Dutch Float Plans for Island in North Sea

The Dutch are seriously considering building a tulip-shaped island in the North Sea to expand the severely crowded nation and shield the coast from the rising ocean, Reuters reports.  "People live on top of each other in the Netherlands," said a politician.  "We are hungry for land."

The envisioned 100,000-hectare island could provide farmland and bring in some $14.69 billion in returns to the world's third-largest agricultural exporter. But detractors worry about the potential cost of such a project as well as its ecological impact. "The North Sea is not a wasteland where you can do whatever you want," said one environmental activist. (More tulip stories.)