You may think of sand as part
of your beach vacation, but it's used for more than just
sand castles. It's a commodity like oil and copper and gold. If you look around you,
everything is made of sand. It's a pretty crucial
commodity. And even though sand can be found in nearly
every single country on Earth, we could soon face a sand
shortage. Turns out, sand is only second to water as the
most consumed raw material worldwide. Sand mining is the
largest mining industry in the world. And yet, it flies under
the radar, largely unregulated and unknown. All of society is basically
built on sand and how come there's no monitoring on that?
And how come people are ready to kill someone else for sand
in some regions? It's used in construction,
like critical infrastructure, and President Biden is
diverting a lot of his attention to America's
infrastructure. Sand is also used in chemical production,
water filtration, fracking, and of course, glass. So, all
of your windows, computers and cell phones. You know, it's literally
everywhere we're driving on it. We're sitting in it. We're
looking through it. It's absolutely extraordinary. I'm
really starting to be concerned about what happens
if we don't have this anymore. Sand use around the world has
tripled in the last 20 years. That's far greater than the
rate that sand is being replenished. One of the biggest
sustainability challenges of the 21st century simply
because of the scale of the problem. The more I learned
about it, the more alarmed I became. So, the world is facing a sand
crisis. And that's a problem. I know what you're thinking:
Yes, sand is everywhere. How can there be a shortage? Actually, in some places, the
world was running out, and it's such a hard concept to
get your head around because you think of coastlines and
expansive deserts and just see so much of it, that to think
of it not being there is very, very challenging. It's a classic example of the
tragedy of the commons. An economic concept where
everyone is incentivized to keep consuming a natural
resource, even if it ends in overconsumption, and
ultimately, the total depletion of that resource, So is it a crisis or not? And
that's one of the hard things with this topic, that it's a
problem that manifests in very different ways in very
different places. So, I bet you if you were in a community
where sand mining is going on like this is not a surprise to
you at all. I grew up in Bangalore in
South India. As I grew up, I constantly read reports about
rivers being decimated because of sand mining. And at the
same time, I saw hundreds and hundreds of sand filled trucks
flying up and down the road in the city of Bangalore. That
was when the city was being transformed to the Silicon
Valley of India basically. A construction boom happening
all over and all that sand was coming from precious places. Construction has caused a
steep increase in demand for sand. And, a lot of sand is
being extracted from oceans and rivers. It's not just shortage in the
market at shortage in the natural environment that has
to be talked about. The concern is that there's
literally not enough sand on coastlines in a context of
rising sea levels and increased storms. Sand crafted by water is more
valuable than desert sand eroded by wind. That makes
desert sand to smooth it doesn't bind together as well
as other types of sand. Sand is sourced and extracted from
seabeds, coastlines, quarries, or rivers is more angular, so
it locks together. And, that's important because this kind of
sand is a key ingredient in cement and concrete. And concrete is made up of 65
to 75%, sand and gravel. Then there's glass, sand,
gravel and rock crushed together or melted down to
make the glass used in every window computer screen and
smartphone Glass is about 70% silica
sand. So, there are very specific types of sand that
are required for specific uses. And these places are
limited. Even the production of silicon
computer chips uses sand, but extracting sand can damage the
environment. Extractions of marine sand,
coastal sand, beach... beach is the worst. And rivers is
something that is leading to tremendous environmental
impact For oceans... Well, imagine
you scrape sand off the bottom of the ocean. That's going to
affect the microorganisms that live in the ocean floor.
That's going to affect the fish that eat the
microorganisms, and then the fish that eat those fish.
Basically, the sand removal of affects entire ecosystem. Sand
is the most extracted resource in the world by volume,
surpassing even fossil fuels. Actually, even extracting oil
and gas uses a lot of sand, like in fracking. And yet sand
has been easy to ignore. Essentially, it's invisible in
our minds and in the way that we manage the resource. We
don't think about it like a strategic resource. And yet it
is everywhere in our societies and our economies. And as a result, we're wasting
these resources. And in 2019, we produced this report, which
was submitted to the United Nations Environmental
Assembly, and it was used for making a new resolution on a
global mineral governance, and it was adopted by all
countries. And it was first time that countries recognize
that we have a problem with sand. This concept of panicking, it
reminds me a little bit of Great Thunberg talking about I
want you to panic I want you to panic. When she was talking to the
World Economic Forum, and it didn't quite go that far. Panicking will never be a
solution. We will need sand forever. It's something that
we need a lot. So, we need to be much wiser on the way we
use the resource. Right now, it's not really
possible to monitor global sand use. We just don't know enough. We
don't have that global picture or that holistic picture of
the extraction sites, the extraction volumes, where it's
coming from, where it's going to how it's being used. But it can be measured
indirectly. Construction is the biggest
demand sector. We know that. There's a very, very good
correlation between the use of sand and cement. The UN
estimates that 4.1 billion tons of cement is produced
every year. And it takes roughly 10 tons of sand to
create one ton of cement. Do the math, and... 41 billion tons of sand and
gravel That's enough to build a wall
nearly 89 feet high by 89 feet wide, that wraps around the
planet every year. And that's just sand used in cement
production. Demand for cement is driven primarily by China,
where construction is booming. In the last two decades, the
amount of sand that we've been using has been multiplied by
three. More than 55, 58% is being used in in China. Part of the problem is some
countries don't have regulations in place. And, then you have people who
take sand from the beach. Take in some parts of the world,
there are even sand mafias
sands from anywhere because
they have to make a living. If you have a shovel and access
to your truck, you an entrepre eur, you taking sand and you
re selling it There are sand mafia. It is a
problem. That's for sure. And so in some countries where the
governance, the policies do not exist, it's not even
illegal to take sand. Plus, the world faces a
rapidly growing population. By 2050, the world could reach
nearly 10 billion people. Africa is going to see its
population doubling from now to 2050. People are shifting
from their villages to join the cities that will request
more infrastructure in the cities. All of that will
request the amount of sand Sand can't be extracted or
sourced sustainably to meet demand from a world of 10
billion people without effective planning and
regulation. If you are a local government,
you need to have a solid land planning. Identify where the
sand and gravels should be extracted. The challenge is understanding
where it's okay to take it from and how much So it's important to plan
ahead and to plan alternatives. It's a time for innovations in
this area. There's no one size fits all
solution for the looming sand crisis we need many solutions that,
you know, will also work together. It's not going to be
like one alternative material is going to make the
difference. I think it's going to have to be a big group
effort, a big push collectively to figure this
out. Finding alternatives to sand,
including recycled materials, may help We can recycle concrete so
that we're not wasting that by dumping these resources as a
waste. Because it's not a waste. It can be recycled Our current economy is geared
towards mining this material at extreme cost to the
environment and to society, but that isn't factored in. We
kind of build things and then at the end of life, we simply
toss it in the landfill. So it's a very linear economy.
But changing this to a circular economy can be a
significant solution. And the circular economy is a way that
keeps materials in use for longer. We can improve extracting in a
better way by doing environmental impact
assessment prior to mine then ining in appropriate way respe
ting social and envir nmental conditions, then we ca
reduce the amount of sand y being much more clever on ho
we use it, so that means planning for longer term in te
ms of having a building that s not done after 20, 30 yea
s. We extend that to 50, 60 y ars. Sand is a finite resource.
Every time we remove sand from the ecosystem, we are taking
away critical habitat. We ar taking away coastal securit
because sand along the coas acts as a storm buffer. S
, when we extract sand, it com s at a cost and this needs to
e really really balanced wi h the needs of futu
e generation
