Picture the gorgeous beach you spent you last vacation on.
Now picture that same beach, destroyed. Perhaps it eroded so much that there's barely room to spread out a towel. Maybe a colossal concrete hotel is being built where the sand dunes used to be. Maybe it has been coated with a slick of spilled oil. Hopefully, your slice of paradise will remain well preserved. But at many beaches around the world, nightmares like these are coming true.
We've selected some beach destinations around the world in danger of disappearing forever due to forces such as erosion, pollution, rising sea levels, reckless overdevelopment, and sand mining. But there are hundreds more. If we don't curb global warming, insist on sustainable development, and protect the world's beaches against pollution and mismanagement, the idyllic shorelines we cherish will be preserved only in memory.
The Maldives - post card ready beaches, unblemished coral and some of the world's most luxurious resorts, the Maldives are a once-in-a-lifteime destination for many. But the islands' own lifetime may be cut short by rising sea levels dooming this string of low lying atolls in the Indian Ocean, unless the world acts quickly to curb out global warming.
Now picture that same beach, destroyed. Perhaps it eroded so much that there's barely room to spread out a towel. Maybe a colossal concrete hotel is being built where the sand dunes used to be. Maybe it has been coated with a slick of spilled oil. Hopefully, your slice of paradise will remain well preserved. But at many beaches around the world, nightmares like these are coming true.
We've selected some beach destinations around the world in danger of disappearing forever due to forces such as erosion, pollution, rising sea levels, reckless overdevelopment, and sand mining. But there are hundreds more. If we don't curb global warming, insist on sustainable development, and protect the world's beaches against pollution and mismanagement, the idyllic shorelines we cherish will be preserved only in memory.
The Maldives - post card ready beaches, unblemished coral and some of the world's most luxurious resorts, the Maldives are a once-in-a-lifteime destination for many. But the islands' own lifetime may be cut short by rising sea levels dooming this string of low lying atolls in the Indian Ocean, unless the world acts quickly to curb out global warming.
Morocco - You would think a desert country would have enough sand for everyone, but not when everyone's stealing it! Yes, stealing it - literally bulldozing dunes and trucking the sand away to make cement. And leaving behind an ugly lunar landscape, definitely not sunbathe worthy. A U.S based environmental organization who advocates for the world's beaches from Cambodia to Jamaica and Australia has found that sand mining has been distructive to over 30 countries. Morocco is felt to have the worst where 100s of miles have been mined for decades
Mullins Bay, Barbados - Most Caribbean islands suffer some erosion to a degree, much from natural causes. Barbados, a country dependant on tourism, knows the importances in protecting their beaches, but some attempts to do so only makes matters worse. Local environmental activists claim that serveral places along the west shores ("Platinum Coast" where many luxury hotels, condos and homes are developed) - erosion has been exacerbated by construction. Sunbathers used to be able to walk from the popular beach bar on Mullins Beach north for serveral miles up the sandy shore. However, now there are only impassable boulders, sea walls, and crashing surf. Rising sea levels and storms certainly do play a role in the erosion of Barbados beaches, but there also needs to be a balance of the development in order to retain the preservation.
Be sure to check out the spots you have on your bucket list before its too late! But please make sure you are doing your part to protect the spots you love. Remember we only have one earth!
For more on this article check out Concierge "Last Chance Beaches"
For more on this article check out Concierge "Last Chance Beaches"
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