BBC News
By Bernd Debusmann Jr
image captionSand is often extracted from rivers for use in construction
Does the world have a shortage of sand? At first, that might sound like a peculiar question.
After all, sand covers vast expanses of beaches and deserts across the world.
Yet the raw material is used in giant quantities in construction and manufacturing. In the building sector alone, 40-50bn tonnes of the stuff is used around the world annually.
This is led by the production of concrete, which is typically made up of about 25% sand.
The problem when it comes to supply is that most desert or beach sand is unsuitable - desert sand is too smooth, and beach sand has too much salt in it.
Sachbücher des Monats: Juli 2021
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Unbridled exploitation of natural resources belonging to nation
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Climate Point: COVID-fighting-crabs, energy scams and a race to the red planet
USA TODAY
Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, energy and environment news from around the Golden State and the country. In Palm Springs, Calif., I’m Mark Olalde.
In this desert paradise where I live, spring is already in the air. Warming temperatures are melting away the winter cold (or, as cold as it ever gets in Palm Springs), and early blooming plants are bringing a renewed splash of color. That might be pleasant for you. For me and for millions of other people spring brings on the annual respiratory dance with the devil known as allergies. So, of course, climate change is about to make our allergies a whole lot worse. Doyle Rice from USA Today reports on a new study out of the University of Utah, which found that pollen seasons start 20 days earlier, are 10 days longer and feature 21% more pollen than they did in 1990. That certainly seems like a good enough reason to
Goal: Halt sand dredging that threatens marine ecosystems and habitats of Taiwan.
China has begun a fresh round of obliterating the sand banks that separate it from Taiwan. This maneuver is believed to be a tactic for intimidating the smaller region and attempting to wipe away its natural defenses. The strong-arm method is also taking a hidden but no less devastating environmental toll.
The operations involve mining sand by essentially displacing and pumping it up with large dredging ships. Hundreds of these vessels often conduct illegal dredging around Taiwan’s waters, but as tensions have risen between the regions the activity has become more frequent and more overt. The estimated 100,000 tons of sand dredged on a daily basis are already likely devastating the delicate marine ecosystems that call these waters home.