Coastal Erosion

Culchie · 10-04-2008 12:32am #1

Today, I had a very interesting meeting with a customer, and seen something I couldn't quite believe.

It was at the walkway to Rosses Point beach .... the walkway that goes straight on from the car park and round the back of sheds, down a hill to the beach.

The guy I met showed me a pathway that had been built last year by the county council. When built the pathway was constructed right up against the sand dunes...the coastline.

Today (one year later) that coastline is is a good 20 metres away from the path.....I couldn't believe it.

Global warming or wha'?

brianthebard · 10-04-2008 2:09pm

lolz coastal erosion isn't caused by global warming.

Culchie · 10-04-2008 3:00pm

brianthebard wrote: »

lolz coastal erosion isn't caused by global warming.

Something abnormal is happening, when 20 metres of the coast disappears in a year.

starbelgrade · 10-04-2008 3:18pm

Has there been a big increase recently in the number of speedboats & jet skis used out there? They can have a big impact on coastal erosion.

brianthebard · 10-04-2008 3:19pm

Culchie wrote: »

Something abnormal is happening, when 20 metres of the coast disappears in a year.

Not really, it depends on how soft the land that was eroded was, how many high tides or storms there were in the last year, how exposed the piece of land is, etc, etc. Lots of things, except gw.

starbelgrade · 10-04-2008 3:32pm

Unless the temperatures in Sligo have increased with Global Warming - then this would increase the number of people taking walks out there, thus causing erosion by foot traffic. I think the term for that is "thinking outside the box" (in w**ker speak).

il gatto · 10-04-2008 6:12pm

Coastal erosion is a constant along soft sandy beaches like Rosses Point. Often alot of that sand will be redeposited in late spring. Some days in spring at Strandhill you can see the sand washing back in the waves. The water is brown with it. I don't think global warming would have anything to do with it. That is, if there is such a thing as global warming. This year, the earth is cooler than recent years. Time for band wagon "environmentalists" to start proclaiming the next ice-age, methinks.

Xiney · 10-04-2008 6:43pm

Actually, "global warming" (now called climate change amongst the scientific community) can cause an increase in coastal erosion, through more frequent and severe storms.

Culchie · 10-04-2008 7:14pm

il gatto wrote: »

Coastal erosion is a constant along soft sandy beaches like Rosses Point. Often alot of that sand will be redeposited in late spring. Some days in spring at Strandhill you can see the sand washing back in the waves. The water is brown with it. I don't think global warming would have anything to do with it. That is, if there is such a thing as global warming. This year, the earth is cooler than recent years. Time for band wagon "enviromentalists" to start proclaiming the next ice-age, methinks.

Folks, we're talking 20 metres of land, approx 7 metres in height, over a stretch of about a mile, not a bit of sand washed away.
We're talking hundreds/thousands of cubic tonnes.

And it's not foot traffic that is causing it, it's the sea.

il gatto · 10-04-2008 7:35pm

Xiney wrote: »

Actually, "global warming" (now called climate change amongst the scientific community) can cause an increase in coastal erosion, through more frequent and severe storms.

But we in Sligo have had less frequent and less severe storms in the last few years than we usually had. They've dropped "global warming" as a phrase as it was found to be an inaccurate an insubstanciated claim (witness this years "global cooling"!). They've adopted "climate change" as it's undisputable fact. Whether the causes cited for it, or the forecasted outcomes have any real basis is another point entirely.
As far as the coastline in Rosses, I've spent all my life beside the sea and it's never been any different. 20 odd years ago there were big sand dunes to the north of Strandhill (towards the airport). 15 years ago it was pretty much as it is today. 200 years ago a village at Strandhill was covered by sand and vanished. It's just the nature of a dune based coastline. Sand shifts in both water and wind, so it comes and goes.

Basq · 10-04-2008 7:55pm

Culchie, there's someone on the phone for you:

.. it's Al Gore.

Gillie · 10-04-2008 8:29pm

basquille wrote: »

.. it's Al Gore.

I wonder if you left the name out would anyone not have recognised him?:)

tuppence · 10-04-2008 11:57pm

Gillie wrote: »

I wonder if you left the name out would anyone not have recognised him?:)

Now now gillie!
But whos yer man behind thats the real question?! Or should we (the royal we) know him.:o:D

muffler · 11-04-2008 12:33am

tuppence wrote: »

Now now gillie!
But whos yer man behind thats the real question?! Or should we (the royal we) know him.:o:D

Its me actually. basquille asked to borrow the pic.

Gillie · 11-04-2008 8:55am

The guy behind him is a miserable looking f*cker muffler!
Can't be you

starbelgrade · 11-04-2008 9:28am

"Hello. Can you hear me?"

"Yes, I'm sitting beside you, you tw*t."

Radharc na Sleibhte · 11-04-2008 9:51am

That'd be a high tide.

Xiney · 11-04-2008 9:51am

il gatto wrote: »

But we in Sligo have had less frequent and less severe storms in the last few years than we usually had. They've dropped "global warming" as a phrase as it was found to be an inaccurate an insubstanciated claim (witness this years "global cooling"!). They've adopted "climate change" as it's undisputable fact. Whether the causes cited for it, or the forecasted outcomes have any real basis is another point entirely.
As far as the coastline in Rosses, I've spent all my life beside the sea and it's never been any different. 20 odd years ago there were big sand dunes to the north of Strandhill (towards the airport). 15 years ago it was pretty much as it is today. 200 years ago a village at Strandhill was covered by sand and vanished. It's just the nature of a dune based coastline. Sand shifts in both water and wind, so it comes and goes.

They stopped using "Global Warming" because it didn't describe the full extent of the effect. The global temperature is rising every year, however that has different effects based on where you live.

Sand dunes are dynamic pieces of land. I wasn't saying that this particular coastal erosion was due to global climate change, as someone pointed out it could be a cyclical thing. I was simply saying that climate change is having an effect on the rate of erosion, if you look at it on an average, world wide basis, as opposed to case by case.

il gatto · 11-04-2008 8:40pm

Climate change may affect some coastlines. I just didn't agree with the asscribing of Rosses Point's situation to climate change (in itself cyclical, rather than the Tommy Tiernan "THE WORLD IS F@CKED" gag scenario National Geographic puts forward in every issue).

Xiney · 12-04-2008 12:28am

National Geographic is one of the most fair and balanced magazines that exists. Tommy Tiernan is not.

il gatto · 12-04-2008 4:58am

Although I read it most months, fair and balanced it is not. In any sense. It's an interesting, occassionally informative read with stunning photography. It's also presumptive, occasionally patronising and often portrays things with a slightly bizarre quaintness. I was referring to a specific joke which has resonance with alot of people predicting our impending doom stemming from climate change. Tommy Tiernan is a comedian. I'm not sure if you meant he's not a magazine, or that he's not fair and balanced. Either way that's not his job.

Culchie · 12-04-2008 2:21pm

I wasn't forcasting impending doom in my OP ..... however when you see 20 metres of land mass not there, over a half mile stretch..... and it was there 1 year ago, you can't help but be impressed/surprised/awed by the change in landscape.

I'll be there again next week, will take a couple of photos so that you can have a look yourself.

brianthebard · 15-04-2008 2:09pm

Xiney wrote: »

National Geographic is one of the most fair and balanced magazines that exists.

It used to be, I'm less sure after the new editor took over there was a bit of a swing to sensationalism methinks.

Xiney · 16-04-2008 10:42am

ah well I haven't read it in about 18 month's time as I was too busy in my last year of University - though I used my first tesco rewards vouchers to get a subscription and it should be arriving any day now....

il gatto · 17-04-2008 4:45pm

There's a good piece onbiometrics and a fantastic photo of a mouse on it's hind legs. And apparently, the Artic won't exist in 2013:eek::rolleyes:

Big_Mac · 17-04-2008 5:23pm

il gatto wrote: »

There's a good piece onbiometrics and a fantastic photo of a mouse on it's hind legs. And apparently, the Artic won't exist in 2013:eek::rolleyes:

Surely global warming..... oops I meant climate change isn't have that profound an effect?

According to someone on the radio who made sense (can't remember specifics but it was the Ray D'arcy show,) Ice ages are a cyclical thing. They come around about every 10,000 years, and since it's been about 12,000 years since our last one, its overdue. although I could be wrong...............

starbelgrade · 17-04-2008 5:45pm

mcgowan.b wrote: »

Surely global warming..... oops I meant climate change isn't have that profound an effect?

According to someone on the radio who made sense (can't remember specifics but it was the Ray D'arcy show,) Ice ages are a cyclical thing. They come around about every 10,000 years, and since it's been about 12,000 years since our last one, its overdue. although I could be wrong...............

I seriously doubt that there was anybody on the Ray Darcy show that made any sense.

Big_Mac · 17-04-2008 5:55pm

starbelgrade wrote: »

I seriously doubt that there was anybody on the Ray Darcy show that made any sense.

Damn. Can't argue with that.:)

Xiney · 18-04-2008 12:30am

mcgowan.b wrote: »

Ice ages are a cyclical thing. They come around about every 10,000 years, and since it's been about 12,000 years since our last one, its overdue. although I could be wrong...............

So... if we're overdue for an ICE age... and the planet is WARMING overall...

Surely it's worse than we thought?

Honestly the attitude towards climate change in Ireland is surprising. It's accepted fact everywhere but the States, I thought. (And the States doesn't put much stock into Science, as we all know...)

il gatto · 19-04-2008 5:23am

Accepted by sections of the scientific community, rejected by others. Same with the general populace. Sure hasn't Ireland clamped down on lightbulbs? We've done our part:D Don't get me wrong. Pollution is bad. That's a given. But until climate change is proven, and I mean properly, to be affected by human activity, then I don't care to waste my time worrying about it. the proof is scanty, misleadingly reported and involves endless "models", guesswork and unsubstantiated predictions of doom. Just the way I read it.

Xiney · 19-04-2008 10:58am

il gatto wrote: »

Accepted by sections of the scientific community, rejected by others. Same with the general populace. Sure hasn't Ireland clamped down on lightbulbs? We've done our part:D Don't get me wrong. Pollution is bad. That's a given. But until climate change is proven, and I mean properly, to be affected by human activity, then I don't care to waste my time worrying about it. the proof is scanty, misleadingly reported and involves endless "models", guesswork and unsubstantiated predictions of doom. Just the way I read it.

Climate Change is an accepted fact amongst 99% of Climatologists - ie the people who'd know what they're talking about.

However, prediction of the future is an inaccurate science which is why you've been given the wrong impression that "models" aren't accurate. We don't know HOW BAD it's going to get. We just know it's bad and getting worse.

Coastal Erosion

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