26 November

Many people argue water shortages would be fixed by building more dams. (Like saying you'll have more money if you get a bigger wallet.) One of the many side-effects of dams is the disappearance of beaches. The sand that ends up on beaches is flushed into the ocean by rivers. When you build big dams, all the sand that would normally wash into the ocean to form beaches, ends up behind the dam wall. The whole fascinating process (and some staggering numbers) in this article.