Thread: Sand! Is civilization slipping through "It's fingers"?

Originally Posted by Brenngun

I first started to read concerning articles about our voracious appetite for this naturally occurring item. I always knew we used a lot of it but wow the increasingly large annual volumes are starting to create havoc. We should be paying closer attention to this issue.

This OP-ED really started a search for more information for me.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/05/op...ring.html?_r=0

Then this was an interesting article from last year.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-...955669/?no-ist

More recently another OP-ED that things are getting worse not better.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/23/op...ring-sand.html

As you would expect both sides are lining up in this one. Anybody concerned?

Where I live, as you know I'm sure, we've had our beach recede terribly in past decades, only in the last 20-25 years has some serious effort been made to recapture much of the lost beach area and clean up the water to International Blue Flag status...water now is usually better quality than most of cottage country.

But we'd lost significant portion of the beach in the 70s and 80's...now with the massive effort that was undertaken...it's beauty has been restored.

Great article, "beach nourishment" - great phrase....

Originally Posted by Phrank

Where I live, as you know I'm sure, we've had our beach recede terribly in past decades, only in the last 20-25 years has some serious effort been made to recapture much of the lost beach area and clean up the water to International Blue Flag status...water now is usually better quality than most of cottage country.

But we'd lost significant portion of the beach in the 70s and 80's...now with the massive effort that was undertaken...it's beauty has been restored.

Great article, "beach nourishment" - great phrase....

A "long" time ago and I can't remember where I read an article about the West cost of the USA.

Basically it stated that the sand naturally traveled from the north to the south along the coast. To trap the sand on their beach people built piers etc. and when they trapped their sand they "starved" the people to the south of them of what naturally came their way.

As an island dweller I am concerned about many things, sand, bees, ocean garbage, fish stocks are all on my mind from time to time. Part of our problem is our meddling. We as humans always want more, and we want it faster, and cheaper. It is all disrupting the balances that nature had originally put in place. We have polluted in ways and in volumes we have not even begun to fathom. We have messed with millions of years of genetics for faster growing and higher yielding crops that will resist the broad spectrum herbicides that would otherwise decrease yields. For that the bee may be the one that pays the price, however in the end, without our helper, we may pay too. We have done a lot of damage for a long time, and there is way too many of us, in centralized locations. We easily have enough food to feed the world, just not where everyone is. By having high expectations that are unsustainable there is an inevitable consequence, that we are yet to discover. If every year we make more than we did the year before, and higher percentages of people have a higher standard of living, and more and more it is an unsustainable curve. We cannot continue and not expect that it is not going to crash.

I will start with I am a beekeeper and so have interest in the issues relating to them but many times I wonder if people realize that the European honey bee is an invasive species that was introduced by man to most of the world?

Apropos ..........;

Expert to Rio athletes: 'Don't put your head under water'

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Apropos ..........;

Expert to Rio athletes: 'Don't put your head under water'

Got to love the politically correct geniuses at the IOC. I have traveled to Rio many times in my life. You want party, thats your place, no doubt about it. God knows how much fun I had. For the Olympics? Not a chance.

Originally Posted by RezDog

As an island dweller I am concerned about many things, sand, bees, ocean garbage, fish stocks are all on my mind from time to time. Part of our problem is out meddling. We as humans always want more, and we want it faster, and cheaper. It is all disrupting the balances that nature had originally put in place. We have polluted in ways and in volumes we have not even begun to fathom. We have messed with millions of years of genetics for faster growing and higher yielding crops that will resist the broad spectrum herbicides that would otherwise decrease yields. For that the bee may be the one that pays the price, however in the end, without our helper, we may pay too. We have done a lot of damage for a long time, and there is way too many of us, in centralized locations. We easily have enough food to feed the world, just not where everyone is. By having high expectations that are unsustainable there is an inevitable consequence, that we are yet to discover. If every year we make more than we did the year before, and higher percentages of people have a higher standard of living, and more and more it is an unsustainable curve. We cannot continue and not expect that it is not going to crash.

Pretty much, well put.

Bob

I don't know how many of you have cultured bacteria in a shaker flask, but they have a standard growth curve that I often think of when considering our planet's population growth. This curve always happens when you have exponential growth with finite resources; and no matter your leanings politically or scientifically, the resources on this planet ARE finite.

Originally Posted by Utopian

I don't know how many of you have cultured bacteria in a shaker flask, but they have a standard growth curve that I often think of when considering our planet's population growth. This curve always happens when you have exponential growth with finite resources; and no matter your leanings politically or scientifically, the resources on this planet ARE finite.

So you're saying there are only so many coticules and J-nats ?

I have always wondered about these doom and gloom stories and how the oceans have risen hundreds of feet, we are all going to die. Then I look at this and think - if the oceans have risen as much as they say - why isn't the end of the great wall of China - that was built in to the sea - under water?