The world is running out of sand — there’s even a violent black market for it

Sand seems like an infinite resource — especially when one imagines endless beaches and deserts — but the granular material is one of the most-consumed resources on the planet, and it could be running out.

This is because it’s used in a lot of products, such as toothpaste, sunscreen, kitchen sinks, computer chips and glass. But the biggest consumer of sand comes from the construction industry, which uses it to make brick, asphalt and concrete.

The big business of sand is actually referred to as the “the new gold rush,” by many experts. And the demand comes with a warning.

“Sand is the essential ingredient that makes modern life possible. And we are starting to run out,” journalist and author Vince Beiser told New York Times.

The over-exploitation of sand is leading to the disappearance of beaches and islands, and it’s polluting rivers and wrecking havoc on the ocean floor. Not only that, it’s also creating a violent black market.

Sand and gravel are the most-extracted solid materials in the world, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Formed by erosive processes over thousands of years, it’s also mined at a rate far greater than its renewal.

Between 47 and 59 billion tonnes of sand and gravel (also known as aggregates) are mined every year, UNEP said. It’s used in concrete and asphalt for roads, buildings, parking lots, runways and many other structures.

China and India, which are leading a global construction boom, are some of the most voracious consumers of sand due to rapid economic growth.

From 2011 to 2013, China used more cement than the United States used in the entire 20th century

What about desert sand?

The sand that is used in most products is found at the bottom of rivers, lakes, oceans and on beaches. Unfortunately, the sand from the desert is unsuitable for construction.

“The sand from the desert does not work as the grains are too round from wind erosion, so it does not stick together and offer strength,” said researcher and founder of sandstories.org, Kiran Pereira.

“You need angular grains that will interlock and hold concrete together. That’s why so much sand has been used from rivers and oceans,” she said.

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Singapore is one of the largest importers of sand, using it to expand the tiny island nation in physical size by about 24 per cent since 1960, according to Bloomberg. The country uses so much sand that its once-biggest suppliers, Indonesia and Vietnam, have banned exporting there amid environmental concerns.

U fuckin wot?

Another made up crisis

concrete is 75% sand, and the price has gone up 400% in last 25 yrs and 200 tons are needed to build a house

$7 US per ton x 200 =$1,400
So wtf is the narrator saying high price of sand makes homes more expensive?

kinda makes sense now, a lot of toothpaste as a bit of grittiness to it, especially natural stuff

want to know how I know you're a millennial who's never experienced a shortage in his lifetime? you got a rough future ahead

tbf people were telling me that same shit 20 years ago about global warming, and the only thing that has gotten worse is the political shit associated with it while the weather hasn't changed all that much from what I've seen.

Retard spotted

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Human beings just seem so ill fit for this planet. All we ever do is destroy things, we are hopelessly dependent on natures resources yet if humanity went extinct tomorrow nature would not only continue on as though nothing as happened, it would be objectively better off. The only places that could have negative effects are from oversized carnivore populations which were brought about by humans importing animals that don't belong in certain parts of the world. So the only benefit we provide is managing a problem that we started in the first place. I feel as though we are an alien species or something closer to a parasite or virus than anything else.

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most shortages youve experienced are marketing gimmicks

t.kike

What happened to using ground clam shells to make concrete?

Uh huh, the planet is totally uninhabitable and we're all going to die any minute now.
You and yours have been screeching about this shit for decades, yet jack shit has happened outside of some countries paying a carbon tax that only serves to line the pockets of politicians.
Typically a retard is the kind of person who continues to buy into shit that's clearly a scam.

Oh (((you))).
Yup, it's getting warm.
Nope, it's not human's fault.

Now, brushing with baking soda doesn't seem like a bad idea.

Honestly, there are worse things you can put in your mouth other than sand, but again

>But don't worry! If you don't resist let your government environmental organizations control everything it will get better!

…as if OP brushes his teeth in the first place

I'm done.

It's not a problem, really.


especially considering that in 2023 America is going to nuke China and pulverize all their concrete back into sand again, while we melt the deserts into glass

Fuck off Chink

If you miss THIS, you're a fucking loser

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jews arent humans

What?

Nothing to do with humans.
Massive, utterly unprecedented overpopulation has done this.
1,000 AD - 500 million people on earth.
1850 AD - 1,000 million.
1930 AD - 2,000 m.
1990 AD - 6,000 m.
2018 AD - 7,500 million

The population growth before found across 1,000 years is now found in 15 years.
People can't imagine this and how unlike this is any other point since the dawn of time, so they simplify it and say "HEY THERE'S ENOUGH SPACE CAUSE I SEE 1 metre squared spare over there".
They can't comprehend that each person now 'needs' all the materials for their whole life to make the dozen cars they might own, the roads for them, the houses, the electronics, the clothes, the mountains of food, the lakes of petrol, the stacks of coal, the resevoirs of gas they need to cook with and heat their houses.
Imagine that every gook in china wants a new car every year.
And every year there are 80 million new gooks, and that those gooks want a new car every year for their 70 years of life.
It is absolutely untenable.

If there isn't an apocalypse soon, it will happen by itself.
Like the fellows at the top say, 99% of the people in the world need to be wiped out.

Yeah, nothing like using a highly alkali strong abrasive to ensure you have no enamel left by 30.

You fucking wot?
I flew over the Gobi desert the other week, it took about 3 hours to fly from one end to another flying around 500mph. That's just one sand desert. There's the Sahara, and let's not forget. The entire middle fucking East is basically sand. That's why those cunts are always angry, they've got sand up their orafices constantly.

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Desert sand is useless, beach sand is the good shit.

what is this a minecraft server

we need to nuke china

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Remineralization occurs when the ph is a little above normal. That coupled with the acids being neutralized by the bakibg soda its perfectly safe. Better than the fluoridated jew paste.

You could just use those gel packets of silicia to clean your teeth, beets even bothering to buy toothpaste and saves water as you can re-use them by an easy cleaning.

Baking soda has a relatively low pH (9) and your enamel is acidic-sensitive, not base-sensitive. A vast majority of the food you eat is acidic and as such baking soda helps protect the enamel of your teeth against acidification by neutralizing the acids as soon as they contact the teeth. If you're filling your mouth with half a cup of baking soda than you might dissolve your teeth through high, alkalinity, but a small deposit across the entire mouth helps regulate the acids that would otherwise dissolve your teeth

god was the original Notch, how new are you?

given, the reason for abandoning the game was that the userbase bullied his son too much, but that guy was a faggot, he used hacks and didn't get b& because his daddy was the admin, which caused the bullying in the first place.

Thanks, Boomer, for everything you've done to deter this fact. Oh wait..

Just go back to your nursing home or retirement mansion before some young buck gets the garlic and a wooden stake you damn vampire.

Actually a terrible idea, silica packets are made to dessicate and a dessicated mouth is very susceptible to rampant bacterial and fungal growth. Also if ingested it can pose a risk to your GI tract

I've seen your posts before
You are a genuine mental case(and stupid)

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elaborate, considered arguments

HUR DURR U IZ A DUM DUM

If you want to attack someone fine, I hope you do it makes my reading interesting but can you at least up your power level a bit, you're like a fly hitting windshield atm.

Humans are animals and there is actually nothing unique about what we do. Every other species feeds and proliferates until it's checked or overextends and dies off, and we're doing exactly the same thing.

I'd say that we are unique more because we choose to stop breeding at a certain level of decadence. Ancient Rome had the exact same why aren't the natives breeding?? problems that the west and Japan do today. But I guess the mouse utopia study calls that into question as well.

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VICKY2 WAS A WARNING

I HOPE YOU'VE BEEN HOARDING A YEAR'S WORTH OF BOOZE AND CLIPPER SHIPS, SHEEPLE

literally what
Why not just make moonshine instead?
Why do you need a year's worth of makeshift water ships?

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it's a meme, ya dip

what is the experimental difference between populations A and B?

One is exposed to a predator and the other is not. B is exposed to the predator and A is not. It would be nice if user provided sources though.