SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
John R. Gillis writes in the NYT that to those of us who visit beaches only in summer, beaches seem as permanent a part of our natural heritage as the Rocky Mountains but shore dwellers know that beaches are the most transitory of landscapes, and sand beaches the most vulnerable of all. Today, 75 to 90 percent of the world’s natural sand beaches are disappearing, due partly to rising sea levels and increased storm action, but also to massive erosion caused by the human development of shores. The extent of this global crisis is obscured because so-called beach nourishment projects attempt to hold sand in place(PDF) and repair the damage by the time summer people return, creating the illusion of an eternal shore. But the market for mined sand in the US has become a billion-dollar annual business, growing at 10 percent a year since 2008. Interior mining operations use huge machines working in open pits to dig down under the earth’s surface to get sand left behind by ancient glaciers.
One might think that desert sand would be a ready substitute, but its grains are finer and smoother; they don’t adhere to rougher sand grains, and tend to blow away. As a result, the desert state of Saudi Arabia brings sand for sandblasting all the way from Australia. Huge sand mining operations are emerging worldwide, many of them illegal, happening out of sight and out of mind, as far as the developed world is concerned. "We need to stop taking sand for granted and think of it as an endangered natural resource," concludes Gillis. "Beach replenishment — the mining and trucking and dredging of sand to meet tourist expectations — must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, with environmental considerations taking top priority. Only this will ensure that the story of the earth will still have subsequent chapters told in grains of sand."
(Score: 2) by tathra on Friday November 07 2014, @04:29PM
we're not a sister site of slashdot. we're not their partner or anything. we're competition. why the hell should we not accept articles that run there, especially when we have a dire need for article submissions? and if our members want to submit articles to both sites, why is that a problem? "waaaaaah, i already read this article!", really? then what about everyone else who doesn't go there, i guess we just don't need to see these articles? in fact, lets just not post any articles at all since slashdot will eventually run them all anyway!
(Score: 2) by hubie on Friday November 07 2014, @05:02PM
I agree. I don't bother checking Slashdot or any other site when I put in submissions. I will sometimes go for days at a time without checking this site, so I will so a search here to see if it has been posted yet, but I really don't care what other sites are posting, particularly if I don't go to those sites.
As for Pickens postings, I don't care that they are cross-posted, and the stuff he posts generally seems to be appropriate for this site.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 07 2014, @07:19PM
the problem isn't that it was posted to slashdot, per se. The problem is that it's a shitty story. (Although slashdot is known for shitty stories, so go figure).