That is no sudden realization on my part. I ve known it all along, but I ve rationalized my brief presence each summer by saying that the cottages and hotels I stay in weren t built by me. Those structures are already there, so I go and enjoy them. Over the long term, though, beach-dwellers are playing a fool s game. Dean, science editor of The New York Times, has compiled a readable, informative book that concludes that oceans are encroaching on this nation s beaches and that people must back off and let nature take its course.
Beach erosion is a natural phenomena.
Waves and sea currents constantly move sand from place to place, and that action is exacerbated during hurricanes and tropical storms. What is lost on one beach, however, usually will find its way to another if people do not interfere. Scientists have long known that ocean currents and the wind are gradually eating away at the beaches on the eastern edge of the Outer Banks and depositing that sand around on the western edge, where narrow beaches line the gentler shores of sounds. The same process is at work on Cape Cod and Long Island. People keep building right up on the dune line, however, and then waging a battle to keep the ocean from coming in the door.