BHP dam disaster coats Brazil’s pristine beaches
New Year’s is one of the most-important holidays for Brazilians, as many flee the big cities and crowd the shoreline. After the collapse, in November, of a dam holding back mining waste, 50 million metric tons of sludge is spreading now off the coast between Rio de Janeiro and Bahia states, turning the pristine blue waters brown along an expected 30 miles of beaches.
Normal weather drives salt marsh erosion
Waves from moderate storms, rather than violent events such as hurricanes, inflict the most loss on coastal wetlands. Globally, salt marshes are being lost to waves, changes in land use, higher sea levels, loss of sediment from upstream dams and other factors.
Cronulla’s sand dunes survived Mad Max but now face a more insidious threat
The once vast sand dunes in Sydney’s south have been farmed, trimmed down by sandmining, filmed and eroded by wind and rain. Now they face encroaching housing developments