Eroding dunes at the Trump International Golf Course in Doughmore Bay near Doonbeg, Ireland.
Photographer: Paul Faith/AFP via Getty Images
From Ancient Syracuse to Trump’s Golf Course, Europe Is Shrinking
The sea is encroaching on nearly a fifth of the continent’s coastline.
At the Trump Doonbeg golf course on Ireland’s west coast, the ocean has been inching closer to a private bar overlooking the 18th hole. Since the links opened in 2002, waves crashing on the edge of the greens have swallowed about a meter of beach each year.
Some 1,300 kilometers (808 miles) away in Denmark, a century-old lighthouse was moved inland from a retreating shoreline, while in Portugal, authorities may tear down buildings along 122 kilometers of an eroding coast. And like the village of Fairbourne in northern Wales, the French holiday town of Lacanau is considering relocating part of the community inshore.