"Out of Time" - A Biography of Sand

It was fascinating to read Vince Beiser’s, The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization.  It was the title that caught me because it’s not something we normally contemplate.  Sand is sand – the stuff on beaches, golf courses, in deserts and dunes.  Every page was a revelation of some kind and I came to realize, living in the midst of a city, that I am impacted by sand everywhere.  In fact, Beiser maintains that, what cells are to bodies, sand is to cities. Reading further, I discovered what he meant.

Sand is essential to the use of concrete, which is everywhere in modern life.  The essential component in our windows or cellphone chips is sand.  And sand comes in various varieties.  Some structures in Dubai are built from sand imported from Australia and also sand for Dubai’s beaches.  To quote Beiser again: “Sand is the most important solid substance on earth... that makes modern life possible.”   His book details at length just how essential the substance is to modern life.  Take a look at this short video to get an idea of how indispensable sand is.

So, it comes as a significant surprise to many to learn that the world is running out of sand – significantly. While we’ve concentrated on losing fresh water, oil, species, rainforests, etc., somehow it never occurred to any of us that sand itself would be on the endangered list.

I had no idea that even the United Nations keeps an eye on this depletion.  Just for concrete purposes alone the world uses up 40 billion tons of building aggregate, filled with sand, each year.  It is estimated that with China’s building boom that it will use up 50 billion tons next year all by itself.

As we’ve noted a number of times in these blogs, the UN predicts that by 2030, 60% of the global population will lives in cities.  And in cities is where all that concrete and glass is, not to mention cellphones and computers, aircraft and televisions.

Does this constitute an environmental emergency?  In some ways yes, in others no.  New products for cement are being developed all the time that could replace that kind of sand used for all these modern amenities.  But it all points to that side of environmental danger than runs through everything - consumerism.  If our endless thirst and greed ends up endangering even supplies of sand, then we are in serious trouble.  Even as some nations seek to cut back on consumption, others like China and India are becoming meteoric in their desire for “stuff,” as their emerging middle classes desire more of the good life that the West has had for decades.

Jean Paul once noted that the more that sand escapes from the hourglass of our lives, the clearer we can see through it.  That hasn’t happened yet.  We know our world is careening towards the edge of disaster, driven by human cravings. But as the depletion of sand reminds us, we aren’t seeing clearly yet, and by time we do our decisions will be all the harder.