The Sand Crisis
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Out of everything the world is running out of, its sand is probably the least obvious. With all the deserts and beaches we have, you’d be forgiven for thinking it is in plentiful supply.
As it turns out, the sand that can be used for most applications is extremely limited. Most of the time, desert sand simply cannot do the job.
From concrete and asphalt to glass and computer chips, sand is nearly everywhere. Even paper and toothpaste require some sand during their manufacturing.
But concrete is where most of the sand goes. This is thanks to the worldwide tendency for people to move from the countryside to cities. Billions of people were added to cities’ populations since 1950 — and a lot of city space needs to be built to accommodate them. This draws unholy amounts of sand to make the concrete for things like roads and buildings.
As Vince Beiser explains in his book, The World In a Grain, desert sand is useless, thanks to erosion. Wind makes those grains brush up against each other too often and too harshly, and that makes them too smooth. Different types of sand, such as from riverbeds and ocean floors, are sharper with more defined corners.
In Vince Beiser’s words, the difference is like that between building something out of a stack of marbles instead of bricks.
Ruling out the deserts leaves out a few other sources of sand, such as beaches, rivers, and underground sand deposits.
Of course, the environmental impacts of extracting all this sand are massive. Dredging, for example, destroys any living organisms that lived on the ocean floor. It strips away the sand along with plants, leaving behind clouds of sediment that block the sunlight for days — effectively killing the photosynthetic organisms that managed to survive the dredging process.
Health effects are also problematic. Land-based sand mines around the world create clouds of dust that are breathed in not only by their workers but by the residents of the surrounding area. Inhaling sand dust can cause various diseases, including lung cancer and silicosis — a disease named after silica, which makes up quartz grains (the most sought after grains in sand).
Governments have been imposing regulations to help against these adverse effects. Still, with sand being such a valuable resource, regulations have only led to an increasingly prominent black market for sand.
It may seem odd at first, but black markets for sand are thriving in parts of Asia and Africa — most notably in India. Hundreds of people who were outspoken against these markets were murdered.
Plainly, usable sand is running out. Some alternatives are being researched, but with our levels of consumption, we are bound to enter a crisis.
Beiser points out that the sand crisis is only one symptom of a much bigger problem: overconsumption. Sand is not the only resource that’s running out. We’re running out of oil, forests, water, even phosphorus. We’re running out of virtually everything.
While this is likely an inevitable result of overpopulation, it doesn’t mean we can’t try to do things more sustainably.
When a wild animal population grows unsustainable, nature puts it in check.
The issue at hand isn’t whether or not humankind will be put in check. That’s inevitable. It’s about how it will happen. We can wield our technology to manage our massive population sustainably, or nature will step in and ensure our numbers become sustainable.
