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Post details: Landslides don't destroy coastlines, they create them

Landslides don't destroy coastlines, they create them

The Guardian irritatingly brays:

Fossil hunters warned off as landslide destroys Jurassic coastline
Fossil hunters were warned to keep away today after a landslide described as the "biggest in 100 years" destroyed 400 metres of world heritage coastline.

Experts were assessing the damage along the Jurassic coast between Lyme Regis and Charmouth in Dorset after the rock fall yesterday evening.

They really have missed the point here.

[More:]

Landslides and coastal erosion don't destroy coasts - they create them. Would the Dorset coast have been declared a World Heritage Site without landslides? They create a constantly refreshed geological exposure, and if you stop landslides (by putting coastal defences in place, for example) then not only is the natural geological process stopped, but all the animals and plants that depend on those endlessly-renewed habitats are out of a home.

So get with it, The Guardian. Destroyed indeed. Pah.

Only one comment so far. Read it and add yours here!

Posted on 8th May 2008 at 12 16 am
by The Virtual Ranger
253 views

Categories: Wildlife & countryside news and comment, Coastal defence

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Comments:

Comment from: Richard · http://honesthypocrite.blogspot.com/

"irritatingly brays" - I love your phrasing.

I think current conservation efforts and thus the the paradigm that gets pushed out to the public is that to save things they must all remain the same and unchanged. That misses the important fact that many of these things we would "save" are dynamic systems with cycles and rhythms (like seasons or El Nino) and unusual events that happen without warning (like fires, landslides, floods or volcanic eruptions) that nevertheless are a part, sometimes a necessary one, of the system you wish to preserve. I suppose I am saying in a long winded fashion that I agree with your point.

Permalink 09/05/08 @ 16:00

The thoughts and writings of The Virtual Ranger, since 1995 the host and mascot of Naturenet, the UK's most popular independent environmental website; along with interjections from his real-life alter ego, Matthew Chatfield, and others. Featuring not only Naturenet and countryside related stuff, but, as on Naturenet, plenty of other material - more or less at random - that takes The Ranger's fancy. But you can be confident that soon enough he'll be rather sarcastic.

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Post details: Landslides don't destroy coastlines, they create them

Landslides don't destroy coastlines, they create them

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