This article was published on Friday March 4th, 2011 by Kelly Zito.This picture shown to the right is an Erosion of Seaview Beach in New York. The repeated crashing of waves, throughout the year has caused erosion of the shoreline.
Summary:
Basically the article I read was about the erosion of beaches in San Francisco. The erosion of the beaches have caused roads by them to close down and are now being forced to try and preserve the beaches. The problem with this is that the East Coast doesn't have as much machinery to nourish or taking sand dredge from the Golden Gate shipping channel and then to dump it on the beaches. The erosion of these beaches is also forcing San Francisco to move their water utility inward because it pumps water and waste water plants at the beaches and drains and treats 150 million of gallons of water from the city's neighborhoods on a wet day. To move this, it would cost billions!
Opinion :
In my opinion, I feel as though as humans would could have saw the erosion of beaches happening years ago. If we saw this coming, then how come we didn't do anything to prevent it. I mean I understand where San Francisco is coming from with the East Coast having more knowledge and machinery to fix the beaches, but why haven't we come up with a plan to save the beaches. If we don't then eventually, they're all going to erode away and destroy cities and towns and roadways nearby.
Questions :
1. Why has it taken us so long to finally realize how the weather effects us now, rather than to take a jump start on the problem and find better solutions to fix it or work around it?
2. Are they also fixing beaches that most people don't use? What is the point of trying to improve something that no one has any interest in visiting to, it's just a waste of money in my opinion.
3. Where do the people who work for the companies that fix the beaches and the water in San Francisco get all this money from the fix them? To move their water utility inward is a lot of money and on top of that the machinery to fix the beaches must be a boat load to. Is there something these people are not telling us?
i agree with lauren, if we saw this coming and have/had the machinery to prevent this to happen why did it take so long for us to put a plan into action. Why didn't we deal with the problem when the problem first sprouted itself? I have been learning about erosion's of our beaches for a while now it was not as bad back then but now its getting a little out of hand. I love the beach and if they'res no more beach for me to kick back on i am going to be a very unhappy person.
ReplyDeleteResponse to question #3. I think they're getting a "boat load" of their money from the tax payers and putting a price on their beach to get on it just like ocean city does. It might not be the only place they reach from but it can add up to be a good portion of it.
I agree that something needs to be done about this issue. If left alone, it could be a very hazardous situation. I think a reason why this wasn't foreseen is that there are so many other environmental issues to take care of that there isn't enough time and money to look at this issue until it's too late.
ReplyDeleteAnd this is not an isolated incident. This is an issue that is happening all over the world. The link at the end of this comment is about a similar case of erosion happening in England. But beyond England, what happens in third world countries that can't afford to preserve their beaches?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-15629729
It shouldn't take a tradgedy for people to realize they need to change something. In this case, people need to realize the dangers of beaches eroding and help fix that problem. After a short time, erosion could take out buildings and roadways that could cause huge accidents and many deaths. The article below says the US is losing about 50 feet of beach a year, and after several years who knows how much will be gone. To answer question number 1, the reason no one has done anything about it is because it was a slow process with little damage that has just recently picked up. For decades, beach erosion has been taking place. Only and inch or two would erode, which means it wasn't harmful to cities or towns. Over the past few years erosion has been taking place much more often and a lot faster. It is now becoming dangerous and that is why people are just starting to take action, although they should have been ready for it.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-causes-beach-erosion -(Jan Jesse)