Sunday, April 9, 2017

An improbable global shortage: sand

I am sure have heard about blood demands, but what about blood sand? In India, they estimated that the illicit market for sand is now around $2.3 billion annually and growing, this skyrocketing demand for sand from burgeoning cities like in China has made sand and gravel into one of the hottest commodities in the world. In 2014, the UNEP estimated that by weight sand and gravel made up 85% of total resources mined each year, and in 2016 China alone used half of the 13.7 billion tons of sand mined. While being used for nation building and island making prime construction sand is becoming endangered, and its scarcity has caused western countries and island nations alike to start creating regulation to limit/ban the mining of sand.

The Economist:
Nathaniel Dust

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