The End of Sand: We Are Running Out Of The World's Second Most Consumed Natural Resource

Sand is not often thought of as one of the world's most essential commodities, but it is the most widely consumed resource after water. Yet, because it is formed by erosive processes over thousands of years and we are now extracting it at a far greater rate than its renewal, it's important we start asking what will happen when we run out, as The New Yorker's David Owen does in his recent piece.

Aggregate – a combination of gravel, crushed stone, and recycled materials – plays a key role in industry and construction. And in light of rapid economic growth, we are now extracting and shipping sand across borders faster than ever. China has consumed more sand in four years than the US used in the past century, Owen writes. And in India, commmercially useful sand is now so scarce that markets are controlled by so-called "sand mafias" – an overarching term which refers to anyone from multinationals to local laborers participating the sand black markets. 

Profiting from illegal sand mining is often too easy. In March, The New York Times published a feature on the topic, and as the authors argue, "the existing system practically forces anyone who wants to build something to collude in the destruction of rivers".

Efforts to crack down on this are largely stymied by corruption and violence, says Vince Beiser, a journalist working on a book on the global sand trade, in Wired. "At root, it’s an issue of supply and demand. The supply of sand that can be mined sustainably is finite. But the demand for it is not". 

As the trend towards urbanization is only accelerating, we need to start paying more attention to sand mining's impact on both governance and the environment.