Los Angeles Must Pay Billions to Adapt—or Slip Into the Sea

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

Beach replenishment is conducted here on the east coast. Large ships offshore pump sand in large pipes to the beaches. The process works well but is very expensive.

Extremely ruinous to the ocean ground and the life habitats it forms.


Also, what almost everybody does not know: sand is running out. The sand needed to build concrete with. Desert sand is unusable, its grains have no compatible geometry. The immense hunger for concrete to build ever more cities, skyscrapers and sealed infrastrructure with, has led to a race at sea for "harvesting" suitable sand from the seabed. What is left behind in the process, is a dead area. And already years ago I saw documentary on it showing that they run out of sand. Construction sand is one of the most asked-for commodity on the global trade market now.


We are too many.

[Rockstar]

desert sand is just another resource to exploit and exploit it we will. Just give it time. Some high school drop out will come along and figure out a way to use that desert sand for building and make his million.

[Buddahaid]

Oh the humanity...wait what humanity?

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Rockstar

desert sand is just another resource to exploit and exploit it we will. Just give it time. Some high school drop out will come along and figure out a way to use that desert sand for building and make his million.

Desert sand is - it is somethign about the geometry of the grains, they are too tiny or too round, too smooth think. It is not suitable to be used for concrete of that kind that is needed to build heavy structures. Else there would not be this big problem for thje industry. Nobody invests huge amounts of money into harvesting sand from the seabed if all he would need to do is driving into the sahara and digging sand on lorries.



Our urban civilization is literally build on sand. And most sands nature offers, are not suitable for that task. In fact, sand that can be used for the kind of construction we do in the industrialised world, is a scarce and limited ressource.



We know of cases when over night whole sandbeaches were stolen by dozens and dozens of lorries. Also, legal harvesting globally reduces the amount of natural sandy seashores and bathing beaches.



I could link you to German texts and documentaries claiming that sand is the most important unliving ressource for human economy second only to - sweet water. And construction prices are globally climbing already, due to shortages in sand supply. The concrete industry since many years already frequerntly suffers from delays in sand supplies, since it now mist be brought up from the seabed - and the shallow waters suitable already have almost completely milked by now, with partially desastrous consequences to natural habitats, coral reefs, and maritime life.


Laissez faire is definitely not the way to tackle this problem.


We are too many.


Nations in the gulf region and Saudi Arabia belong to the most active sand importers worldwide, btw. This should tell something to all sceptics who think desert sand can be used. This assumption simply is wrong. And sand mafias belong to the biggest crime cartels that operate in the world today. The demand for sand that can be used in the construction industry is twice as high than the amount of sand that rivers and the oceans flush onto land every year. The availability from this sand gets hindered even further due to dams and artifical redirecting and managing of rivers and channels.

[August]

Originally Posted by Catfish

The geological viewpoint:
Does the sea level rise, or does the continent drop?
Or both?
Or does the sea rise faster, than the continent?
Or do both drop, but the continent is faster?

If we say the sea level rises, there must be a cause

The weight of more than 7 billion people on the planet is causing the land to sink and the seas to rise. Fakt.

[STEED]

Originally Posted by nikimcbee

Meh, good riddance. Take Hollywood with you.

I see no reason not to agree with that. Hollywood has been making bloody awful films for years now.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by STEED

I see no reason not to agree with that. Hollywood has been making bloody awful films for years now.

The many bad ones finance the few good ones that also are being made. I prefer to simply watch the good ones while not watching the bad ones.