A natural, low-tech solution to tsunamis: mangroves

The Christian Science Monitor ^ | January 10, 2005 | Janaki Kremmer

[NautiNurse]

As a solution, this seems like a stretch.

[ElkGroveDan]

Before the global community can accept this solution they are going to need to be called person-groves.

[VaBthang4]

[dirtboy]

As a solution, this seems like a stretch.

Makes for quite a beach resort - having the beach and hotels separated by a couple hundred yards of mosquito-infested mangrove swamps.

Might be easier to instead have stronger buildings as sanctuaries and a warning system for an event that might happen once every fifty years.

[VaBthang4]

Actually, it is a very good natural protective measure.

[elfman2]

I doubt that even 18 miles of it could protect us in the Keys.

[SpaceBar]

Problem: Seismic sea waves threaten prime beachfront property and densly populated areas circumscribing the Indian Ocean.

Solution: Replace said realestate with mangrove swamps.

[NautiNurse]

Actually, it is a very good natural protective measure.

A good protective measure for...displacing the coastal communities and their livelihoods, primarily fishing villages and tourist areas. Dirtboy is on target with his comment.

[Siamese Princess]

Several years ago I read a book called The Spell of the Tiger about the man-eating tigers of the Sundarbans, mangrove swamps at the mouth of the Ganges River in India and Bangla Desh. The author mentioned that the mangrove swamps in the remaining wildlife reserves provided an excellent natural barrier against the high winds of typhoons. Human entry into the wildlife preserves is restricted and few want to enter to gather wood or for any other reason without an accompanying armed guard because of the local tigers' culinary proclivities. At the cost of a handful of human lives lost to tigers per year, many more are saved because the trees are not chopped down and are there to block the winds.

I assume that before whites settled the Gulf Coast areas, there were many trees there offering a similar natural barrier against the high winds of the hurricanes.

[NautiNurse]

Protected mangroves--the death knell for waterfront property (no water view, no value), and navigable waterways. Dang, they grow like weeds.

[festus]

Why don't we just get the UN to vote to ban siesmic activity ?

That should do it.....

[Bon mots]

I don't buy it.

[NautiNurse]

before whites settled the Gulf Coast areas, there were many trees there offering a similar natural barrier against the high winds of the hurricanes.

The white people--who invented air conditioning?

Coastal breezes are what make the Gulf Coast habitable. Mangroves inhibit coastal breezes.

[dirtboy]

A good protective measure for...displacing the coastal communities and their livelihoods, primarily fishing villages and tourist areas. Dirtboy is on target with his comment.

It goes even deeper than that. A lot of enviros despise tourism development. There was an article a couple of days ago about how some folks liked the beaches of Thailand after the tsunami, because it removed all those horrific touristy developments. If you had mangroves along the shoreline, the rabble would be kept at bay and the beaches would be reserved for the hardcore low-impact tourist who would fight their way thru the mangroves to enjoy their uncrowded, undeveloped beaches.

Which is its own form of economic bigotry.

[dirtboy]

That picture is bogus.

[elfman2]

" Which is its own form of economic bigotry. "

I’m missing the economic aspect of it, but I can see how it would be physical fitness bigotry.

I think that education, zoning adjustments and an early warning system will take car of most of the threat. Nothing short of depopulation will take care of the rest.

[marktwain]

I have encountered a few dense mangrove swamps in my time. They appeared to be the worst of all possible fauna types for humans. They prevent any type of navigation without expensive, high maintenance canals. They provide little habitat for anything we humans desire. They cannot even be walked through without great difficulty - walking across Arctic tundra is easy by comparison. The amount of mangrove swamps that would be necessary to make a barrier to tsunamis would be immense - and most places where they can grow, they already do. IMHO, they are the worst sort of weed.