Lucas: Henry, what are you doing here at the beach? It is 6:00pm and you have a shovel removing sand from the beach and dumping a lot of the sand in this white truck.
Henry: I am building a house. I am getting some sand to carry for the contractor tomorrow. I want to save some money, building a house is not cheap. I decided to come here when it is dark so nobody would see me removing the sand from the beach. What are you doing here at 6:00pm?
Lucas: My family and I had a picnic today and we are about to leave. Do you know the environmental impacts of removing sand from the beach?
Henry: There are no environmental impacts of removing sand from the beach to build my house. The sand is free.
Lucas: Let me educate you about the environmental impacts of removing sand from the beach. Today, when my family and I were having the picnic at this beach, the sea water was coming far up the beach wetting down our food and drinks. The sand at the beach reduces the speed of the waves, less sand at the beach would cause the sea water to come far up the beach. Can you envision what would happen during a storm or hurricane when the sea water moves closer to the land? The sea water would take all those houses along the coastline.
This beach is a nesting site for leather back turtles. They use the sand to hide their eggs from predators and to incubate their eggs, less sand would cause a reduction of the leather back turtle population. When the sea water is coming far up the beach it would also wash away their eggs. A lot of kids usually come at this beach to play soccer and cricket in the sand. When all the sand is gone you are depriving families of recreational activities. The usage of sand from this beach to build your house would cause the corrosion of steel because sand from the beach has a lot of salt. This means that your house would not last long.
Lucas: Let me ask you a million dollar question. Does beach erosion occur naturally?
Henry: Yes, beach erosion occurs naturally. However, removing truckloads of sand from the beach to build your house speeds up beach erosion and it compounds all the environmental problems I mentioned.
Lucas: I would put back all this sand I had removed and I would not use any more sand from the beach to build my house.
