Quote:
Originally Posted by Whitley
Please excuse what I am sure is going to be an oversimplified thought. On the barrier islands I inhabit, the Gulf has crept closer to my home, condo business. This would be three islands. For the past twenty five years at least, we remedy this by "beach renourishment". On the island where my office is, 8.7 million cubic yards of sand was added to the beach that runs about 15 miles long. The sand is brought to the beach from a barge and pipe system sitting a mile off shore, and dump trucks bringing sand from inland locations. Could this not be an option for places like Miami Beach? We have also built concrete groins to catch sand on the outgoing tides.
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It sounds good to "re-nourish" a stretch of sandy beach and it may work in the SHORT term. But, let's look at the LONG term disadvantages in the equation. It is difficult to beat MOTHER NATURE. Sand is heavy. Large dump trucks and earth movers have large diesel engines which are spitting out exhaust full of CO and CO2. Which adds to the stratospheric layer that is reflecting HEAT back to our earth's surface.
To be "poetic" about it, that HEAT angers OUR mother. Right now, today she has produced heat advisories from Ca. to Florida (we can feel that HEAT). She has taken out her displeasure in the form of heat strokes for humans in the southern USA. Montpelier, Vermont is practically underwater from record rains and floods. Just the cost to rebuild the roads to Montpelier will be a HUGE setback and expense for the state.
People had warnings about this present climate catastrophe as far back as 1950 (scientists knew the danger). We are all now paying for the inaction and the DENIERS (that still exist among us). Beautiful beaches and coral reefs did NOT have to be "re-nourished" in the 1950s. The 1950s did NOT have the RECORD man-made HEAT from climate change that we do today. The population of the US was probably about 150 million back then. So, there was NOT the big demand for fossil fuel energy used in industry and automobiles.
Science warned us, but the fossil fuel industry fought the knowledge and science (and they won). Basically, stupidity and deceit won the day. And today we are left with a wounded planet. We beat up our own mother!