Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Sea Erosion or Coastal Erosion?

In an interesting news story on the plight of the people affected by coastal erosion, I noticed how the word 'sea erosion' has been used throughout the story. 

In this Mongabay India story about the east coast of India, 'sea erosion' appears 16 times in the story! The story is basically an anthropocentric one about the plight of the villagers and fisher folks affected by coastal erosion. 

Back to early 1990s. In the university library, there were thick hardcover textbooks of Geology that I used to refer to during my MSc studies. Of all the textbooks, Alan Strahler's Physical Geography was the best for me. His textbooks were beautifully illustrated and excellently written. One will fall in love with the subject of Geology just because of his textbooks. 

Thirty years later I bought a copy of Strahler's textbook. It is top class as always with vivid descriptions of additional topics and meticulous organization. 

The book does not mention 'sea erosion' at all. The index entries are all on coastal erosion, because the hard-hitting sea water erodes material from the fragile coast. The reverse of erosion, accretion, is pretty slow and at a lesser rate. 

Too much jargon in news stories puts off readers. But the use of 'sea erosion' paints the sea as a villain, whereas human beings have not bothered to protect the coasts for decades.

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