Hawaii’s Beaches Face Grim Future

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1786080/hawaiis_beaches_face_grim_future/index.html


All across the islands of Hawaii, residents have stood by and watched helplessly for years as the majestic archipelago’s sandy white beaches have steadily retreated — a phenomenon that geologists warn will likely worsen in the coming decades as warming global temperatures bring rising sea levels around the world.

According to the Associated Press, experts say that over 70 percent of the island Kauai’s pristine beaches are on the decline while Oahu has already seen roughly a quarter of its sandy oceanfront disappear.

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But for a state that is accustomed to raking in over $11 billion annually in tourist receipts — constituting roughly a third of the state’s economy — the disappearance of its famed beaches presents a dilemma that is more than aesthetic in nature.

Tourism to the islands has already dropped by about 15 percent in the first six months of 2009 thanks to an ailing economy, while state jobless rates have hit a 31-year-high — statistics that already have a number of officials in the Aloha state contemplating the long-term economic impact vanishing beaches a bit more seriously.

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State officials in Hawaii are already scrambling to develop plans to preserve and rejuvenate the state’s tourist magnets.

In Waikiki, officials have proposed a plan to spend between $2 and $3 million in conjunction with local hotels to pump sand from offshore back onto the heavily tourist-trodden beaches.

(it won't work for longer then a minute - will just be lots of money down the drain)

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nt

is harmful to the coral reefs.

like in Florida.. they fenced off the beaches and public areas for Condos.

Only the well-healed can afford the beauty of the beaches. Working people are not allowed to view the beaches.

even less so than on the mainland.

In Hawai'i, prices are so high, wages so low, and jobs (in hospitality, food service, etc.) at such crazy hours that many (most) working-class people work two jobs in order to make ends meet.

If such a person has one job but can't find a second, s/he isn't considered "unemployed", even though s/he may be about to give it up and head to the mainland, where the job situation may not be much beter, but at least the cost of living isn't off the charts.

all that sand in Waikiki was brought in from the mainland (Missouri I think?)

In other words, it was never meant to be there anyway. :shrug: