Agreed. You can’t push back the ocean.

Tell that to The Netherlands.

They have been "at war" with water for centuries now. Several floods have occurred, the last major flood was in the 1950's, IIRC. For the most part they have managed to keep the water out, but I wouldn't consider their battle fully settled yet.

The Dutch would disagree

Two things....

1. They spend something like 1.5% of their GDP so they can double the size of their country. This works ok for small countries, but not large ones (think more of city protection for larger places).

2. This will eventually get them sued in international court when one of their projects affects surrounding countries. The ocean is filled with butterfly effects.

1. This doesn't seem relevant to the flat, decisive statement that water always wins.

2. Unless the water is represented by international court, it still doesn't count as a win for water.

Your logic is quite questionable.

1. If a bully shows up and tries to beat you up, so you hit him in the face. You won, right? But what if we comes back tomorrow and tries again. What if he never stops coming back every single day forever. You have not won. At best you are in a stalemate in which you have to keep up the fight pouring massive amounts of money and effort into your game otherwise catastrophic outcomes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sea_flood_of_1953)

2. If in that fight you shift the burden of the fight on to your neighbor, you're just an asshole, not a winner. And you're still caught in the loop of point 1.

> 2. This will eventually get them sued in international court when one of their projects affects surrounding countries. The ocean is filled with butterfly effects.

That's bizarre. Do you really think the Dutch will at some point get sued because of the dikes they have built to keep out the water? Maybe somebody should warn them, I can assure you that nobody in the Netherlands has ever considered that possibility ..

They haven't said on what timeline the water will win.