Grain by Grain, Truck by Truck: How Myanmar Is Losing its Beaches
Around every corner waits a new truck. Workers dig their shovels into the powdery white sand of Myanmar’s Ngapali beach, the country’s top seaside destination, and lift it onto the truck beds. Vast craters dot the coastline.
Built on Sand: Singapore and the New State of Risk
The island’s expansion has been a colossal undertaking. It is not merely a matter of coastal reclamation: Singapore is growing vertically as well as horizontally. This means that the nation’s market needs fine river sand—used for beaches and concrete—as well as coarse sea sand to create new ground.
Largest Dam Removal in U.S. History Scientifically Characterized: A USGS Lecture on Largest U.S. Dam Removal
Scientists worked together to characterize the effects of the largest dam removal project in U.S. history occurring on the Elwha River of Washington State. New findings suggest that dam removal can change landscape features of river and coasts, which have ecological implications downstream of former dam sites.
Java Residents Protest Iron Mine
The push to exploit natural resources is increasingly being matched by resistance from affected communities. After several years of escalating opposition by residents of Kulon Progo, a coastal farming community, to a project to mine iron deposits in the sand beneath their farms, conflicts and arrests concern affected communities.
Sand mining: The High Volume – Low Value Paradox
Given the rapid rate of urbanization and the current rate of extraction of sand for construction, and the silent devastation left behind in its wake, the modern process of assigning value, economic or otherwise to this resource seems sadly inchoate and needs to be re-evaluated… By Kiran Pereira.
Flash Forward 100 Years: Climate Change Scenarios in California’s Bay-Delta
Scientists investigated how California’s interconnected San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (the Bay-Delta system) is expected to change from 2010 to 2099 in response to both fast and moderate climate warming scenarios. Results indicate that this area will feel impacts of global climate change in the next century with shifts in its biological communities, rising sea level, and modified water supplies.
Elwha River Restoration: Dams Removal Project
This September, removal of two dams on the Elwha River, in Washington State, begins, setting in motion one of the largest restoration projects in U.S. history.
Singapore sand imports threaten Cambodian ecosystem
Singapore, which prides itself on being one of the most environmentally friendly nations in Asia, is expanding its coastline with irresponsibly dredged sand from Cambodia, according to a report from an environmental NGO.
Mining Of Coastal Sand: A Critical Environmental And Economic Problem For Morocco
In Morocco, the extraction of beach and dune sand for use in the construction industry is destroying significant portions of the nation’s natural heritage.