I grew up in Lanikai. During the 1970s my friends and I played football on the beach fronting the 1500 block of Mokulua Dr.

In 1991 there were nothing but rocks facing the ocean at the same place.

In 2004 rocks were being imported to shore up the new McMansions, and the beaches had mostly disappeared west of the 1200 block.

The erosion was said by the elders to have been predictable because of all the local intervention with the constant ebb and flow of sand.

I regret to observe they were probably right.

Pardon my ignorance but what tools/frameworks are used to design these kind of pages? It's very pleasing to the eyes

Similar problem to what happened on the New Jersey coast (moving sand, non-moving mansions). Except in that case the rich beach house owners lobbied the federal government to spend hundreds of millions to bail them out. Wouldn't be surprised if we see a similar dredging effort paid for by the federal government in Hawaii.

Not mentioned by propublica's page, local resistance on Oahu:

https://oahu.surfrider.org/category/beach-preservation/

Couple of posts in 2020, sadly nothing for 2017-2019.

If you live in the US, and care about being able to visit a beach in the future, consider supporting the Beach Preservation committee of your local Surfrider chapter:

https://www.surfrider.org/initiatives/coastal-preservation

One thing I'm not clear of, what is the supposed intended purpose of these seawalls? The article doesn't explain that. Is it meant to prevent erosion, but simply back-firing? Or is a more flood prevention measure?

The cynic is me also wonders if some more reclusive property owners don't actually prefer having their property end at the water rather than a beach with public access rights.

Whats the alternative to a sea wall? Beach reconstruction? Let the water reach the houses?

How is this issue affected by rising sea levels? I'd think that those beaches are doomed anyway and not even sea walls are going to save those houses.

Millionaires screwing the public out of beaches in spite of laws: Hawaii, meet California.

Isn't the sand used for building computers?

I live in Oahu and believe me there's still plenty of beach.

Even if their main figure is true (20% loss of beach area in 100 years), that doesn't seem so bad. I would be surprised if the figure hadn't changed because the tide and ocean has busy hands.

Honestly I have a lot of faith that the Army Corps of Engineers could step in and figure things out if it was a big problem.

Disclosure: I have no scientific expertise here and I'm just a huge Obama fanboy and feel if the family wants a seawall we should let the family have a seawall. C'mon he took a job where 10% of previous occupants were assassinated—they earned this one.

I am seeing alot of opinions draped as journalism coming from propublica, I tend to avoid that site as it is extremely biased and in alot of cases plain wrong.