From United Press International, May 21 (also on blogroll at right):
The authors of a new research paper want scientists and policy makers to start considering the sustainability implications of global sand use.
Though not as overtly destructive as oil or coal, sand, the authors argue, is a valuable finite resource -- the extraction of which can cause considerable environmental damage.
Sand may seem plentiful, but as a key ingredient in both concrete and glass, it's used for everything from building roads and bridges to windows and phone screens.
In the latest paper, published Friday in the journal One Earth, scientists argue that the global economy's seemingly insatiable appetite for sand is harming the environment, accelerating climate change and even fueling social conflict.
"With this paper, we look forward towards what we need to do as a society if we want to promote a sustainable consumption on global sand resources," lead study author Aurora Torres said in a press release.
"A drastic problem calls for drastic solutions -- truly doing this differently to put aside problems and create pathways to sustainability," said Torres, a researcher at Michigan State University's Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability.
Though the aim of the paper was to shed light on the sustainability issues associated with sand use, researchers hope their work will ultimately inspire solutions.....
....MUCH MORE
If Greenland melts to the degree that some choreographers of that hot new dance, the apocalypto, are foretelling there will be quite a bit of sand supply becoming available. I've thought about approaching the new Government of Greenland, led by the Inuit Ataqatigiit party but at the moment they have their hands full saying no to the wannabe rare earth miners.
If interested some of our previous posts on sand are gathered in March 17's:
More On China And Their Fetishization of Sand
There really is a coming shortage of the good stuff, the sand that hasn't been blowing across the desert for centuries, rounding off the corners that make pit sand and river sand so darn useful..
