In 1953, the Netherlands, always vulnerable to flooding, suffered a major natural disaster. The North Sea washed over half a million acres of land and killed over 1,800 people on the south-western coast.

To protect future generations from similar harm, the Dutch government embarked on one of the greatest engineering projects in history. Over the following decades, engineers constructed a flood defence system of dams, sluices, locks, dykes and storm surge barriers. The Delta Works basically shortened the Dutch coast line and turned sea estuaries into freshwater lakes.

Earlier this month, a committee comprised of representatives of all involved levels of government presented a report outlining the possible future of the south-western part of the Netherlands, a delta of estuaries, islands and peninsulas connecting several large rivers to the North Sea.

One possible future being considered is to turn the famous Dutch dikes into tidal power generators. Openings in the series of dikes would provide ideal locations for tidal power plants.

Opening water locks would also allow the tide to return to now stagnant waters, the report stated. This would be a boon to nature, because certain plants and animals, which have all but disappeared since the estuaries were closed off, can return.

Salt water has advanced far in some places, largely because of the constant dredging in the port of Rotterdam. It may improve nature to allow salt water back in the estuaries of the delta now, but the growing shortage of fresh water caused by climate change needs to be taken into account. The problem seems not so much a lack of drinking water as such, but the locations at which it can be found. "We have plenty, but we need more storage capacity," Kuijken said. "We have grown so dependent on the availability of fresh water here in the Netherlands that it would be economic suicide to change that. Fresh water is the fuel powering our economy."

Australian scientists have discovered that whale poo is not only helping ocean plant life to flourish, but also increasing the ocean's ability to absorb CO2.

Because whales' diets are made up largely of iron-rich krill (small crustaceans), their droppings are a great fertilizer for marine plants, helping them to grow like weeds (or algae).

The research suggests that if whale numbers grow, their droppings could help marine plant life flourish, thereby improving the ocean's ability to absorb carbon dioxide blamed for global warming.

Iron is a vital element in the production of marine plants, known as algae, which suck up carbon dioxide as they grow, although it is a scarce element in the "anaemic" Southern Ocean, said chemical oceanographer Andrew Bowie.

"One-third of the world's oceans are low in trace element iron," the researcher at the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre told AFP.

Bowie said whales consumed several tonnes of krill, small shrimp-like crustaceans, each day and this found its way back into the ocean via emissions from the giant mammals.

He said while the researchers were pretty confident that whale poo would contain iron, they were surprised at the high concentration, about 10 million times that of Antarctic seawater.

This weekend, one of the leisure things I did was watch the movie Avatar. While I enjoyed the special effects and the basic story line, it was clear to me that there was a message.

The message was not as simple as implying we are all connected. There was another message. In the end of the movie (spoiler alert) it is implied that the local deity has combined forces of all living creatures to stop the invasion of man. The message I get from that, just my interpretation, is that nature will eventually strike back.

Using this same train of thought, the recent volcanic eruption in the real world could be considered nature fighting back. Or we could consider it luck that the effect of the eruption will be a short global cooling and thereby give humanity some extra time to change our habits.

It is amazing to me that a movie with such a strong environmental theme could reach such popularity given the many messages rolled in. I am actually comforted that it is received this way because it means there is hope for us to do the right things.

Now, on another note, there is a company that wants to put solar panels on the roof of the white house - gratis. This is a clear publicity stunt, but I like it and I think it sets a good example for us all.

There were so many articles on blogs yesterday, I didn't feel I could add anything. However, today I want to share that everyday should be Earth Day.

As we move through our day, if we all just make an ounce of effort to pick up an extra piece of stray trash, or turn off an extra light, our habits will have a powerful impact.

Here are some other things you might want to do:

- Join the national call to action on comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation

- Support the Safe Chemical Act

- Volunteer locally

- Use organizations like www.freecycle.com or www.craigslist.com

As we approach Earth Day, this subject has popped up again.

I have written about this in the past and it has been posted on many green blogs and news sites, I just want to summarize again.

Weather events are not climate; climate is the accumulation of weather events over an extended period of time. So a cold summer day doesn't prove global warming is false any more than a heat wave in winter proves it's true.

That said, the effects scientists predict from global warming are sometimes counterintuitive. While snow is associated with winter, warmer winter temperatures can result in more snow, since warmer air can hold more moisture. One of the most well-documented predictions about global warming is that it will result in more intense storms, in any season, but may leave longer droughts between those storms.

And again, the long term chart: