Why is the World Running Out of Sand? – ABC Radio National

"Sand Rainbow," Dredger depositing sand and water just offshore at Mermaid Beach, Gold Coast. Australia. Part of large scale beach nourishment project (by Steve Austin CC BY-ND 2.0 via Flickr).

After water, sand is the most-exploited natural resource in the world, but its use is largely ungoverned, meaning we are consuming it faster than it can be replaced by geological processes that take hundreds of thousands of years. Making sand from ore could solve the looming crisis…

A Civilization Built on Sand – Le Figaro

Sand extraction in Villeneuve-sur-Verberie, France, c 1910 (Dury, editor, Public domain, via Wikimedia).

How ‘Yellow Gold’ Became a Resource Under Pressure…Sand is the second most consumed resource in the world after fresh water. Substance of our concrete civilization, its demand will intensify in the years to come. A situation that generates geopolitical tensions…