Billions of tons of sands and its becoming scarce. Our rivers and forests are threatened by scientologists and. An enormous hunger for sound has developed and weve never had thoughts on this planet before gave. Expensive issued warnings about a global sand crisis the valuable grains are numbered. A fairy tale forest in the middle of north rhinewestphalia is mining country. Environmentalist tanya castles is fighting for this forest near cologne the open pit mining of sand here seems unstoppable the ancient trees will be felled. On. New leaf hidden under the forest floor lies a valuable commodity sand. Castles is on a special Mission Today she wants to see the extent of the sand extraction from above. The sixty meta deep sand pit extends for more than a kilometer along the old bush bella forest every year in the operation expands further. The pit in the forest of both oh and by the fox valka Company Based in fashion in their view everything here is legal they can even present a permit from the authorities for the sand korean operation they sold forest was never given protected status. Tanya castles believes thats a disaster for the environment she volunteers for both the German Branch of friends of the nth. You can see that the progress further and further north would and that will lose more old growth forest until its completely gone if. Sand or an ancient forest whats more important. Farmland how forests are ground water all grass belongs to everyone we work in Environmental Protection for the common good. Works that purely private financial gain we have to consider where the sand is being cornered we are at least want to make it as difficult as possible for the company to log these trees. The amount of sand is limited whats being quarried here is a special kind of sand very pure quartz sand its particularly sought after by industry fashion is one of the most significant german court sand reserves. This sand was formed around twenty five million years ago because vaca company remove around three thousand tons a day from this signed. Pollard pie is mine its the companys c. E. O. Says this sandpit was like winning the lottery adding there is no alternative to acquiring. New the idea that we could import this raw material from another country for our domestic industry is an illusion if the local roll materials on surveil a bill thats a good price and relatively close to the industrial clients then the processes shift theres no alternative to freshen as a location for. Your business. The operations cause conflicts but clients vaca present themselves as aware of the problems the company even has its own green team. Today theyre closing off puddles on company land toads like to spawn in them the i. Dhea is to protect small town poles from the road traffic. Crowds vaca are convinced extraction will give many animals a new home here. In the year marking if we were to hold all operations here tomorrow dozens of other protected species would lose their habitats i cant judge which species are more valuable. Yet full of incident. Transamerica reef forests woodland it has logged this cave was especially built to give bats a home over the winter months the animals normally live in very old trees nobody really knows how many bats are taking advantage of this modern residential home. Is an internationally active company with an annual turnover of one hundred forty Million Euros environmentalist tanya castles feels shes like david in his battle against goliath bizarreness and that means and im particularly angry about the argument that it always looks from the outside as if theyre doing and not for the environment but the loss of this ancient land cant be compensated for with these measures its launched the thought to give a false impression of the show by. Very pure course sand is used in many everyday products such as cleaning products toothpaste cosmetics and hand spray. The mineral silica is obtained from court sand this powder prevents dried soups solves spices instant teas and coffee powder from getting lumpy its also added to grated cheese to help keep the flakes separate. As such then think of course i know that sand is used in a lot of products i try to avoid those products because i know the true cost of the needles. Without quartz sands there will be no cars or trucks engines or casting course sand molds many plastics contain silica dust. Most called sand is used in the manufacture of glass window panes mirrors bottles and jars. And Glass Production in noida and a daw now the sand makes is heated to one thousand three hundred degrees in a melting vat the recipe for glass is relatively simple the court sand is mixed with recycled glass sodium carbonate and lime. This machine alone makes four hundred glass jars per minute clear glass is made of roughly sixty percent recovered glass nevertheless this factory uses up to one hundred fifty tons of course sand every day. And. We often dont realize how sand as a valuable resource influences our daily lives. Geologist and as hargadon knows that better than most he chairs the German Association of professional geoscientists the association has chosen sand as the mineral of the year. To be exact sand is merely a mineral mix with a certain size of grain but the tiny grains are now more sort after in construction than ever before. Looking towards the future we need to be clear that sand is a finite resource and its availability is not unlimited that in cities all over the planet are growing we need new transport routes we need infrastructure and that means that this resource will be put under extreme pressure. Two hundred and forty million tons of sand are extracted in germany every year ten million tons is very pure court sand like the kind being korean fashion. In spring tanya castles used tech camera to film the sacrifices being made for this sand. The next logging operation has already been prepared. Bushs and brush would have been removed. Next winter the old tall trees will be cut down. The environmentalist doubts the company has the correct permits. In fact everything sounds great on paper but if you look at the whole thing here many of the statements simply arent true but the destruction is so obvious you cant overlook whats being ruined the end of their income in this couplet commode. A few weeks later castles has one last hope to prevent the next round of logging back band meyer lamb having once to help her prove that the Nocturnal Animals live in the bush bella forest and theyre good many bats are threatened by extinction they lack the right habitat. Of the in five of all the species would need all the forests with a tree most one hundred twenty years old when most of the trees are the perfect age for logging and theyre also just starting to be interesting to backs and we have hardly any old growth forest left and thats the problem for the whole north i toiled in vain on train. On the environmentalists take a look into the hollow with a tiny camera but theres no battery in sight theyre hoping to at least find bad hairs in the lab later on thats not splitting hairs in tanya castles mind its real Environmental Protection. Its thank you i think that the subject of sand extraction is under estimated for and that it will become an increasingly important topic in conservation in minutes im going to tell you what they are there are other topics are currently in the headlines and i dont really hear about the vast amounts of sandaza society uses. But. Its late evening but i expect bound my allowing knows that its hard to observe the animals in flight but with the right technology its at least possible to hear them. Off. Thanks yet because theyre slowly coming out. That wont be enough theyll have to prove the existence of a back nesting site to have a chance of stopping the logging. Not all sand is created equal the fine court sand from fashion would be unsuitable for this building site. Construction sand has to be rough for concrete in foundations roads and bridges. A single kilometer of highway devours thirty thousand tons of sand. Two hundred tons go into a family home for concrete mortar and for sun plastering. Project manager daniel hanka is very particular when it comes to the sand for this Housing Estate in new. York by demands and as you can see this sand is extremely angular we need sent like this it hooks in nicely with the cement and the other materials which makes the mortar and concrete nice and dark. Such angular construction sand is primarily formed in rivers but the sand found in deserts is round and smooth because of the wind thats why desert sand cant be used in construction. Desert states like dubai actually have to import sand for their prestige projects and since the construction of the mega tower bush the construction boom has taken hold of the asian threshold nations. Around fifteen billion tons of sand a corridor around the world every year experts estimate the global sand market will grow between three and five percent annually. Palm island off the coast of dubai the insatiable hunger for sand leads to sky high prices and illegal extraction. Theres a sand mafia at work the consequence is a disastrous indias coastline is being quarried entire islands and disappearing around indonesia and theres no end in sight for the sand rush. Divison we know that china builds around one hundred forty six thousand kilometers of roads every year for you can imagine the quantities that go into that they cannot satisfy that demand with the resources of their own country is. After water sand has become the most used recently. Well see conflicts arising in the world as a result of sun conflict or stuck. In. The island desert off germanys north sea coast sands even in short supply here to the long wide beach is a deceptive it will theres no sand mafia here its the sea itself thats gobbling up the valuable grains. Halfs to him a vicious and is a geophysicist he knows everybody and every cliff hes been mapping suit for the state Coastal Protection office since one nine hundred ninety one. He can see how the sea is relentlessly hollowing out the Narrow Island without countermeasures zoot would have lost its distinctive shape long ago. You see that if i can see that the beaches have become very narrow over the winter and in those areas of narrowing the cliffs in june as are at risk thats why we have to add sanity. Adding sand in zoos. Means pumping a million cubic meters of sand on to the beaches from the sea floor using suction dredges the Coastal Protection office has added almost fifty million cubic meters of sand since one nine hundred seventy two but every winter with every storm a lot of the sand is lost again. Its a labor of city for us for him to their son and his colleagues in the field we need to add sand to the beaches up in the north as well as in the south of the island nearby on top overall we need to replace sand in ten different locations and fantastic. Building up the beaches cost seven point two Million Euros this year paid for by the state the federal government and the e. U. The measure is controversial and not just because of the high costs the sand is removed from the north sea floor along with worms shells and crabs. This is a man i think of its always in encroachment whatever we do. We have to weigh up whats best because if we believe think this is justified in the new habitats are formed in the areas where we remove the sand its dean of and we can assess those to him and inspire him to come. Younus flourish works for the worldwide fun for nature they have a different assessment of the quality of life after the sand was removed from the north sea. The cancer wouldnt leave all the communities that live in and on the sand the entire habitats on the sea floor of the coast of the world is destroyed when the sands removed deep craters are formed that remain for several decades its thought it could take up to ninety years for the original conditions to return in fairness of here good stead. Despite all the disadvantages even strict environmentalists have to admit one thing if you want to preserve the island adding sand is unavoidable. Stocking dikes and jetties made of concrete or wood are too inflexible for the movements of the sea. And in stand in areas where its absolutely necessary to preserve certain well need to add sand but there will be areas where we can let the situation be more dynamic and let sand blow into the junes. The whole island needs to adapt to changes that result from rising sea levels and Climate Change can. Climate change Sea Levels Rising around the world. How much longer can the Coastal Protection office continue to keep from destruction. When and if sea levels rise between twenty five and thirty centimeters per century then well be able to preserve this island for the next few hundred years but if they rise by several meters them well have a worldwide problem. Dont get us there but unfortunately. In many places around the world the lack of sand is already causing a variety of conflicts. In flesh in cologne tanya castles efforts to halt the mining of course sand continue together with band milan having from friends of the earth shes looking for back hand its an attempt to find a protected species to save the forest on the. Internet we have a nice head with a root so we can run a d. N. A. Analysis but its not that. Well. Youre my someone has compared the loss of space is diversity to a game where you have a tower of blocks you can remove individual blocks for a long time without anything happening but at some point why missing block will cause the whole thing to come crashing down and we dont know what block that. Space is thats not even protected i think we shouldnt just look at protecting individual spaces we should preserve entire ecosystems. Tanya castles will continue searching for bats and she wants to draw attention to the impending loss of an entire forest. And. She needs supporters and is hoping for donations to pay for an expert evaluation and for lawyers the Nordic Walking Group has been watching the disappearance of the old forest for years. And. Not come. With the wind these wonderful trees are great i cried for each one when they cut them down. If this were stopped then theyd start digging out hundred kilometers from there it would merely shift the problem. As if the question is what should be sacrificed an area containing one of the last old growth forests or a less valuable area. Right mother vinegar full of pleasure and i finished. I think its sad that were always making more money at the expense of the environment and i think coming up with an alternative would be a compromise. Event to accomplish. But when it comes to the old forests tanya castles cant imagine a compromise shes trying to do have bit at least to reduce the sand demand. The result. Im in favor of a ban on single use bottles and jars that would be a signal that we want to go gentle on with razor was sound but recycling is already a good step. We have to be much more sparing with our Construction Materials we might have to reduce our expectations and think about alternatives maybe even alternative ways of living i think than wed be able to manage the problem. Tanya castles is meeting with a lawyer who specializes in mining and environmental law. Dirk believes the sand extraction permits obtained by the company and freshen are contestable because they date back to two thousand and one in those days the environment and Species Conservation went sufficiently taken into account according to the lawyer your own does is a crucial element here is that there is a need for action and the norm for the action is there to your thought teens should act on that in the afternoon but they will target is armed. The lawyers see an opportunity for a lawsuit. So he does a father who doctored the way the facts are presented here we have incorrect permits or no basis for them to be continued were going to check that in depth of that i think we have a realistic chance that this operation wont be able to continue unchecked and destroyed the bush villa forest completely full of i dont compete not for to name. A shimmer of hope for tanya castles her opinion is clear yes signs in short supply but it mustnt be mined at all costs. Think it does you know i think that fat people not true treasures only over the world are being sacrificed to economic interests but that mustnt continue to be more aware of sound as a resource and them or be able to preserve valuable assets. Korean sand at the cost of the environment similar conflicts are happening around the world the great sand crisis has long since iran. Good shape. See what. You. Might want to want your g. P. S. Doing here. 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