As Greenland’s Ice Melts, Glacial Sand Deposits May Offer a Welcome Economic Opportunity – Columbia Climate School

Greenland’s glaciers grind rock into a fine powder that discolors meltwater and often makes beautiful patterns as it mixes with seawater.(courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory, by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Public Domain).

Greenland’s ice sheet is losing 280 billion tons of mass per year, and some models suggest that its glaciers may be melting up to 100 times faster than expected. But flowing off those glaciers comes a potential economic boom: sand. Each season, millions of tons of sediment flow from melting glaciers into the ocean, adding landmass to the largest island in the world. According to a research paper published in Nature last fall, three out of four Greenlanders support extracting and exporting sand — so long as they’re the ones in charge of managing the resource…

Lost Lands: Mining the Mekong – the South China Morning Post Films

Drone image of Sand Mining on the Mekong River (screenshot from film Lost Lands: Mining the Mekong by Andy Ballor South China Morning Post Films).

Cambodia’s appetite for sand has exploded as construction continues to fuel economic growth in the capital Phnom Penh. But as the thirst for sand grows, so does the uncertainty over the future of the river. Two families who rely on the river for a living share their stories of how sand dredging is causing pain and concerns for the future.

Restoring Seabird Populations Can Help Repair the Climate – Inside Climate News

Puffins on the coast of Fife, Scotland (by Magnus Hagdorn CC BY-SA 2.0 via Flickr).

The number of ocean going birds has declined 70 percent since the 1950s. New research shows how projects bringing them back can also bolster ocean ecosystems that sequester carbon.

Seabirds evolved about 60 million years ago, as Earth’s continents drifted toward their current positions and modern oceans took shape. They spread across thousands of undisturbed islands in the widening seas. And as flying dinosaurs and giant omnivorous sea reptiles died out, seabirds also started filling an ecological niche as ecosystem engineers…

Sea level rise looms, even for the best-prepared country on Earth – MONGABAY

Beach of Scheveningen, The Hague, Province of South Holland, Netherlands (by Zairon, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia).

With more than a quarter of its land below sea level, the Netherlands has been going to great lengths to protect itself from the impacts of climate change, including sea level rise and extreme weather events like heavy rain. But even with the wealth and experience to address these issues, the future remains uncertain, mainly because a range of possible scenarios could play out after 2050…A misty rain blows against my face as I follow Farah Obaidullah along Scheveningen Beach in the northwest part of The Hague. Despite the wind and drizzle, the shoreline feels calm. Gray waves roll into the sand like long, deep breaths. Machines have raked the beach into a well-manicured carpet of grains and shell fragments…

Increasing Rate of Warming of Oceans + Earth . . .

Rising temperatures in the world's oceans: Average surface temperature in 2011 - 2020 (degrees C) compared to 1951 - 1980) source: ECMWF ERA5 via BBC

A troubling study appeared last week indicating that over the past 15 years the Earth absorbed as much heat as it had during the prior 45 years, and most of that excess energy went into warming the ocean…

Seas have drastically risen along southern U.S. coast in past decade – the Washington Post

Ft. Lauderdale, Florida looking south down the Atlantic coast (by Aron M. CC BY-NC 2.0 via Flickr).

Multiple new studies highlight a rate of sea level rise that is ‘unprecedented in at least 120 years’ along the Gulf of Mexico and southeastern U.S. coast.

Scientists have documented an abnormal and dramatic surge in sea levels along the U.S. gulf and southeastern coastlines since about 2010, raising new questions about whether New Orleans, Miami, Houston and other coastal communities might be even more at risk from rising seas than once predicted…

Coastal crisis: It’s a race against time, and tide, for those living in Odisha’s coastal villages; here’s why – Down To Earth

Gopalpur beach, Ganjam, Odisha (by Prabhu Prasanna Pradhan CC BY-SA 2.0 via Flickr).

Odisha is fast losing its shoreline to rising sea levels. Its adaptation plans must not only be immediate but also foolproof…

It is a race against time, and tide, for those living in Odisha’s coastal villages. Data with the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management, Chennai, shows that 74 villages in the state are severely affected by shoreline erosion—the highest in the country…

Massive beach restoration project for Orange County coastline approved – CBS | KCAL News

Sunday Afternoon on the Pacific Surfliner: View of Beach & Lifequard Tower, Orange County (by Joe Wolf CC BY-ND 2.0 via Flickr).

The Federal Government has agreed to a major beach restoration project in Orange County to restore almost 2 million cubic feet of sand lost to storm erosion over the past several years.

The sand will be dredged from the sea and added to replenish the coastline from Seal Beach to Bolsa Chica to Huntington Beach and as far as the Newport Beach Pier.

“We’re experiencing a large amount of receding of sand into the ocean,” said Kevin Pearsall, State Parks Superintendent.

The project will help protect property and roads from flooding. Seal Beach saw flooding in January.

“It’s nerve wracking that they have to do that, but time erodes everything,” said Colleen Walsh, a Bolsa Chica resident…

“Recycling” Glass Back to Sand … For Beaches?

There have been several recent proposals and some projects actually underway to grind up glass bottles and use this ground glass to replenish beaches. Along most shorelines, other than in tropical environments, the dominant mineral making up the beach sand is quartz, which is silicon dioxide (SiO2), the same elemental composition as glass. While this may initially seem like a good solution for replenishing or nourishing disappearing or narrow beaches, this concept is not a sustainable or effective approach.

Initially derived from silica sand glass is a valuable resource that is already in a pure form that can most effectively be recycled or melted down to make more glass, rather than being put on the beach where it will be lost to the ocean over time as it is carried offshore or alongshore…