Okay, Chelsea, I have quite a few to choose from for articles. So did you put them into categories? I did not. I'm just going to read headlines and you get to pick what we're going to do. Okay. I'm not going to lie. I'm a little disappointed. Yeah, that's fair enough. And just so we are on the same page on this too, avian flu might be a big deal. It has officially jumped the species barrier, not just mammal to mammal, but from cow to human in Texas. Oh, I saw that.
Yeah. And that's why I'm not wearing that in the headlines. No, because I think it's too big at this point. Okay, fair enough. But thank you for bringing it to Mariton. So I have one on client, a few on climate change, $500,000 sand dune designed to protect coastal homes washes away in just three days. Where is that one? And I am not hitting this fast like I was anticipating. Scientists warn Australia to prepare for megadrout lasting more than 20 years. Oh, I have a few on plastics.
There's an explosion of plastic waste. Big companies say we've got this and US court blocks EPA order to eliminate PFOS in plastic containers. And lastly, one that has to do with just nutrition. Vegetables are losing their nutrients. Can the decline be reversed? Let's do the dune one. Okay. This one I love. It's not exactly a great source. It's from the Daily Beast. Nonetheless, I just it's hilarious how some people are trying to pretend the world can just exist the way it is.
So this comes from the Daily Beast posted on March 11th, 2024, written by Dan Ladin Hall. Again, title $500,000 sand dune designed to protect coastal homes washes away in just three days. This is the rich that are up to like all sorts of things. Yeah, to protect themselves. Yeah, and their coastal homes. Yeah. In a drastic attempt to protect their beachfront homes, residents in Salisbury, Massachusetts invested $500,000 in sand dunes to defend against encroaching tides.
After being completed last week, the barrier made from 14,000 tons of sand lasted just 72 hours before it was completely washed away, according to WCVB, which I don't know what that is. And I don't know. It's just listed there without mentioning what it is in the first paragraph of an article. Quote here, we got hit with three storms two in January, one now at the highest astronomical tides possible.
And quote Rick Rogoli, who oversaw the dune project, told the station, Ron Gomett, whose tennis court was destroyed in previous storms along the beach, added that he now doesn't know how much his property is worth, or if he will stay in the area. What? He calls the situation on Salisbury Beach catastrophic. And a quote from him, I don't know what the solution is. End quote. The dune was adding that much value to his home. Well, I think it was stopping the value of the home from going down.
Okay. Because I can show you the pictures of what like. I mean, for something that washed away in three days, it sure dropped value quickly. Yeah. This is what beachfront property like now for these guys. Okay. Like it's literally at high tide, the water's going into their homes, it looks like. Yeah. I mean, that's not good for them. But I mean, the, the dune couldn't have added much base. Where do you put the dune? Well, yeah. And that's the hilarious thing.
And like sand moves like incredibly easy. I'm going to finish this article off and we need to discuss it a little more because there's really not that much left. Okay. Beachfront homes in the area started being damaged by strong winds and high tides after a winter storm in December, 2022, removed previous protective dunes according to WBTS CD. Again, don't know what that is. It looks like NBC Boston. But I think this is just ocean levels have been rising.
I think we covered in our first year we had a news article. Did we not? That NASA was talking about how the moon goes through phases of high tides and low tides. And I think we're coming up on the higher tides now again. It could be. I remember that because I didn't know what before and I actually forgot about it until right now. Yeah. We did talk. I don't know what year, but. Yeah. So that's way back in the day. I'm pretty sure.
Yeah. I got to say just looking at that, I probably would be probably wouldn't buy that house, even if I could afford it. No. And who builds a tennis court like right on the beach? Rich. As he said, like the tide destroyed his tennis court, which in my mind implies it's like the closest part. Okay. And I have to ask, they don't address it in the article. Do we think that this was somehow the orcas doing? You know, I don't know. Are there East Coast orcas? I don't actually know.
I was surprised when I heard there were Spanish, Iberian orcas. Yeah. I mean, it's just a short jump across the ocean to the other side. So. But yeah, I for a long time that was kind of really associated with climate change is rising sea levels. And I, you don't hear it discussed as much as it used to be. That's probably because it's imminent. I think for a long time, it's not only imminent. It is scare tactic. Yeah. And it's not only imminent, like it is literally happening right.
It's been happening over the last 15, 20 years. The entire state of Louisiana looks significantly different. That's scary. At this time than it used to. There are many states which no longer have certain insurance companies because they're just like climate change is happening. We're not going to ensure this because it's imminent. That's something's going to happen. It's not that there's a risk of it happening. Yeah. I mean. Which is what insurance is supposed to cover.
There's, you know, we got to do this. And who was that one guy who kept selling books on climate change? Al Gore, right? Yeah. He did the inconvenient truth. Yeah. So like there's a long time. I think it was being used for scare tactics. And now that we're actually seeing it happening, they're probably not talking about it for fear of it scaring everybody. Al Gore is still talking about it. He is actually still out there doing that. Oh, he is. Yeah. I thought he'd. He's just much older now.
Like he's in his seventies. Okay. But yeah. That I mean, that's just me saying that. So that doesn't mean one way or the other. And this is just some fairly rich people. Brainstorming. Trying to be like, oh, get out of their house. Yeah. I mean, there's two ways that you can deal with the imminent issues that are posed to rich people. One of them is we covered fairly recently and that is digging that bunker. The other one is just pretend, oh, yeah, we can just put sand there.
Yeah. Which I think is the much stupider version. Well, I mean, that must that would probably be a last ditch effort to get some value out of their home so they can get the hell out of there. Yeah. But I don't know that I would also build a bunker there. No, it would also get flooded. Good point. Basically, they're looking at properties that are going to be absolutely worthless.
Yeah. And that I remember there being jokes just kind of from conservatives, like 15 years ago about, oh, if you're worried about climate change, you can just move. Well, these people can't move anymore. Well, they can move. I'm sure they could do it, but nobody's going to buy their homes anymore. Yeah, you would just be abandoning them. Yeah. Well, but thankfully, whenever problems afflict the rich, the government does step in, so they should probably be fine. Thank the Lord. I was worried.
I know that is what everybody was worried about. I know. We were we all were. I and I think I speak for everyone. And if anybody is looking for sand, I'm sure there is plenty just off the coast of the city that you can grab. Anyhow, you got 48 hours to go grab that. I do expect you back here for Friday. Bye. Bye.