Nearly half of the United States population lives within eighty kilometers of the coast. Our beaches form the shapes of bays and harbors and provide fresh water for coastal towns. The beaches of the US and the rest of the world are teeming with economic and ecological growth. Each national seashore is protected by its own legislation and managed by the National Park Service. Recently, erosion has become one of the most alarming threats to regional, national and international beaches.
Erosion is the wearing away, or corrosion, by which material is taken away from the earth's surface.
Lately, one of the leading causes of beach erosion has been greenhouse warming. These gases are accumulating in the atmosphere and trapping the sun's radiation heat. Trees are also being cut down in massive quantities, leaving fewer forests to recapture the chief greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. The onslaught of global warming is likely to increase the frequency of tropical storms which tear sand away from beaches. The increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are likely to raise the average temperature of the earth from 2.5 degrees Celsius to 5.5 degrees Celsius over the next century.