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Swept away: $500k sand dune built to protect US homes disappears in days

theguardian.com

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Re: Swept away: $500k sand dune built to protect US homes disappears in days

#31
post #21

How many homes are we talking about here? Would it make more long term sense just to abandon them?

Entire island states like Tuvalu face a similar fate and they have nowhere else to go... I know it's unrelated to this particular situation but the sea is the sea and doesn't care much about a costly sandy bump. Yes, the Netherlands managed to pull some tricks but the site is different and they used hard structures anyway.

Re: Swept away: $500k sand dune built to protect US homes disappears in days

#34

Perfectly acceptable for homeowners to spend their own money to save their houses. But it’s the last sentence in the story that makes me boil over: “Now, the homeowners have asked the state to step in and provide assistance.”

I agree with your sentiment, but you missed half the article if that was the last sentence you read. You quoted the last sentence before an ad. The article continues below the ad.

Re: Swept away: $500k sand dune built to protect US homes disappears in days

#35

"sea levels rise due to thermal expansion" ... It is a contributor but not the leading cause. From here[1] (which I was able to find in 1 min) "Both the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the US National Climate Assessment conclude that ice loss was the largest contributor to sea-level rise during the past few decades, and will contribute to rising sea levels for the century to come." [1] https://sealev…

Found this

>About half of the measured global sea level rise on Earth is from warming waters and thermal expansion.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/learn/project/how-warming-water...

Being responsible for 50% looks to me like a leading cause unless there are only two then it's one of the two leading causes.

Re: Swept away: $500k sand dune built to protect US homes disappears in days

#38
post #10

> Local news outlet Fox59 reported that the Republican state senator Bruce Tarr was working to secure $1.5m in state funding to replenish the sand. > Tarr, noting that a more permanent seawall was not an option because hard structures like these are not allowed on Massachusetts beaches If the only alternative is to drain state funds dumping tonnes of sand that quickly get swept away, then it's time to change the (by)…

In the 1950’s Lake Michigan had a similar problem. Academics at MSU measured the sand volume over time and realized that the amount of sand was receding quickly.

So they took on a massive project to plant marram grass all along the lakeshore. This takes several years to mature, however once it does the roots grow deep and the sand stays in place for a much longer period of time.

I am not sure what this community can do now, it feels a little too late. Maybe build a temporary sea wall, plant grass to hold the new sand, then remove the sea wall?

https://mnfi.anr.msu.edu/communities/description/10714/Sand

Re: Swept away: $500k sand dune built to protect US homes disappears in days

#39

If you’re betting against the ocean, half a million bucks seems like a piddling small amount to bring to the table. Like, so small an amount that you probably shouldn’t be allowed to play the game. Part of why you have table stakes is to keep small players out of the game, and the ocean is maybe the biggest, most powerful player in the largest game on earth. (Metaphorically speaking, of course.)

Looks like our carbon footprint actually is defeating the ocean’s ability to absorb it, via the phyoplankton and the acidification results in massive changes.

Re: Swept away: $500k sand dune built to protect US homes disappears in days

#40
post #10

> Local news outlet Fox59 reported that the Republican state senator Bruce Tarr was working to secure $1.5m in state funding to replenish the sand. > Tarr, noting that a more permanent seawall was not an option because hard structures like these are not allowed on Massachusetts beaches If the only alternative is to drain state funds dumping tonnes of sand that quickly get swept away, then it's time to change the (by)…

It's because they're doing a shitty job of restoring the dunes. If you dump a ton of sand of course it's going to be washed away. There's literally nothing keeping it there. If they want to keep a dune there they have to rehabilitate the whole dune ecosystem and part of that is having an ecosystem between them and the ocean. If there were plants established and holding onto the sand they wouldn't be washing away in three days!

Massachusetts literally gives a guide for this shit but these idiots are just DUMP MORE SAND THIS TIME IT'LL WORK!

https://www.mass.gov/info-details/landscaping-a-coastal-beac...

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