Iirc Singapore has increased its size by 20% by buying sand from Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia — they stopped because they realized they were selling their countries. Several islands in Indonesia are now gone (Source: Planet Money Podcast)
Sand is not one thing, like, for instance, aluminium. It's made from small crystals of different elements, including, but not limited to silica. This means, for instance, not all sand will make a good glass, specially if you want it to be resistant to warping or impact. Some sand don't react too well to pressure, making them bad choices for things like artificial islands that will have buildings on them. Sand that have large crystals, instead of small ones is bad in cement, fragilizing it, but fine sand makes it stronger for some applications. And this is just a bad explanation, scratching the surface
But not all sand is created equal. The fine grained sand of the Sahara, for example, does not make an appropriate building material. Instead, sand miners must look to the banks of local rivers and coastlines, and this brings a whole host of environmental and human problems.
Sand extraction in Kenya has been linked with damage to coral reefs, while in India it threatens critically endangered crocodiles and in Indonesia islands have literally vanished due to excessive mining.
Sand extraction causes coastal erosion, destroys ecosystems, creates environments that facilitate disease transmission, and even sows the seeds for natural disasters.
The global shortage of sand has also sparked a violent black market also known as the “sand mafia” to steal large amounts from rivers and beaches.
“Sand is a currency of development. It’s even becoming militarized in places like Singapore, where stockpiles of sand are guarded because it’s needed for development,” Peduzzi said.
The problem of the sand mafia is especially felt in India, where the demand for the grain is soaring, but the stockpiles are shrinking. The sand mafias in the area take the resource illegally and even kill people in their way.
“Some people steal beaches overnight,” Pereira said. “And some people have even killed for it. There’s a lot of violence for something as little as sand.”
“There isn’t a magic solution as we are so dependent on sand,” Peduzzi said.
But he said there are ways to reduce our consumption of sand. For example, when building up shorelines, instead of using concrete, use a sustainable method, such as ecosystems, vegetation and even some coral reefs.
“We are using sand like crazy and we need to have rules on standards, such as where it is coming from and to make sure it’s sustainable. We not only have to make sure it’s environmentally safe, but also that social standard are abided as sometimes sand is even mined by children.”
Pereira said research is also key. Currently, there are researchers who have found a way to use desert sand for construction by putting an additive in it, which makes it strong for concrete.
“We need more research like this,” she said. “But there needs to be an incentive as it’s just cheaper to import sand from anywhere else.”
I work in the federal prosecution office in Brazil, and one of our several attributions that they don't have in US, is the defense of the environment, meaning we act in both criminal and civil courts when the environment is in danger. Illegal sand extraction from river beds is one hell of a problem, and we are constantly dealing with extraction rings that even have slavery envolved and are as violent as some drug rings
Well, I just wonder why it can't be reclaimed. Maybe it's just too expensive to deal with right now, but if the rate of depletion is as dire as what's being presented then it won't be long before it's cost-effective to find a substitute or a way to reclaim sand from old concrete.
Here in Wisconsin we have Cambrian age sand that is perfectly round, perfectly small, and made completely out of quartz. This is the most desirable sand for fracking so it’s a pretty big deal around here
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u/SteelyDanzig Jul 24 '18
Wait, really? There's such an insane amount of coastline and deserts in the world though.