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plushcare.com/weight loss. Okay,

1:22

so I'm putting this

1:24

kind of sand scooper into the ground. Where

1:27

should I put the sand that I take? Try to

1:29

put it next to it so you

1:31

don't have waste of sand. Okay. Yes,

1:34

we know sand is very precious. You're

1:37

listening to Crowd Science on the BBC World Service.

1:39

I'm Caroline Steele and I'm digging a hole

1:42

in the sand. This

1:44

is hot. I'm

1:47

going to go for the guidance of biology student Nada Nigaglione. I'm doing

1:49

a good job. I don't have the shoulder strength for this. The

1:51

next day just feels quite destroyed for the

1:54

first time. It's

1:56

sweltering and the nature of sand means

1:58

half of it keeps the sand. falling back into the

2:00

hole I've just made. Not very

2:03

satisfying work. Is this

2:05

deep enough? Hmm. No.

2:08

Yeah, you have to be, it's good. Yeah.

2:10

I've got a big mouth. Yes. Okay.

2:13

You're off. But you're doing very well for us, right? We're

2:17

on a beach in Puerto Rico in the Caribbean.

2:20

Recently, the island declared a state of emergency

2:22

because of its eroding coasts. And

2:24

believe it or not, this hole could slow

2:27

down the process of land crumbling into the

2:29

sea. This

2:34

is the second episode of a two-part

2:36

crowd science special all about

2:38

protecting our coasts. Thanks to a

2:40

question from Mr. Anne in Miami Beach, Florida.

2:44

What is coastal erosion and what, if anything,

2:47

can we be doing about it? Last

2:50

week, we tackled the first part of Anne's question.

2:52

What is coastal erosion? Anne,

2:55

we heard about one method that Florida's using

2:57

to protect its shoreline, beach nourishment,

2:59

which is basically just dumping lots of

3:01

sand on the beach. But

3:04

beach nourishment isn't possible everywhere. It's

3:06

expensive and only works if you keep

3:09

replacing the sand. So to

3:11

properly answer the second part of Anne's question,

3:13

what can be done about coastal erosion? We

3:15

need to find some more options. Which

3:18

means another interview on a beach. Well,

3:20

it used to be a beach. Now the

3:23

ocean comes right up to the road. Right

3:26

behind us is the ocean,

3:28

with no beach, just

3:30

a sort of line of large

3:32

rocks. Yes. What's going on? Yeah, that's

3:35

called riprap. And in

3:37

this area, we had extreme erosion

3:39

for quite a long time. The

3:41

beach was lost. There was no vegetation

3:44

left. A small road that you see

3:46

here started being just eroded. It crumbled.

3:49

This is Robert Mayer, professor of biology

3:51

at the University of Puerto Rico. He's

3:54

taken me to see some riprap, essentially large

3:56

rocks lining the edge of the coast. They

3:59

remind me... the rocks we saw at the bases

4:01

of houses in our last episode. And

4:03

they do the same thing. They absorb energy

4:05

from incoming waves. The US Corps of

4:08

Engineers decided to install that rip wrap

4:10

that we see back there because there

4:12

was almost no other option. And last

4:14

time we were here the

4:16

water was hitting the road. So you

4:18

know there was not much that we could

4:21

do. How does rip wrap work? Rip

4:23

wrap is a hard structure and

4:25

it protects the area where it

4:27

is installed. It can

4:29

have negative impacts on other

4:32

beaches nearby. So things

4:34

need to be very well planned just to make

4:36

sure that other areas are not affected.

4:38

So it might protect the land here

4:40

but leads more erosion

4:42

elsewhere. I'm not a physical oceanographer but

4:45

I've seen evidence of that. Is

4:47

the rip wrap working? Do you expect this

4:50

area to be protected in the future or

4:52

is it still being eroded? I think

4:54

we'll have to see. It's less vulnerable

4:56

than the way it was. There

4:59

are places where you have not

5:01

many other options if you don't

5:03

want to migrate people towards the

5:05

south. I think that was out

5:07

of the question here. If the rip wrap

5:09

wasn't here do you think we'd be standing in action? Oh yeah. It's

5:13

easy to criticize rip wrap. Solutions

5:16

like this protect the land immediately behind

5:18

it but can cause

5:20

the beach on either side to erode

5:22

even more. But sometimes it's simply

5:24

the only option and if not acting

5:27

means people lose their homes rip

5:29

wrap it is. But ideally

5:31

the coast is protected before the

5:33

beach disappears. And that

5:35

brings us back to the hole I was digging at

5:37

the start of the show. Which is the beginning of

5:39

our next evolution. I feel like

5:41

I'm looking very fine here. This

5:46

hole is for a plant and the

5:48

root from this plant will act like an anchor in

5:50

the sand, stopping it from being washed

5:52

away. What

5:58

do I do with these? These are strong. them in

6:00

the hole. So I'm just throwing these, they essentially look

6:02

like tiny peas. Just trusting it. It's

6:04

like making a magic cushion. Okay,

6:06

throwing the tiny peas into the hole. That's basically

6:09

making sure the plant's got the nutrients it needs

6:11

to grow. The bucket full of

6:13

clear jelly. Do I stick my hand in

6:15

it? Yeah, you take a few sticks of

6:17

this. That is

6:20

very unpleasant. You eventually get used to the

6:22

texture. I'll have to

6:24

believe you on that one. Nice,

6:28

okay. What next? That's hard,

6:30

you have to pick it up. I was ready

6:32

to lower my plant into the ground when... Oh

6:35

no! I'm sorry! Oh my gosh.

6:37

Producer Hannah just stepped and spilled

6:39

in my hole. If I

6:43

was your boss I'd fire you. Right, I'll take it

6:46

again. Right, here you go. We're showing

6:49

where the gin is, aren't we Hannah? Yeah. Twenty

6:53

minutes later than planned, thanks to producer

6:55

Hannah, I was ready to get planting.

6:58

So I'm getting down. I've got to put my

7:00

hands under the plant. Yes. I'm misting it up.

7:03

Do I just sort of place it in the hole? Yes,

7:05

come on then.

7:09

In

7:11

place. That explains what would happen

7:14

next. It's expected to

7:16

grow at least a few inches taller. Eventually

7:19

it will grow a colony around.

7:21

It's going to propagate over Zoom

7:23

in terms to reinforce the

7:25

sand. And my plant is one

7:27

of hundreds. They're part of

7:29

a sand dune restoration project run by

7:31

the Vida Marina Centre at the University

7:33

of Puerto Rico. And the

7:35

director is Robert, who we heard from

7:38

earlier. Yeah, let's

7:40

go. He

7:43

took us for a ride along the beach in his dune buggy

7:45

so we could get a good view of what's going on. What

7:51

you see is an area that had

7:53

dunes that were as high as

7:55

200 feet and were

7:57

just degraded by sand extraction.

8:00

And most of the sand went

8:02

to the metropolitan area the will

8:04

call those highrise buildings. It's

8:07

hard to imagine this basically flat beat

8:09

having two hundred that high San Jeans

8:11

they were partly loss to the ocean.

8:13

that partly laugh because signed was taken

8:16

from the beach to make concrete sunny

8:18

by construction. So. Leaving

8:20

this whole area very vulnerable

8:22

to tsunami thing. Others and

8:24

all one living between the

8:26

beach and the cliff know

8:28

there's a road that's the

8:30

only escape route for some

8:33

communities is I am also

8:35

the habitat loss so we've

8:37

been working on restoring this

8:39

or the dune was looking

8:41

at sort pictures and and

8:43

you can see some sand

8:45

accumulating there as a result

8:47

of what you see. Their.

8:49

Skulls by Mimicry Matrix.

8:52

The weren't robot and his team and

8:54

doing his is hoping to slowly build

8:56

back. They sued sand dunes that were

8:58

lost as well as planting threads that

9:00

pressing wooden stakes into the. Ground.

9:03

So it's boards that are

9:05

taking from reduced shipping ballads

9:07

that are just disassembled and

9:09

their place where ever we

9:11

need sam to accumulate. So

9:13

we have a really high

9:15

transport of sand here with

9:17

the wheel and those create

9:19

turbulence that causes the sound

9:21

to be deposit of their

9:23

So we've been able to

9:26

recreate a do in the

9:28

original place of though historic

9:30

do that was removed from.

9:32

Here. And us. Mean. The set of this? Kind

9:34

of that? a small lump of ahead. I mean, It's

9:36

out that lump see the high has

9:38

been caused by san been deposited with

9:41

the wind in or know him and

9:43

scenery has been used only those boards

9:45

there we have a site hear that

9:48

was totally covered by Iraq and Fiona

9:50

which is really interesting and one day

9:52

so we built a zoom in a

9:54

day so he other over a meter

9:57

of accumulate some and. Why is

9:59

restoring these. Important. It's very

10:01

important from of resilience point of

10:03

view. looking at the communities and

10:06

ten or infrastructure we added a

10:08

few destructive storms. These were here

10:10

in Murray on her mouth like

10:13

into any something that was devastated

10:15

the whole I miss and we

10:17

silva the oceans and do and

10:20

there's a strong stormfront do our

10:22

primary long as phones or physical

10:24

barrier against the great strength of

10:27

those ways leave you have healthy

10:29

stable demons. That a lot of vegetation.

10:31

that does the world of a difference. And

10:33

we've seen. Areas that have

10:35

no dues get more flooded with

10:38

a forces are ways to stronger

10:40

and the houses and other structures

10:42

suffer a lot more when know

10:44

them. Or efforts

10:46

are looking our community resilience but

10:48

also at habitat restoration because other

10:51

organisms yourself? well. Today it's

10:53

have like a sandy war. Price:

10:55

If they have vegetation, a Harley

10:57

don't suffer any damage, and we've

10:59

seen that on the Northwest. Why?

11:01

This the vegetation make such a

11:03

difference. A lot of these plants

11:06

have very extensive root systems. That

11:09

just physically hold a sand grains

11:11

together and stabilize doing some one.

11:13

Of the things he gave his Mexico and plant. Right

11:16

balance right on again in not

11:18

only plant is just remove the

11:20

threats that kill the plants because

11:22

it's mostly anthropogenic smells. The human

11:24

cost just people walking back and

11:27

forth over the dune can create

11:29

path and those passes were the

11:31

water gets to the other side

11:33

of didn't when there's a storm

11:35

how do you get people to

11:37

stop walking and fourteen rebuilding boardwalks.

11:40

Modem or works with Build. Hundreds

11:43

of those the well perceived by the

11:45

locals because it's a lot easier to

11:47

walk on wouldn't surface than just walk

11:50

on the hot sand. It allows people

11:52

like can't walk very well to reach

11:54

the beaches a lot easier so it's

11:57

a no brainer. Scenery just put a

11:59

more often. People used to walk

12:01

or other vegetation and they'll take

12:03

the boardwalk if you put the

12:05

boardwalk in whatever. so they're whatever

12:07

biota they're just start spreading as

12:09

long as you keep the people

12:11

away from it. So. The. Main thing is

12:14

get the people of the Ds. And it works

12:16

better than planting because you plan

12:18

some plants makers on. don't that? if

12:20

you let whatever is out there

12:22

just roam freely, it works a lot

12:24

better. And that's one of the principles

12:27

of ecological restoration is he's whatever

12:29

is out there. Building

12:31

boardwalks and ponting. Hundreds of shrugs.

12:33

His hard work but robot in

12:35

his team get a lot of

12:37

support from the local community. Well,

12:39

I was digging my whole. About fifteen

12:41

others were working to, including Roberts

12:43

daughter. Maria and

12:46

and twelve years old and

12:48

is it important t to

12:50

protect the coast? Yes very

12:53

much. Why? Because the coast

12:55

spent taking us from like

12:57

accidents with Sanaa. nice high

13:00

returns. To needles and

13:02

etc. So. It's

13:04

really important to you that

13:06

people here work to protect

13:09

the coastline. Summarizing: Yes, I

13:11

think we should all work

13:13

together like it doesn't matter

13:15

as is the smallest thing

13:18

possible. Let everyone needs to

13:20

work together for keeping the

13:22

call safe because keeping the

13:25

safekeeping into says is keeping

13:27

us safe. His responsibility to

13:29

think it should be to.

13:31

Stop the Coast Rewriting. I

13:35

don't think there's like in

13:37

a specific someone to do

13:40

that. May. Saying that

13:42

we are all instead we can

13:44

all phones here late in the

13:47

Medina. Now we can

13:49

help with the news that you know

13:51

what you want to do when you

13:53

grow up and much bird and looking

13:56

forward to take the lead of the

13:58

the money. Helping

14:01

with the gyms and all of this

14:03

because this is. A

14:05

big responsibility. And

14:07

I want to help. You

14:13

are listening to crowd find on the Bbc

14:15

World Service on Com and Steel and we

14:17

tackling a question from this. Now I'm from

14:20

Miami Beach in Florida. What? Can

14:22

we do about coastal erosion? So

14:25

far we've looked at Poo Solutions

14:27

one line in the case with

14:29

rocks and to planting shrubs to

14:31

stabilise sand. Those. Protect the

14:33

case them being buffeted by waves by

14:35

absorbing that energy but would if we

14:37

could make those way smaller in the

14:39

first place. I

14:43

come to meet Ernesto Diaz, Caribbean

14:45

Regional Manager for an engineering and

14:48

science son who tetris hello. Hi

14:53

Caroline. Is adjusted meeting on

14:55

a beach just outside the Capital

14:57

Fund one called Oslo Trolley Beach.

15:01

Photos they will do Mccauley Beach

15:04

hearing someone for we go because

15:06

it is actually rerouting. he was

15:08

a wider beach right now you

15:10

in the we have hub beach

15:12

is Mortimer Nami was in the

15:14

past however I also wanted to

15:16

show you how the waves are

15:18

breaking hour or two meter reader

15:20

a half of sure. Insisted

15:23

on Could see wade breaking much earlier

15:26

than I'd expect. My initial thought was

15:28

that the see must suddenly get much

15:30

shallower out there, but it's not sand

15:32

causing the way to break. It

15:35

coral and us because for a

15:37

reason are enabling both ways to

15:39

break out there and that is

15:42

something that we need to repay.

15:45

The horizon s had if a line of

15:47

white square wave. the breaker idiotic. the way

15:49

the hair on the base. I think that

15:51

if it was. Oh

15:54

My. God. yes the waves are

15:56

breaking out. There are probably for

15:59

new voters. And here we're

16:01

getting like three to five feet

16:03

away affecting the shoreline directly. So

16:06

if the coral reefs weren't

16:08

performing out there and providing

16:11

those valuable ecosystem services, we

16:13

would be getting 20 footers right here in

16:15

shoreline and we wouldn't have to run across

16:18

the street and seek shelter. Let's

16:20

hope the coral reefs stay put for the

16:22

duration of the interview. That's our home purpose.

16:25

Coral reefs protect beaches from erosion. In

16:27

fact, they absorb a whopping 97 percent

16:30

of wave power. So it's

16:32

pretty clear that we should protect the reef

16:35

to protect ourselves. In the

16:37

jargon of restoration, they offer ecosystem

16:39

services. Reefs are

16:41

providing, you know, free

16:44

ecosystem services to society.

16:47

Not only their ecological

16:49

and intrinsic value, they

16:51

are also providing this

16:53

protection by enabling those

16:55

waves to break so far offshore.

16:57

So with healthy corals, for now,

17:00

we are relatively protected. However, as

17:02

sea level rises, if reefs are

17:04

not able to keep up with

17:07

the rate of sea level rises,

17:09

more wave energy will be coming

17:11

into and therefore more risk exposure

17:13

of this problem. Even

17:16

if Puerto Rico's reefs were in perfect health,

17:19

they wouldn't cut it as sea levels rise.

17:22

But the reefs aren't in perfect health.

17:24

They're suffering. I spoke to fishermen all

17:26

over the island who were worried about

17:28

coral bleaching and dwindling fish populations. Anesto

17:31

is hoping to intervene and protect the reefs.

17:34

So what we are proposing

17:36

to do is in certain

17:39

key places, implement man-made structures

17:41

and attach a living coral,

17:43

particularly resilient strands, that

17:46

could enable the reefs to continue

17:48

growing, adjusting to sea levels, and protect

17:50

the land from property. So you're hoping

17:52

to come up with a hybrid

17:54

solution where you both plant resilient corals

17:57

and introduce man-made structures to sort of

17:59

reinforce. While

18:04

Ernesto awaits funding for his proposal, on the

18:06

far east side of the island there's already

18:08

a base of scientists working to restore the

18:10

reef. We've

18:13

come to the Institute for Socioecological

18:15

Research, Caribe. It's right next to

18:17

the ocean and surrounded by mangroves.

18:20

There isn't a permanent structure but a huge

18:22

tent with no sides and row

18:25

after row of water troughs designed

18:27

to cattle, but instead filled with coral.

18:30

So in these tanks, this coral,

18:32

the scientific name is Dendrogyra cylindris,

18:35

it's a common name is pore coral, and

18:38

this coral is pretty much becoming

18:40

extinct throughout the Caribbean and in

18:42

Florida. This is the executive director,

18:45

Stacy Williams. These are the

18:47

first land-based coral, sea urchin and

18:49

crab nurseries here in Puerto Rico.

18:52

We are growing organisms here specifically

18:55

to restore coral reefs around Puerto

18:57

Rico. What we're doing is that

18:59

we're collecting a small piece of

19:01

live tissue from a coral that is

19:03

in the water. We bring it back

19:05

and we cut them into smaller pieces.

19:08

When you cut them into smaller pieces,

19:10

they actually go quicker. So

19:12

normally corals grow about on

19:15

average two centimeters per year, so

19:17

they're very, very slow. When

19:19

we cut them into small pieces, on

19:21

the double, triple the time that they

19:23

would normally grow. This

19:25

is a way that we

19:28

can produce corals at a

19:30

quicker rate than just watching them

19:32

grow naturally on a reef. Are

19:34

you taking corals literally from here

19:36

and planting them in

19:38

the reef nearby? Can we see the

19:41

ocean through the gas and the mangroves? Is

19:43

that ocean? Yeah, this is a bay right

19:45

here. We're very close to the reef that

19:47

we actually out plant and restore. But

19:50

before venturing out into the big wide

19:52

world, Stacy's corals spend a lot of

19:54

time in water trouble. Just to

19:56

describe what I'm looking at, so it looks a

19:58

bit like a bathtub. balanced on bricks.

20:02

And in it you've filled it

20:04

with water, there's a filter down one end and

20:07

then on the bottom you have, I don't know,

20:09

maybe 150 tiny little circles of coral. On each

20:11

circle is

20:15

a tiny, I mean centimetre by

20:17

centimetre square of coral. I mean to me that doesn't look

20:20

like coral, that looks like a bit of a cereal

20:22

bar chopped up into a square. Yeah, it's

20:24

kind of tricky with coral because when you

20:26

bring the mother, what we call mother coral

20:29

or donor coral back into the tanks and

20:31

we cut that coral, we have to

20:34

keep those pieces together. Even if it's

20:36

the same species, like if we cut

20:38

this same species another piece, those

20:41

might be different genotypes. And if

20:43

it's a different genotype, even though

20:45

it's the same species, it

20:47

will fight with each other and

20:49

won't fuse. Yeah, so you have

20:51

to really be organised when you're

20:53

dealing with coral. Just

20:55

in case you miss that, coral

20:58

will fight and even kill and

21:00

eat each other unless they're genetically

21:02

identical. So if you're a twin, fine.

21:05

Sibling, toast. If

21:08

you want to learn more about the truly

21:10

bizarre world of coral, may I suggest our

21:13

sister show, though we don't fight each other,

21:15

it's called The Climate Question. You

21:17

can hear more about Stacey's work in the

21:19

episode called Can We Save the World's Corals?

21:22

Download it now wherever you get your BBC

21:24

podcasts. Anyway, back

21:27

to cutting up coral. Once we cut

21:29

them into smaller pieces, we glue them on these

21:32

circle pucks we call them, they're made

21:34

out of cement that have an ID

21:37

underneath. And we have to keep these

21:39

together because these will start fusing together

21:41

and cover an entire puck, which you

21:44

can start seeing them starting

21:46

to fuse over here. They

21:49

start like yeah, they join to each

21:51

other and then they will cover the

21:54

entire puck. So what we

21:56

considered outplant ready coral is

21:58

when the tissue either fuses to

22:01

the other pieces or reaches that cement

22:03

puck because that means that it's cemented

22:05

to that puck. And it has a

22:07

lower chance of being plucked off by

22:09

fish or grazed on by

22:11

other organisms. It's really cemented to that piece

22:14

and that way we can take these pieces

22:16

out to the reef and then cement these

22:18

pieces on the reef. When these pieces of

22:20

coral and cement pucks are introduced to the

22:22

reef, the hope is that they will grow

22:24

and reinforce it. So we're

22:26

focusing really on the corals that

22:29

build the coral reef. So they

22:31

create the structure that makes a

22:33

coral reef that we depend on

22:35

because after Hurricane Maria, everybody on

22:37

this island, saw with their own

22:39

eyes how important coral reefs are.

22:41

The coastline that did not have

22:43

a coral reef in front of

22:45

it, there was major

22:47

erosion, buildings collapsed in the water.

22:49

So we here at our nurseries

22:51

are focusing on those corals to

22:54

improve the reef structure. So you

22:56

want them to grow up to

22:58

then be able to dissipate wave

23:01

energy. Coral reefs are

23:03

clearly vitally important, but Stacey's worried that

23:05

the work she's doing now isn't

23:07

going to be enough in the long run. So

23:10

the corals that we're out planting are going

23:12

to take decades if we want

23:14

to have them contribute to the structure, I

23:16

mean decades and decades if they survive. So

23:19

we have to think outside the box and

23:21

think of other ways, like installing

23:24

artificial reef structures and

23:26

then cementing corals or doing

23:28

other implementation or mitigation to

23:31

increase the structure and decrease post-war

23:33

erosion. These

23:36

natural solutions like planting on dunes

23:39

and reinforcing reefs are slower

23:41

to have an effect, but they have

23:43

many advantages too. Here's

23:45

our professor of biology, Robert again. They're

23:48

cost effective compared to grey

23:50

structures. So grey structures are

23:53

things like a seawall? Yeah, seawalls and

23:55

jetties and breakwaters, riprap like

23:57

we saw. These natural.

24:00

Solutions look better for recreation

24:02

girl are better there, a

24:04

lot more assertive and they

24:06

are much more effective at

24:08

protecting the coast because they

24:10

get stronger with time. An

24:12

artificial structures weekend with time

24:14

I say. Das Cheaper say

24:17

last longer and they let that

24:19

on. They. The has a cake

24:21

same seven over and three others.

24:23

Nothing like nature itself. We've seen

24:25

how strong it can get your

24:27

again mighty. I thought of Manny's

24:29

are lessons and at least personally

24:31

I learned to respect nature a

24:33

lot more. and I learned that

24:35

there's nothing you can do to

24:37

controlled by. When you're hiding from

24:39

a category four storm and he

24:41

hears you, know that there's no

24:43

way you can control. It

24:46

makes you more humble. Animals.

24:48

And then we know that only by working

24:50

with it. We can live

24:52

on the island and prevent human disasters

24:54

that I call them. I guess

24:57

some people could argue that you know

24:59

Harkins all a passive this part

25:01

of the world and coastal erosion is

25:03

an actual process and maybe you shouldn't

25:06

be intervening. I think that

25:08

we have the capacity to change

25:10

the environment so much. That.

25:12

We can do something to prevent

25:15

it because will definitely doing things

25:17

that are not compatible with nature

25:19

or erosion on the coast wouldn't

25:21

be there he we wouldn't be

25:23

building and and writing a tv

25:26

zola over the place or riding

25:28

horses or the plants in on

25:30

the island would be so much

25:32

different if we were behaving in

25:35

a different way and be more

25:37

respectful. Suggests. A year humans

25:39

apart, the problem and that be. Part. Of

25:41

this isn't as well. How do

25:43

you feel about the future of? Frederica?

25:46

Coastlines? You think you're going to be able to make

25:48

enough to the difference to protect it? at

25:50

least we're trying to buy

25:52

time and another thing we're

25:54

really focused on is educating

25:56

the communities they see mine

25:58

mission in University is going out

26:01

and spreading out the word about ecological

26:03

restoration and the need to protect the

26:05

coast on the communities

26:07

and people that are not going

26:09

to be enrolled in the university.

26:11

We're educating future generations and

26:13

I'm sure that's gonna cause some change. In

26:16

10 years, we have seen different

26:18

attitudes, changes in attitudes. In

26:20

the local people, we have seen less

26:23

incidents of sand extraction here on the

26:25

Northwest. People are behaving in

26:27

a different way. It's more compatible with

26:29

the people systems. So I have hope. Listen

26:38

to Anne, you wanted to know what can be

26:40

done to protect our coast. The

26:42

good news is there are lots of solutions

26:45

out there and we do need

26:47

lots of them because no single solution is

26:49

perfect. I'm tempted to

26:51

now talk about climate change and how if we

26:53

could just tackle that then all of this could

26:55

be avoided in the first place. But

26:58

in this case, that's not true. Climate

27:01

change is making things worse, but it's

27:03

not totally to blame. Coastlines

27:05

naturally change over time. The problem

27:07

is we've built on our coasts.

27:10

So if we humans want to live there, we are

27:12

going to have to protect them and

27:14

the best solution changes from place to place. It

27:17

depends on how bad the erosion is and how

27:19

much money you have to spend on it. Anne,

27:22

thank you so much for writing in with your question.

27:25

Over to you for the credits. Well,

27:28

that's it for this episode of CrowdScience from the

27:30

BBC World Service. This week's

27:32

question was from me, Anne Bloom, in

27:34

the United States, Miami Beach, Florida. The

27:37

program was presented by Caroline Steele and produced

27:40

by Hannah Fisher. If

27:42

you have any questions, please email CrowdScience

27:44

at bbc.co.uk. Thanks

27:48

for listening, everyone. Bye now. I

27:55

knew right at that moment that my whole

27:57

life was gone. I'm going to jail for...

28:00

Very, very long time there was

28:02

no doubt about and Lifeless Ordinary

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is the podcast with astonishing personal

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Honestly, even at that point of reporting to journalists,

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I don't think I really knew that that was

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in itself, an act of whistle. Blowing expect

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the unexpected journey futures here.

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So we leave. We might

28:19

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