We often forget how essential the oceans are to our lives – they are the basis of life, they provide delicious seafood, some of us enjoy an adventurous sailboat ride, others find peace during a vacation at the beach or a day of surfing. But the oceans also contribute to our everyday comfort in ways the majority is unaware of. Sand mined from the ocean, also known as marine sand, has a unique structure. Marine has a stable angular structure while the grains of desert sand are round due to the long wind erosion. This difference plays a significant role because this makes only marine sand adequate for concrete and construction in general.
Thus, even when we are at home, we are taking advantage of the oceans because our homes contain an astonishing amount of marine sand – On average a house requires 200 tons or marine sand. Our trip to work wouldn’t be possible without the oceans either because to build 1 mile of highway over 45,000 tons of sand is necessary. Due to the countless construction projects worldwide along with all the other uses of sand, today sand is the 2nd most widely consumed resource on Earth after water which is rapidly leading to a sand scarcity.
Some studies came to the conclusion, that if we continue extracting sand at this rate, there will be no beaches by 2100. Beach nourishment is already necessary given that 90% of beaches are fading away in Florida and in other places, such as Indonesia, complete islands have disappeared. This also means that the natural habitat of countless marine species are being destroyed. Not only are there environmental consequences of our excessive sand consumption but marine sand has become so sought after that sand prices have skyrocketed which also lead to the increase of illegal exploitation of sand. The black market for sand around the world is booming, sand divers are risking their lives and this conflict has already cost several human lives. Just recently ABC reported the death of two activist protesting against the sand mafia.
It is no question that if we want to continue going to the beach and would like our grandchildren to be able to build a sandcastle or learn surfing, something has to change. What exactly this change should be is still unclear, though. Would it be possible to decrease the number of construction projects? Or are there substitutes for sand? This infographic explains the issue of sand scarcity and presents the current alternatives for sand. Check it out!
