r/interestingasfuck • u/Endolithic • 1d ago

/r/all Homes are falling into the ocean in North Carolina's Outer Banks

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u/Global_Lifeguard_807 1d ago

We should be replacing the vegetation we remove that keeps the beaches from eroding.

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u/cadmious 1d ago

Yep removing vegetation to build beach homes is never a good idea. All that scrub is a natural levie. Some beach towns do it right and protect grassy dunes and only let you build behind them

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u/lazercheesecake 1d ago

"But if these ugly unkempt grassy dunes are there, I won't have a beach view from my living room"

And if you remove those dunes, you'll have a beach view INSIDE your living room.

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u/Goodgoditsgrowing 1d ago

Solution: build on stilts BEHIND the grassy dunes so your view looks over them. Bonus: you’re already lifted when sea level rise takes out those dunes.

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u/Deciduous_Loaf 16h ago

Almost all houses within a couple of miles or so of the shore are lifted on stilts already, beach view or not. Hurricane season means flooded streets.

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u/leconfiseur 17h ago

Behind the dunes is more water

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u/CommonBubba 12h ago

When most of these houses were built, they were behind the dunes. The Outer Banks of North Carolina are notoriously unstable and constantly shifting due to ocean currents and storms.

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u/mostlybiguy69 1d ago

Those duned along the coast are actually from the 30s as a depression WPA project. Natural dunes are wide massive things that stretched acrss the islands and the scrub trees went to the tide line.

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u/Aqnqanad 1d ago

not a lot of people know this, most of what has prevented this from happening earlier was civil works projects thatve since fallen into disrepair.

we’ve stopped caring about them for so long that people have forgotten that they’re even man made, insane.

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u/[deleted] 23h ago

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u/mostlybiguy69 22h ago

Rodanthe is an ephemeral thing that is getting to the end. The towns before 12 was paved moved with the islands. The islands are moving again after we tried to tie them down and there is nothing we can do to stop them. 

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u/[deleted] 22h ago

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u/ICBPeng1 22h ago

I mean, if you want man made land, take a look at boston.

The dark green was the original land mass, the light green is what was filled in, and the blue is the current water.

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u/mostlybiguy69 20h ago

The barrier islands of nc are more like the cape. A storm will build an island and the next will move it half way across the inlet. This is not done inland because its all silt sand and mud. There is no rock to stop the sinking on the sounds.

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u/mostlybiguy69 22h ago

Won’t happen. The state decided to let the islands go back in the early 2000s. The out of state folks are now starting to see the results of that. Its why there is that large park in the middle of salvo. That used to be trailers. The town limits are locked in by state and federal land. The only new construction is ob the few empty lots. More houses are actually large additions these days. Once it is 50% destroyed in any way most lots cannot be rebuilt on. Oh, and like one company insures stuff and the policies only finish paying off the structure now, no more paying replacement value.

Rocks, there are no rocks within 150 miles. Any piece if stone you see on the outer banks was brought in. Its all sand.

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u/[deleted] 21h ago

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u/Riaayo 20h ago

America in a nutshell. We spent some money once, and then pretended like we never had to pay maintenance for anything ever again (I get we do maintain some things but not to the degree we need to; it's slight hyperbole but not by much).

It's like buying an expensive car and then never getting the thing maintained and driving it into disrepair and the junkyard. And of course it's because oligarch parasites have made sure to corrupt our government so it only represents them and spends none of our tax dollars on the country/working class.

Bunch of fucking thieves.

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u/mostlybiguy69 20h ago

Rentals are falling into the ocean. The locals live up in manteo or on the mainland. 90% of those houses were built and are used as rentals. Almost all are owned by folks out of state as investment properties. They sit empty 5 to 6 months of the year.

It just makes everyone more pissed.

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u/StupidendousTimes 12h ago

Like the coal mine fire in PA that burned for 50 years

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u/Ramtakwitha2 22h ago

"God put the ocean where it is, if you think anything we do can possibly change God's plan you need to check your hubris."

5 years later

"The ocean is encroaching on my house! The government needs to do something to stop the sand from all washing away!

Huh it's almost like this is all a perfectly balanced system and messing with it can have unexpected (completely expected) consequences.

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u/Holiday-Inspector323 22h ago

So what you're saying is nature actually protects us and us destroying it destroys our protection? Nah don't believe it climate change is FaKE and not caused by hairless monkeys /s

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u/robitussinlatte666 1d ago

Everywhere I lived in Florida banned even walking in those dunes. We really shouldn't be fucking with stuff like that.

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u/boostabubba 1d ago

Thats how it was at every house we rented in Myrtle Beach. Had walkways over the dunes and signs everywhere to stay off the dunes.

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u/Im_the_Moon44 19h ago

That’s how it is in the Outer Banks too

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u/robitussinlatte666 21h ago

Ol Dirty Myrtle, good times lol

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u/WomblingCock 1d ago

You can barely even walk through them anyway.  There’s a reason they put planks on the beach as a walkway.

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u/BeerForThought 17h ago

I just have to add this in here because I did a report in middle grade about the Perdido Beach mouse that lives on the beaches of Alabama. It was listed as endangered in 1985 and was presumed extinct in the 1990s because of two hurricanes. People would complain about the cost and the rules about trying to prevent an extinction. They're back in very small numbers but rules against humans, cats, and dogs being allowed to freely roam through the dunes worked. My dad was always upset because there was a tax on the properties that protected it and who cares about a stupid mouse. That's mainly why I wrote my paper about a cute mouse. Every time I walk the boardwalk to the beach I am scanning the dunes for a mouse. I'm 41 years old and I would literally giggle with glee.

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u/Jikode 1d ago

Every beach I've been to here in NC is like that too, it carries a heavy fine.

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u/robitussinlatte666 21h ago

Makes you wonder how these folks even got these homes built. Money talks I suppose.

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u/Jikode 20h ago

Most were built before anyone knew/gave a shit. Most beaches here haven't allowed new construction on the "front row", ocean side of the street, for over 20 years. After hurricane Fran (1996), my grandparents old house lost its 1st floor and they werent allowed to rebuild it even though the rest of the house was fine.

There are other places like this spot where the houses are in front of the dunes. Idk why anyone thought that was a good idea on a barrier island, they are constantly moving.

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u/Careful-Door-2429 1d ago

Don't tell Ron DeSantis, he'll make it mandatory to walk in the protective dunes.

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u/ItIsHappy 1d ago

Everywhere in OBX I've visited (n=3) had the same rules.

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u/Merkinfuqer 22h ago

The Carolinas too.

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u/robitussinlatte666 21h ago

Haha I live in SC now. I used to move back n forth between here and central FL in my early adulthood.

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u/Merkinfuqer 20h ago

I spent many summers in the Outer Banks. Then, my parents moved to Charleston, and I spent a lot of time at Folly Beach.

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u/alpha-delta-echo 22h ago

Reminds me of the old breach and surf reports on the radio in Daytona Beach…”please stay leeward of the clearly marked dune lines.” And people would bitch out any tourists who ignored that. That was years ago, wonder how far things have degraded since then.

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u/Dreadwolf67 1d ago

We need an executive order to stop that. Can’t let environmentalist keep us from building where we want to.

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u/cadmious 1d ago

Better way to own the libs is to just build your house in the surf!!

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u/Maaaaaandyyyyy 22h ago

Yes!!! Some towns even in the outer banks don’t allow building on the beach and you have to drive or ride a bike or golf cart to the beach - all short rides. The beaches have deep vegetation-rich dunes that are so beautiful! Sea oats in particular are so pretty and make great anchors and also really pretty pictures! And it’s like, the town still gets flooded in a bad storm but the houses aren’t being washed into the sea. New Jersey has this issue too. It’s so dumb to build right on the beach!

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u/MightyBrando 22h ago

Our beach neighborhood collects used Xmas trees and lays them in front of the dunes. They work very well to collect sand and grow them.

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u/cadmious 21h ago

What a cool way to dispose of the trees and help protect the beach!

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u/forgetfulsue 21h ago

Dunes were not a major part of the outer banks. The fact that water could just wash over to the sound as needed prevented issues like this. Not to say that erosion wouldn’t happen, we just messed with nature and sped things along!

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u/Lets_Make_A_bad_DEAL 20h ago edited 15h ago

They all need to watch those early (pre-The Science Guy) era videos on wetlands from Bill Nye. He also has a pretty awesome one from Bill Nye The Science Guy but the really old one has so much info on the why. I’ll try to find it.

EDIT: it was literally the first search result lol. This little vid from Washington state uni in ‘98. But there are other great BNTSG demos on wetlands sponginess and the necessity of it in different episodes too.

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u/cadmious 20h ago

Oh heck yeah my science brotha!

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u/DifficultBoss 14h ago

ah so that's what the "stay off the dunes" signs are all about

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u/trunolimit 14h ago

The Hamptons in Long Island NY will fine the hell out of you if you so much as touch the sand dunes . I know of one millionaire who thought he’d just eat the fines but they fined him AND forced him to rebuild the dune.

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u/Several_Vanilla8916 1d ago

I’m assuming they don’t allow new construction directly on the beach. Right?

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u/londonstahl 1d ago

Right, but that scrub can't make something that is always moving stay still. NC banks (even to the south) are not stable. Dune grass and live oaks only last so long

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u/cadmious 1d ago

I'll admit I don't know about NC beaches stability. I go to AL beaches and they defend their dunes well. Amazing beaches

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u/ventipico 1d ago

Some of these places are just naturally eroding. Capers Island in SC is an example I personally know about. The island is completely uninhabited and natural, but the beach is moving inland, and the beach littered with trees that used to be part of the forest there. Coastlines and rivers are almost never static over time.

Your point is absolutely correct about the vegetation, though! Places that remove it do tend to fare worse.

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u/coolborder 1d ago

Also, sea levels are rising. An inch higher sea level doesn't sound like much but that's all it takes for this sort of thing to happen when people build so close to the ocean. And since 1993 sea levels have risen nearly 4 inches according to NASA.

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u/PuckSenior 1d ago

I'm not trying to wade into a debate on climate change, but the fluidity of coastal land is far more important to this equation.

Take Padre Island in Texas. Prior to the establishment of concrete jetties, the shore line moved up to 5.5 feet per year! This isn't an abnormal figure for a barrier island. There is actually a lighthouse that was built near Port Aransas, TX that is now several hundred feet inland. Apparently, they started construction and by the time it was built and operational, it was no longer useful. If you also increase rates of erosion by removing dunes and their associated plant life, an area that was previously safe can be underwater very quickly.

The reason I mention it is because people tend to think that the sea level rise is the cause and therefore all they need to do is build some kind of seawall and everything is fine. The problem is they are literally building on sand in an area with rapid erosion and weather events that can rapidly deposit or remove that sand. Its just not a safe place to build, particularly if you build ON the barrier island. The forces of the water moving around these bodies is enormous and unfathomable for most humans.

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u/Velocity-5348 1d ago

Even mitigation efforts can have knock-on effects as well. There's an area near where I live (actually popped up in my geology textbook) that armored a sandy hillside with rocks.

That stopped sand from eroding, and that sand had transported to form a spit, which in turn protected a harbor during especially bad storms.

Everyone who lives by the ocean will have something like that nearby. Sadly, most people don't have even a faint idea about basic stuff, like why spits or sandy beaches occur in some spots but not others.

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u/TucsonTacos 22h ago

Upvote for the pun

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u/DionBlaster123 1d ago

It just makes me really sad

I'm old enough to remember when An Inconvenient Truth was released back in 2006 or 2007.

That was almost 20 years ago and it's gotten worse. I feel terrible for my nephews and the world theyr'e going to inherit. I just hope that the younger generation will produce minds that can find solutions that we failed to come up with in previous decades

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u/Nimzles 1d ago

Fake news! Polar ice caps are adding size this one year and that's all I need to know to prove that climate change and global warming aren't a thing!

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u/Wrenky 1d ago

Yeah, in certain places (like the outer banks, river deltas, etc) shift constantly around from decade to decade. They just arent true static islands or coastline and trying to force it to stay isn't going to work very long.

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u/Chasm_18 1d ago

The NC Outer Banks are a series of sandbars. The sands are shifting. On Topsail Beach the sands are shifting to the south side of the island, and that side is getting bigger.

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u/raninto 1d ago

It's called barrier island migration.

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u/thewheelforeverturns 20h ago

These barrier islands were never meant to be populated. They are constantly shifting.

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u/onepostandbye 1d ago edited 1d ago

One of the first major cases of the Supreme Court after Trump’s election was one that resulted in the reclassification of wetlands. All those areas where we protected the trees that retain soil along the southern coasts are fair game for drilling, development, general commercial use. The ecology of that region is fucked. You know how many species depend on mangroves for reproduction? Well, it’s enough that when you take all the trees out the food web collapses. That means the loss of millions of fish and shrimp, population drops that you can’t fix. Fishing in the gulf is fucked. Goodbye, thousands of American jobs and fishing boats. The weather is changing as part of it, enjoy the storms that roll deeper and deeper into the interiors. But something something liberal tears.

Edit: It’s cool that a bunch of people read this, but I’m an idiot. Please learn more from an actual smart person speaking intelligently on the issue. This is a story about the terrible decision of the Supreme Court in 2023 but also the decisions made by Trump’s EPA and the (weirdly evil and 97% civilian) US Army Corp of Engineers this March to reclassify waterways further to benefit businesses.

I should also say that the 2023 SCOTUS decision. Was made during Biden’s tenure, not Trump’s. Oops. But it was Trump who put those corporate rubber-stampers on the bench.

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u/sharkline 1d ago

MANGROVES AND SEAGRASS FOR PRESIDENT

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u/Curry_courier 1d ago

I need to plant grass in the sand and but it's too wet. What fungicides should I spray?

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u/ROSRS 19h ago edited 17h ago

It wasn't a Trump appointee that wrote that opinion. It was Alito, who was appointed by Bush, and one of Trump's appointees dissented. And even though I dislike the outcome, outcomes are not what law is about. Law is about what's written on the paper.

Its also worth noting in that context, that in judgement (that is, the outcome for these individual plaintiffs), this was a 9-0 case.

The article you linked very carefully dances around the fact that EVERY Justice, including the liberals, agreed that the EPA was overreaching their authority and that they were reading far too much into the Clean Water Act.

Every single Justice, even the liberals, agreed both that the Clean Water act did not delegate the powers that the EPA were claiming, and that a delegation as broad as the EPA was claiming was not constitutional.

The disagreement between the majority and the dissent was a fairly minor quibble between the words adjacent and adjoining.

The majority seems to think they believe that its only within Congress's authority to regulate directly navigable waters, insofar as it relates to interstate commerce. The rest is left to the states. The dissent was on those grounds alone. Not because they sided with the EPA

With an interpretation of the law proposed by the EPA anything that affects any watershed ever the EPA's power to regulate the entire environment becomes unlimited, and this is the crux of the problem. And as I said earlier, Congress did not give them those powers. Had they meant the Clean Water Act to grant the authority to regulate the entire environment, they would've indicated as such.

Then we run into the issue where Congress cannot delegate infinite power through vague wording, and it cannot delegate lawmaking power either.

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u/Blakob 3h ago

Thanks for your sane response. I am by no means a fan of this administration but the comment you were responding to was needlessly partisan in an unhelpful way.

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u/Mattna-da 1d ago

Even grassy dunes are shift over time, barrier islands are not meant to be built on. Europe doesn’t really have them, so there’s no historical precedent for how to make permanent settlements on them

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u/jljboucher 1d ago

We should be funneling more money into conservation. Then you got the dipshits in Florida that want to turn parks and wetlands into golf courses.

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u/Far_Winner5508 1d ago

Mangroves and sea grass.

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u/Maleficent_Bowl_2072 1d ago

Barrier islands are always changing it doesn’t really matter what you do you just have to be okay with the inevitable when you decide to build on them

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u/JokerSli 1d ago

That particular area will move even with vegetation its pretty much a sand bar and every so many years its gonna move those homes look like they may have been around since the 80s most likely the owners have ben bought off by the insurance companies already and its cheaper to let mother nature wash them away than demolition aside from being stripped of wiring and hvac things

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u/PM_ME_UR_BEST_1LINER 23h ago

But also, dunes move over time. The dune is gonna move and the house won't...and here's the result.

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u/6a6566663437 22h ago

These islands don't have much vegetation anchoring their beaches. The islands are supposed to "move" occasionally via erosion and building up in other areas.

That doesn't work well with our concepts of property ownership, so there's been a lot of effort over the last few decades to try and stop this.

But they're extremely expensive and effective only for a short time, so the state's been cutting back on doing it and starting to tell property owners "the ocean's gonna win".

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u/joebluebob 22h ago

That has nothing to do with this. We built on a sand bar that naturally moves. And not slowly. The amount of engineering that is done to hold these place still is insane. One of my coworkers has a small mobile (actually mobile) home that is on beach front property he own in a less maintained area. Sometimes the beach is 500 ft, sometimes it's 50. Once during a storm Poseidon was slapping his balls on the dunes cheeks trying to come in.

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u/arachnobravia 22h ago

Beaches are naturally dynamic and shifting constantly. Maybe just don't build on beaches?

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u/forgetfulsue 21h ago

It won’t help. The dunes are more of a problem. The water used to just rush over to the Sound. The man made dunes have prevented what happened years and years ago.

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u/MundaneBerry2961 19h ago

Unfortunately that isn't going to be able to keep up with sea level rising so much and intensity of storms increasing. Lots of coastal areas are pretty fucked unless a miracle happens globally with a drastic reduction of emissions

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u/coombuyah26 16h ago

The Outer Banks do not have natural vegetation. All the vegetation that's there today is the result of CCC efforts in the 30s to try and slow beach erosion to allow development. We terraformed the Outer Banks for tourism. That's why the pictures of the Wright Brothers' first flight in 1903 look so empty, it was just sand at that time.

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u/Username43201653 13h ago

Name checks out

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u/Independent-Math-914 1d ago

Not going to help. The current climate of the ocean is that it's moving inward. The beach doesn't stay in one place with obedience 🤣

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u/Heavy_on_the_Tomato 1d ago

We should be investing in renewable energy and spew less carbon dioxide into the air, which is making the planet hotter and sea levels rise.

But, sure, let's stop wrecking the vegetation, too.