Rural climate skeptics are costing us time and money. Do we keep indulging them?
I recently returned from a family vacation to the Bahamas. We spent most of the time on Eleuthera, just south of Nassau. This island has a population of just over 5,000 and is known for its pristine beaches. There were no motorized vehicles allowed on this island, and the beach was beautiful.
As soon as we checked into our hotel, we drove to the beach. The driver dropped me off on a bluff overlooking the ocean. The view was amazing: the turquoise water, the distant mountains, and the bright sun. I had been on the beach before, but as I began to sit there and look at the view, something new caught my eye. I began to look more carefully and saw what appeared to be sand castles that had been cleared off the beach by children. Each small mound was approximately the size of a large football. They were spaced about 20 to 30 feet apart. I was amazed. I had to investigate. I drove down the beach to the point where the sand had been cleared, then I drove farther down to a place where I saw a small, sandy beach not far from where I had seen the sand castles. I got out and began looking for them. They were gone. I drove further down the beach, looked at all the areas where there had been sand castles, and then got back in the car. I felt like I was in a science fiction movie where the aliens have a secret laboratory and are watching human beings looking for UFOs.
As I looked at the beach, I could see where the sand castles had been removed. The children had obviously played with their sand castles and had taken them away. What they probably couldn’t see was that when humans remove sand from the beach, the water seeps back into the ocean. So the sand remains, but the water can’t come up the beach to reclaim it.
That is one of the consequences of having a