JDriving through fields of low-lying Dutch farmland you pass an occasional odd cluster of silvery pipes and tanks. They are the only visible sign that deep below this northeast corner of the Netherlands is one of the world’s largest natural gas fields. Unless you stop by one of the nearby farmhouses weakened by earthquakes linked to gas extraction. At her handsome home in the village of Appingedam, Nicole van Eijkern pointed to sagging external walls and cracked ceilings. Heavy beams buttress her house, inside and out, and it is scheduled to be torn down. “In 10 years it went from a good house to a ruin,” she said. Earthquakes are blighting a 350-square-mile region where windmills once powered homes and farms. Many of the 585,000 residents who relished the centuries-old landscape are now ruing the riches beneath their […]