South Florida, Out of Beach, Wants to Buy Sand from the Bahamas
Miami-Dade County lost 170,000 cubic yards of sand during Hurricane Irma. It’s the latest blow to South Florida beaches in perennial decline. Nearly half the state’s coast—411 miles’ worth of beach—is considered “critically eroded.”
New Federal Study: Dredging is harming more endangered fish
A study from the National Marine Fisheries Service says a few more endangered sturgeon and sea turtles have been killed as a result of the dredging in the Savannah River.
Replacing Miami’s beach sands costs millions. Here’s how Congress intends to make it cheaper
Miami is out of sand. Last year, Miami-Dade County depleted its offshore sand reserves, meaning miles of beaches that shrink from erosion must be replenished with sand from outside South Florida.
Sand mining ravages African beaches
Sand is a natural resource that is more and more exploited. Worldwide, beaches are mined for sand. As many other countries in the world, African States have legislated to better protect their coastal environment, but this did not put an end to illegal beach sand mining and its detrimental effects on the ecosystems.
A public company attempts to improve the sand market, Algeria
Sand scarcity is one of the main cause of implementation deplays in the construction industry in Algeria. The severity of the sand depletion is such that prices have gone up tenfold during this latest construction boom.
Sand becomes “increasingly scarce and expensive”
A symposium taking place at Dutch Design Week later this month will discuss the rapid depletion of the world’s sand reserves, which could leave supplies of the high-quality sand used in the glass industry exhausted within 20 years.
How a worldwide sand shortage could impact the design world
Later this month, Dutch Design Week will host a symposium entitled “The Abundance and Scarcity of Sand.” Notable speakers include geologist and author Michael Welland, as well as Denis Delestrac, whose 2013 documentary, Sand Wars, showcased the lengths that contractors and smugglers alike will go to hoard and sell a commodity second only to freshwater, in terms of consumption.
French beaches’ sand for sale illegally on internet
A french mayor discovered that sand from the town’s local beach, was for sale on the internet. Maybe rather inconspicuous at first glance, this occurence instead reveals far deeper tensions related to the exploitation of this finite ressources.
The world hungers for sand
The ravenous hunger for sand worldwide was spotlighted in the 2013 documentary “Sand Wars” by French filmmaker Denis Delestrac, which warned that illegal sand mining could make beaches a thing of the past by the end of the 21st century.