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

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

in some parts of the world, there are even sand mafias

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