Wish You Were Here
In 2010, we published a folio titled Questions of Privilege about the issue of erosion on Sconset Bluff. Since that work was published, geotextile tubes were installed along the base of the bluff on a town-owned beach. And since that installation, thousands of cubic yards of sand from the middle of the island have been sacrificed to the Atlantic Ocean to keep the tubes covered. Now a local home-owners group proposes to extend the installation, more than quadrupling its size, while other projects using tons of sand are continuing around the island.
Climate change, global warming, rising sea levels - all are cited as reasons to allow the installation of "erosion control" structures despite the incontrovertible fact that sand is being consumed at a rate that will soon deplete island reserves leaving us to barge sand in from distant places, adding to the ecological disaster we seem to be rushing towards.
Many of our beaches are now construction zones for much of the year, and the remains of old projects periodically rise from their sandy graves to remind us of the futility of these efforts.
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