Part two: Can we buy our way out of sea level rise?

To many on Germany's Hallig Islands, the thought of relocating is scarier than facing dangerous flood events. A closer look at why the German government is investing big money into preserving their unique way of life.

Kathleen Schuster: This is Living Planet. I'm Kathleen Schuster.

In our last episode, producer Tamsin Walker traveled to Germany's windswept islands in the North Sea to find out how their centuries-old survival tactics are holding up against climate change.

This week we're taking a closer look at that topic with the help of Sea Change, a podcast produced by New Orleans Public Radio.

Fittingly, for climate journalists who live on the Louisiana coast, they were intrigued by Tamsin's story.

For one, they'd never even heard of these islands, much less how vital they are to Germany's coastal communities.

So for this episode, we're handing over the mic to Sea Change's host, Carlisle Calhoun, who wanted to know more about Germany's Hallig Islands and their history, and who's footing the bill to keep them from disappearing into the sea.

Here's their conversation.

Carlyle Calhoun: That's the sound of geese flying above Hygge Island, one in a string of 10 Hallig Islands located just off Germany's northern coast, near its border with Denmark.

I had never heard of the Hallig Islands until a couple of months ago when Living Planet, an environmental podcast based in Germany, reached out to see if we'd like to collaborate on a story.

Tamsin Walker is a journalist based in Berlin. So Tamsin, you recently spent time on Hooge. Tell us what it's like to visit.

Tamsin Walker: Okay, I got there, I arrived by ferry from another island, just a little bit, a bigger island not very far away. This island is called Pellworm, like Pell-worm maybe.

And the day that I went, it was this gorgeous, beautiful day, calm water. And it was so lovely going over there. You're going on this ferry, a small ferry. And it's all these shades of blue and gray and green. And then periodically, just you see these tiny little patches of land rising out of like the surface of the sea. And I was going to one of them.

One of those was Hallig Hooge. And from a distance, it's actually kind of hard to imagine how much might be going on these little land masses because they look so small.

But once you get there, it's a different story. And so you get off the ferry and then immediately I get off, there's a place to rent a bicycle.

So I did, I rented a bicycle and I spent a glorious day kind of riding around, talking to people about life on their Hallig.

Carlyle Calhoun: The life of a reporter. That sounds beautiful.

Tamsin Walker: Yeah.

Carlyle Calhoun: So tell me more about these mounds. Is the entire island a mound or describe a little bit more about the landscape?

Tamsin Walker: Okay, so no, the entire island is not a mound. So I'll just start by saying there are on this particular Hallig, and as you said, there are 10 of them altogether, there are 100 people that live there. And it's the second largest of the Hallig Islands.

And everybody who lives there lives on what is called a waft, a waft which could be translated to something like dwelling mounds.

And they're these human-made kind of artificial elevations which are designed to keep people safe from the waves. And I'm super fascinated by the history of the place, how the larger islands nearby and the Halig Islands along the stretch of the coastline there were formed over a really, obviously a very long period of time, partly by kind of natural dynamic processes, but also by some incredibly violent storms that tore sections of the land apart and created these places, places such as Hallig Hooge.

And that's, I'm just saying that because it's kind of important to know that these things happened hundreds of years ago. It's important for our conversation as we go on.

Carlyle Calhoun: Yeah, so the sea, I mean, literally shaped these places. And the mounds, how long have they been there? Okay, so there are 10 of these mounds altogether, right? And just to give you a bit of a visual, they all look very, very different to one another?

Tamsin Walker: I was told by the mayor of Hallig Hooge, his name is Michael Klisch, that they were first built around the year 1000. I mean, just imagine that.

Carlyle Calhoun: Wow.

Tamsin Walker: And because the islands are only just above sea level. So when there is a storm surge, which there are, water spills from the sea over onto the land and anything that's not sufficiently elevated is completely submerged in the waves.

It was very interesting to actually to listen to him talk about how these mounds were formed.

Because he was saying like how incredible it is that the first settlers from around that time 1000 years ago, that they realized straight away that they would not be able to survive on the flat ground.

And so they built these elevations. And he was saying like he didn't really know how big they would have been back then. And also he was just a little bit mesmerized himself as saying how hard he found it to imagine that people back then would have done this, built these just using, he said, a spade or spade-like tools and wheelbarrows.

And because he was making the comparison to that old style of building as compared to how they do it today, which is like this feat of incredible modern machinery and manpower and engineering.

Carlyle Calhoun: It's amazing to imagine. And so people's lives are really dependent on these dwelling mounds, right? So there are 10 of these dwelling mounds on Hooge, the island you visited. Is it like, are there neighborhoods? Are there, is it normal streets? Like what, tell us more about what life is like on these mounds.

Tamsin Walker: Yeah, so the 10 mounds. They're all a little bit different. For a start, they're different sizes and the way they look depends on what they have on them.

So the main one, perhaps it's a commercial mound, it's called the Hanswarft and it has a supermarket on it and it has a couple of more sort of touristy shops.

And then there's also a little exhibition center where they have an exhibition about the Wadden Sea, which is where the Hallig Islands are situated.

And then there's also a little cinema even on this one, which is it is not kind of showing the latest films, but it shows a film on a loop of what it actually looks like on the Hallig Islands when the sea comes in.

And then there is there's another mound where there's a church and there's a graveyard. And then there are others.

There's another one where there are some restaurants. I think there are restaurants on a couple of them or cafes. And then the others are residential, so it's people's homes, right?

And I think of it as sort of like little hamlets on top of these little hills, but they're quite big and some of them do have roads on the Hanswarft.

There are some little roads. There are driveways going up. There are different ways to get on top of it because people drive their cars up there.

Obviously they have to. And they have their gardens and they just have their little, you know, place to live.

Carlyle Calhoun: So I'm imagining you riding your bike around the island. Are they steep enough that you're walking your bike up the hill or? Tamsin Walker: Yeah. I mean, not to give you the impression that I've got jelly legs or anything. I can't cycle up to the top of the warft. Oh, you can cycle up to the top.

They're not sort of, it's not like going up Mount Everest. But they're quite steep. I would say they are quite steep.

Carlyle Calhoun: Okay. Tell us more about the flooding side of this story. I've read this is kind of a common occurrence, right? So tell us more about how people view flooding.

Do they feel like they're in a constant battle with water?

Tamswin Walker: I actually had the feeling that people are pretty adapted to that way of life. I mean, maybe before I go into that, I should clarify that I didn't witness a storm surge event the day I was at. Like I said, it was very peaceful, calm, gorgeous weather.

But you can see they have these huge skies and they're really kind of brooding, fast-moving skies. You can see that things can change quickly.

And before I went there, I was on this other island of Pellworm and I had the opportunity to go out into the mudflats off the Wadden Sea with a native Pellworm who spent half his time there and half his time in Hamburg, the German city of Hamburg, called Dierk Jensen. And he gives tours over the mudflats, including walking tours to Hallig Hooge.

So on the particular day that I met him, we wouldn't have been able to get that far because when we met, the tide was definitely on its way in.

But it gave me a really good idea of how quickly the water moves because when we left the shore, the seabed was completely exposed and within a couple of minutes, the tide had rushed in and completely covered our footsteps.

And in fact, it had gone in that time from us being ankle deep in water to knee deep. So back to your question, I really don't get the sense that people there see themselves as doing battle with the water. What they say is that they live with nature. That's something that people said very clearly.

And they obviously do live with nature in close proximity. And one of the people I spoke to is called Sandra Wendt. She's a local business owner who's born on Hallig Hooge, and she runs a shop on the main dwelling mound, the Hanswaff that I mentioned before.

And like very many other people on the island, she also rents out an apartment in her home for guests. And in fact, she was one of the people who told me just how much she loves living so closely with nature.

So she says she loves the tides of the moon. She loves the tides of the seasons and just the way that everything is constantly changing.

And she also really enjoys watching how migratory birds stop off here for a little while or sometimes for a longer while before they move on again.

Carlyle Calhoun: Well, while it does sound extreme, it also sounds like a beautiful way to live, kind of in touch with nature and so aware of the changing seasons.

And that's something with the floods, right? Like on Hooge, the island you visited, the floods are mostly in the wintertime, right? So can you describe these kind of very different seasons?

Tamsin Walker: You're right. The floods on Hooge, and this differs in that respect to some of the other Hallig Islands. In Hooge, the floods only tend to come in the wintertime because the island has a very low dyke. It's the only one of the Hallig Islands that has a dyke has what is called a summer dyke. to prevent these storm surges from coming during the summer.

So what that means is that they have really, the seasons or the summer and the winter season are quite different experiences for people on Hallig Hooge.

And so Sandra, she really loves both. She likes it all, like she likes it in summertime when there are lots of guests and a lot of work.

But then what she describes about the absolute peace and quiet of winter. I had the feeling that she had a real soft spot for that.

And there's another person I spoke to her name is Katja Joost and she actually used to be the mayor of Hallig Hooge, and she's originally from Bavaria, from a very landlocked part of southern Germany, and she moved there more than 25 years ago to the Hallig, and she's actually written three books about it as well. And she talks also about the calm after the storm, about the time when you're in your house, on your dwelling mount, and nobody can come and kind of drag you away from whatever peaceful endeavor you might be engaged in or whatever it is that you might be doing.

And that was also something that she highlighted as being very enjoyable.

Carlyle Calhoun: Okay, so these floods happen mostly in the wintertime. So how do the people, I guess, know they're coming? Do they know they're coming and how do they prepare?

Tamsin Walker: Yeah, they do know they're coming. I was told that they get very reliable data, so they're well informed. And Sandra said it's not only that they know that it's coming, but they also, to some degree, they can work out how high it's likely to be, how high the water's likely to be.

And she says that they're also really experienced in preparing for high waters because they've been doing it since they were kids.

So it's like second nature to them. And they prepare by, they have to basically bring everything that is on the lower lying part of the Hallig, so everything that's not on the dwelling mounds and that could be swept away in a storm, and really kind of batten down the hatches.

So, like Sandra told me, for example, she was quite candid, she said, if the storm comes during the day, that it's easier to manage than when it's dark.

And she, because she said after night feel, she does find it hard to sleep.And so maybe she get together with other people or she says she might just sit in her kitchen and listen and wait.

And then she said something really interesting that she said she's not so afraid of the water, but more of the wind because she is afraid that it's going to tear something off the roof or from her house because they're dealing with really strong winds.

And also she said that the stronger the wind, the higher the waves.

And if the water level has already reached a critical height in terms of how high it's come up the sides of the dwelling mound, but there's a very strong wind, then it can whip the waves into even more of a frenzy.

So they climb further up the dwelling mound and can even spill over the embankment.

Carlyle Calhoun: Oh wow. So they can look out from their houses and they can just, they can see just a sea of water.

Tamsin Walker. And people do stay there. She has a holiday apartment in her house and many people, residents have holiday accommodation. And so guests are there when there are these storm surges.

And that was really interesting also because she talks about the responsibility that you have for your guests and how you have to make them aware of the fact that they are not to leave the dwelling mound because it's very, very dangerous to do so.

And when the water comes, on your dwelling mount and maybe with your little hamlet with other people. And then the other things that are visible are the other dwelling mounds, but the land that connects them is gone.

I mean, it's all profoundly underwater at that stage. And then it takes, I was told, like a day and a half to two days for the water then to recede.

Carlyle Calhoun: Yeah, I was just imagining the Airbnb reviews. Sounds like a lot of people make a living from renting out rooms in their homes or for guests, for tourists.

So is that kind of the main way of making a living here?

Tamsin Walker: I mean, traditionally, the Halleck Islands were farming islands and there is still farming that goes on there, but obviously it's quite difficult to farm if you've got water coming in at all times of the year.

So the summer dykes mean that the island of Hooge can be used for grazing animals.

So they basically, they partner up with a farmer on the mainland who wants to bring their livestock to the Hallig. And then they graze, I think, from April, May to September.

And they keep the grass down on the Hallig, which is important as well. And then they go back again. And so that's one source of income.

Carlyle Calhoun: Another part of the rhythm of the seasons. As you're talking about this, talking about the mounds and the summer dykes and every year they're dealing with the impacts of floods, it sounds like it would be kind of expensive, all this infrastructure needed. So who's paying for all of that?

Tamsin Walker: So I think that there are two parts maybe to this response. And the first thing to know perhaps is that there is this ongoing work to raise the height of the dwelling mounds, right?

And this is partly yes, because of sea level rise, but actually it's been going on for quite some years anyway. And it doesn't mean literally like picking up the dwelling mounds and adding a couple of meters underneath, not at all.

No, but it's like incredible construction and again, engineering expertise that they make these dwelling mounds higher, like from the outside.

So that effectively you're walking up or you're driving up quite a long slope.

And then when you get to the top, you go over a kind of lip and then you dip back down to the level on which the houses are built.

And by the way, depending on how old the buildings are, the buildings that are on there, they may be built at different heights. And Katja, for example, lives in a 300 year house, which is the lowest on her dwelling mound.

And she says that means that if the water ever came over the top, her house would be the first flood. So that's one thing.

So that the work that's going on to raise the mounds, and they do this one mound at a time, right? And at a cost of between 4 and 11 million euros, depending on the size and the scale of the work. And so that's between, I think, about 4.5 to just over $12 million.

And Michael Klisch, the mayor that we heard from earlier, he told me that although it's expensive, the German government, which puts up the money, is really actively investing in keeping the Hallig Islands inhabited.

Carlyle Calhoun: These islands do sound amazing, but how does the government justify the really pretty huge investment of money and resources to sustain relatively few people. Why is the government so invested in the future of these islands?

Tamsin Walker: Yeah, that's a good question. And I did speak to a couple of people about that, including the coastal protection authorities. And they very clearly told me that from their perspective, that their job is to protect communities and to make sure that people can live safely in whatever location they are.

So be that in along the mainland coast, be that the larger islands or be that the Hallig Islands. So yeah, as long as there are communities there, their remit is to make sure they're safe.

And then Sandra also said to me, that there is an element of cultural heritage that needs to be preserved as well. And it's really clearly the case that there is cultural heritage here, because as I mentioned, this is an utterly unique way of life in an utterly unique physical environment.

But then also Michael Klisch, the mayor of Hooge that we heard from before, he thinks one of the reasons he says the government is so invested in protecting the Hallig Islands and the other islands, the bigger islands nearby, and making sure that they remain inhabitable is because collectively they serve as the first line of defense for waves rolling in across the North Sea.

Because without these smaller land masses, then when these waves came to hit the mainland, they would potentially be stronger and cause more damage.

So the buffer, that's one reason.

He also reminded me that the Wadden Sea, which stretches along parts of Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands, and it's the world's largest unbroken system of intertidal sand and mud flats, that is exactly the sea in which the Halig Islands are located. And that just happens to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

So he's convinced that the recognition of this area as a biosphere reserve plays an even greater role.

Carlyle Calhoun: Yeah, so the government is spending this money to protect these islands, so that they remain a buffer and also because they're singular and unique and they're UNESCO or UNESCO protected site. But we haven't talked about much yet is the fact that sea levels are rising.

As you mentioned, these are very low lying islands. So how is sea level rise impacting the Hallig Islands now? And are people worried about the future of living here?

Tamsin Walker: Okay, well, of course it's having an impact. I mean, one thing that is also worth mentioning is the fact that these Hallig Islands, they can potentially grow, right?

The thing about the floods is that they serve to grow the Hallig Islands by bringing sediment with them, which can slowly build them up and make them become a little bit higher. But I was told by Katia, there's no way that can keep pace with the rate of sea level rise.

Right, and especially the Huga Islands, you mentioned there's now a dyke stopping a lot of those floods. So I imagine they're getting even less sediment now.

Tamsin Walker: Well, the thing is the way that they let the water back off the island on Hulga, they let it go out very slowly so that the sediment is not taken when there is a flooding event, so the sediment is not taken back out to sea. That's the idea.

Carlyle Calhoun: Oh, wow.

Tamsin Walker: Nevertheless, sea levels are rising. And so, yeah, to your question, I mean, yeah, there's a, of course, there's a great awareness of rising sea levels. But I didn't meet anybody who said they were thinking of leaving because of them. And everyone I spoke to said that they love living on the Hallig. It's their home and they enjoy life and don't want to go anywhere. And in fact, when I was speaking with Sandra and

She said that people often asked her if she's afraid when there are flooding events. And she said, what would really make me scared would be being told that I had to leave if there was some decision about implementing a managed retreat from the Hallig. But also Katja, I'd say she's very aware of the risks and she's very aware of the challenges.

I'd say she was quite pragmatic. She, her house being very low lying, she said she knows that if the water were to come in, and she believes that it will one day, that it will come over the top of the dwelling mound, that her house, she said, would be the first to feel it.

But she also says she really hopes that she's not around to witness it and she wants to stay where she is for the rest of her life.

Carlyle Calhoun: What about the mayor that you spoke with? Is he making plans or how did he think about the possibility of more intense flooding in the future?

Tamsin Walker: Yeah, the mayor, so that was interesting. I mean, he said, sea levels are rising, climate change is here, and the first effects are already being felt. But he also said the situation isn't so dire that we'd have to move away. And in fact, he said the protective measures already in place and those planned not just for the Hallig Islands, but also for the bigger islands, and therefore also for the mainland, are sufficient for the coming years or even decades.

Carlyle Calhoun: Well, so for now at least, it seems that the German government will do what it takes to keep the Halleck Islands inhabitable. But can you explain some of these protective measures that make people like Michael feel so confident, at least about the near future of life on these islands?

Tamsin Walker: Yeah, so as I mentioned, the main measure is to raise the height of the dwelling mounds, right? Then they have a traffic light system, red, amber, green to denote how urgent it is. But there are also another measure that they have in place, which has actually been in place since the 1960s, is that whenever a new house is built on a dwelling mound, it has to have one room that is anchored to the dwelling mounds itself, something called a pile foundation.

And the idea there is basically that if the building were torn away in a violent storm, that this one room would remain standing and people could take shelter in it and be rescued from that room once the waters had receded.

Carlyle Calhoun: Okay, so you've spent time in the Hallig Islands and you've spoken to all these people. What were you left with when you headed back on the ferry about the future of life on these islands?

Tamsin Walker: Well, I mean, when I go to that part of the coast, one of the things that always sticks with me is the history of the place. And so Dierk Jensen, I told you that he and I went out into the sea and, to witness how quickly it was coming in. And he's the one who takes people on tours, these walking tours also to Hallig Hooge. And he said he always finds remnants of the past when he walks across a, of human existence, human habitation.

And he's not the only one. I mean, on the island of Pellworm, there's a little museum which is full to the rafters of things that have been pulled from the mudflats over decades. I mean, like tiles, bits of crockery, cutlery. I mean, it's incredible to see all of that and to think also how much more must be under the mudflats.

And as Dierk also put it to me, it's kind of a reminder of how things are always changing and of how societies and communities have to be adaptable if they want to survive.

Carlyle Calhoun: And that's a familiar sentiment here on the Gulf Coast, the need to continue to adapt. It's been really fascinating to feel like I've traveled to the Hallig Islands with you, Tamsin. So thank you for sharing this story with Sea Change.

Tamsin Walker: Oh, you're so welcome. It was a great pleasure and maybe you'll get there yourself one day.

Carlyle Calhoun: I would love that.

Kathleen Schuster: That was Carlyle Calhoun, host and executive producer of the podcast Sea Change from New Orleans Public Radio, speaking with Living Planet's Tamsen Walker. We'll be right back after this message.

This week's episode was produced in collaboration with Sea Change from New Orleans Public Radio. Special thanks to executive producer and host Carlyle Calhoun and editor Johanna Zorn. Sound design by Laine Kaplan Levinson and me, Kathleen Schuster. Reporting by Tamsen Walker. You can listen to this and past episodes of Living Planet wherever you get podcasts. And don't forget to leave us a quick review and of course, five stars while you're there. Thanks for listening.