Dutch using sand to reinforce dike

The Netherlands is deploying an unlikely ally as climate change intensifies the low-lying country's age-old fight against floods: more than 666,000 truckloads of sand to shore up a crucial dike. While building on sand has traditionally been a byword for wobbly foundations, the Dutch say they have found a new method to turn the substance into a 50-year wall against the water. The Dutch are also planning to export the idea of using sand to prevent floods elsewhere in the world, as global warming and rising waters threaten more countries. The project comes as UN climate talks this fortnight in Madrid heard that concentrations of planet-warming CO2 in the atmosphere have reached levels not seen in three to five million years, leading to rising sea levels.