cities of the previous decade. (No word on how much hotter those have become, though). The cities pair up thus:

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• Maastricht = Poitiers

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• Utrecht = Lyon

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• Flushing (Vlissingen) = Nantes

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• Den Helder = Rennes

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• Groningen = Paris

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Thanks to Nanne Zwagerman for sending in the link to the original newspaper article.

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