266 The Environmental Debate
world is concerned. But in India, where the gov-
ernment has stepped in to limit sand mining
along its shores, illegal mining operations by
what is now referred to as the “sand mafia” defy
these regulations. In Sierra Leone, poor villagers
are encouraged to sell off their sand to illegal
operations, ruining their own shores for fishing.
Some Indonesian sand islands have been devas-
tated by sand mining.
It is time for us to understand where sand
comes from and where it is going. Sand was once
locked up in mountains and it took eons of ero-
sion before it was released into rivers and made
its way to the sea. As Rachel Carson wrote in
1958, “in every curving beach, in every grain of
sand, there is a story of the earth.” Now those
grains are sequestered yet again — often in the
very concrete sea walls that contribute to beach
erosion.We need to stop taking sand for granted and
think of it as an endangered natural resource.
Glass and concrete can be recycled back into
sand, but there will never be enough to meet
the demand of every resort. So we need better
conservation plans for shore and coastal areas.
Beach replenishment — the mining and truck-
ing and dredging of sand to meet tourist expec-
tations — must be evaluated on a case-by-case
basis, with environmental considerations taking
top priority. Only this will ensure that the story
of the earth will still have subsequent chapters
told in grains of sand.Source: http://www.nytimes/2014/11/05/opinion/why-sand-is-
disappearing.interiors — natural sources of sand have been
shrinking.
One might think that desert sand would be
a ready substitute, but its grains are finer and
smoother; they don’t adhere to rougher sand
grains, and tend to blow away. As a result, the
desert state of Dubai brings sand for its beaches
all the way from Australia.
And now there is a global beach-quality
sand shortage, caused by the industries that have
come to rely on it. Sand is vital to the manufac-
turing of abrasives, glass, plastics, microchips
and even toothpaste, and, most recently, to the
process of hydraulic fracturing. The quality of
silicate sand found in the northern Midwest has
produced what is being called a “sand rush”
there, more than doubling regional sand pit min-
ing since 2009.
But the greatest industrial consumer of all is
the concrete industry. Sand from Port Washing-
ton on Long Island — 140 million cubic yards of
it — built the tunnels and sidewalks of Manhat-
tan from the 1880s onward. Concrete still takes
80 percent of all that mining can deliver. Apart
from water and air, sand is the natural element
most in demand around the world, a situation
that puts the preservation of beaches and their
flora and fauna in great danger. Today, a branch
of Cemex, one of the world’s largest cement
suppliers, is still busy on the shores of Monterey
Bay in California, where its operations endanger
several protected species.
The huge sand mining operations emerging
worldwide, many of them illegal, are happening
out of sight and out of mind, as far as the developed