Oceans and Sand

Ocean day arrives with a recent mixed press.  Perhaps the most important is the story in the New Yorker that we are running out of sand.  This might seem wierd as there is so much of it around in deserts but that happens to be in the wrong place and has the wrong texture to be used on a variety of uses.  We do know that more and more of it is needed on beaches what with reports of homes vanishing into the surf in North Carolina outer banks and a less dramatic story from Los Angeles.  Angelenos love to go to the beach and as of an evening have a fire in a concrete fire ring.  Well more and more of them are being lost as beaches shrink.  So do we get sand for the beach or get used to no fires?  We do know that some projects for sand renewal will go on and on.  In response to Hurricane Sandy Congress passed a bill funding sand recovery for the beaches of New York and New Jersey.  The project to keep sand on the New Jersey beaches is apparently endless as the dredgers start in the north and go south along the beaches spewing sand back on shore.  When they reach the south and finish then back to the north again as the first injection of sand has now washed away.  Will the money always be there?  Will the sand?

For those of us who love the beach these are all sad stories as we also have reports of the continued climate change and its effects on the oceans.  They are getting warmer and warmer and enlarging.  Beaches remain endangered.  Enjoy yours this summer.