Thursday, March 12, 2009

Beach erosion


Drastic beach erosion occurs mostly during winter storms that can eat away at the soil under cliffs and cause dramatic landslides. The gradual type of beach erosion is a natural occurrence and has been going on since land met water.

The only time that people have become so concerned about beach erosion is when it involves property that they have purchased. When part of a cliff falls off into the surf in an isolated area of the world where humans do not live, it is called "nature". When a beach home is threatened to fall into the ocean or waves threaten to destroy the home it is called, "God's vengeance".

Instead of planning the building of homes away from the powerful ocean people try to construct the most ineffectual of barriers to keep the ocean at bay. Everything from rock sea walls to elaborate fence installations have been attempted. Almost all of them have failed.

When will people learn to live with the ocean instead of battling it?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Probably never. People don't seem to care much as long as they are getting what they want :(