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Beach blocks

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The tetrapods do help with protecting coasts from storm surges and waves, but protecting loss of sand is probably unlikely.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Having lived near the ocean most of my life, I have seen the power of storms to wreak havoc on shore. I would be happy to put up with these tetrapods, rather than suffer monster storm waves ashore.

-2 ( +4 / -6 )

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cement-from-carbon-dioxide/

The article in the hyperlink references a way that can be used to sequester most of the CO2 that is currently emitted in the making of cement, such as the cement in these tetrapods.

The article states that making cement is the third-largest producer of CO2 in the US, so anything that sequesters most of that CO2 is important.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

@Fra poke

It is very sad. The ancient ones carved into stone, "do not live below this point", but the greedy others did.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

The world is a living organism and playing this fake hyped up game of global warming is tiresome. Study glacier core logging and learn what the climate has done from way back. The dinosaurs did not build factories. But man oh man they had some ni Eli ate in my opinion and the surf still rocked, and vegetation flourished deep into the now so called Arctic and Antarctic regions.

Stop cementing everything would be the first step. Stop putting layers of plastic on every item. Start demanding your so called clean Japanese stop throwing trash everywhere. Walk to Yamato City from the ward office. You would be amazed at the trash everywhere. Thousands of tons actually, and it is ignored as city workers destroy beau street side trees.

Tetra are wrong. Ban them.

-3 ( +4 / -7 )

Well it may not be exactly topical but pouring concrete accounts for about 8% of CO2 emissions worldwide.

https://www.google.co.jp/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46455844.amp

Nice to think they are considering that important angle, …oh, wait, no mention was made of this ‘ere elephant.

8 ( +9 / -1 )

I truly believe that Japanese people hate nature

I wouldnt use the word "hate". Id say fearful.

But yes - these tetrapods are a horrible eyesore.

9 ( +10 / -1 )

I truly believe that Japanese people hate nature. 

yes couldn't agree more, 21 years now in Japan and can't agree more.....

6 ( +8 / -2 )

@speed, you're spot on, this being Japan don't think they'll follow scientific advise. There is a lot of money to be made by dumpib those tetrablocks into the ocean and by paving every single beach in Japan over with concrete so it will only stop when we start sinking into the ocean. It is a fact that Japan has the highest usage of cement per head. I mean, just look at the beaches, instead of moving villages to higher ground after the Tsunami tehy buil 30m walls. I've been to visit these villages recently, you couldn't make it up, had a kaisendon at a seafood restaurant and my view was a 30m concrete wall, unbelievable....

6 ( +7 / -1 )

Well, I'm not a fan. Imagine going to the beach and having these things block your view of the ocean! Personally, I think the climate thing is over-hyped. The climate has been changing since the beginning of time. The earth is more resilient than we think and sometimes I think we have this idea that we humans are able to understand the problem well enough to actually "save the planet". I'm all for reasonable efforts to go green, but nothing overboard.

Are these things really necessary? Maybe. I don't know, but just saying that I'm not a real fan.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

I truly believe that Japanese people hate nature. 

I don't think this is fair, lots of people like nature here.

I think what people in general don't like here is nature being near where they live, which is slightly different. Nature is something that is kept very much at arm's length in the built environment here - the spaces where forests grow are rigorously kept on one side of the fence (sometimes a literal fence, sometimes a metaphorical one), and the place where people live is on the other side of the fence. Any spontaneously growing vegetation on the wrong side of the fence is routinely cut down and removed. Nature is something you go to see, not something you live in the middle of, seems to be the norm.

As someone who likes trees and enjoys being surrounded by greenery this drives me nuts. It creates very sterile and ugly cities. But it does have the advantage of preserving a lot of nature - for a country this size and with this much population density its kind of impressive that so much of it remains forested. I mean, one can find a lot to criticize about that too (lots of sugi trees in plantation type forests, mountainsides being eaten up as quarries, concrete being splashed everywhere, etc), but at least its done a decent job of keeping its forests in contrast to a lot of other countries.

1 ( +6 / -5 )

If there is one positive aspect of these eyesores, is that it creates habitat for marine life.

In summer, I've seen the creepiest insects you can imagine underneath those things. Creatures out of a horror movie.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Ah,some of Kishida's 'concrete step s'.

How about paying those companies to deconstruct unnecessary dams and cement structures? Everyone's happy!

3 ( +5 / -2 )

If there is one positive aspect of these eyesores, is that it creates habitat for marine life.

-6 ( +1 / -7 )

I visited Choshi about 10 years ago and I was amazed at how many tetrapods there were on the coast even back then.

I am surprised there is enough space to put even more of these monstrosities down on the beaches.

13 ( +14 / -1 )

The main purpose of tetrapods is to funnel money to corrupt politicians, many of whom have just been voted back in.

It seems every time concrete is poured, money pours into politicians' pockets.

17 ( +18 / -1 )

These things are a disease.

These tetrapods actually accelerate sand depletion. They also block the natural

flow of sand along the coast and down rivers.

I've seen so many beaches destroyed by these things.

The construction companies love being able to put these everywhere and anywhere.

If you want more sand on the beaches, undam many of the rivers where much of the sand flows down from. Don't block natural flow of sand up and down the coasts with more walls and tetrapods.

18 ( +19 / -1 )

Dumping concrete blocks for sea defences is not going to the root of the problem which is what Japan should be doing.

Japan has massive potential growth for wind and tidal energy + geothermal.

Action on climate NOW.

8 ( +12 / -4 )

The prefecture launched a 30-year project to build sea walls in an effort to protect its beaches.

Destroying a village to save it type logic.

11 ( +14 / -3 )

They look like big sugar plums "Kon-pei-to" in Japanese ,but they save our life.

-8 ( +4 / -12 )

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