by Vince Beiser
Our way of life worked in the last century because the number of people living it—almost exclusively in Western countries—was relatively small. Most of the world’s people were poor. For the first time in history, that is changing. Western industrialized nations are still consuming just as much, and now everyone else is starting to consume more as they move up the economic ladder.
Those new consumers want the same car and gadget-enabled life we enjoy in the West. And they’re getting it. In 1995, only 7 percent of Chinese city dwellers owned refrigerators. Twelve years later, 95 percent did. All this rapid growth, warned the US National Intelligence Council in a 2012 report, “will mean a scramble for raw materials and manufactured goods.”34 From fossil fuels to food, minerals, timber, you name it, “the scope and size of resource consumption, and the associated environmental impacts, risk overwhelming the ability of states, markets and technology to adapt,” declared a 2012 report35 from Chatham House, a venerable British think tank.
Sand is just one aspect, one element of the much larger problem of overconsumption. Remember, quartz sand is perhaps the most abundant substance on the planet’s surface. If we’re running out of that, we really need to rethink how we’re using everything.
Don’t get me wrong. I like my single-family home with its capacious refrigerator, big-screen TV, central air-conditioning, and flock of laptops, tablets, and cell phones as much as anyone. I’m not suggesting we cast off all our material goods and go live in the woods. But I have spent enough time in more modest circumstances to know that we can live a perfectly comfortable, thoroughly modern life in a smaller house with fewer appliances and fewer cars and less stuff in general than is the norm in twenty-first-century America.
One promising development in this direction is the rise of the “sharing economy,” a term that must have been invented by some marketing rep at Uber or Airbnb or one of the many other new outfits that make it easy to rent surplus resources. (I’ll call it “sharing” when they stop charging.) Semantic quibbles aside, these services represent a novel and overdue way to cut down on the enormous waste of postindustrial economies. Among other things, they could help reduce our consumption of sand.
In America, most adults own cars. And most of those cars spend most of their time sitting still, parked. Ride-hailing services are making it easier than ever for city dwellers, at least, to get rid of their own cars and pay for rides only when they need them.
How might reducing car ownership save sand? Today, the typical American home is built with a garage and a driveway—car-support structures that are made with concrete, which is to say, with sand. If you didn’t own a car, however, you wouldn’t need those structures. The amount of sand required to build your house would be reduced by many tons.
Similarly, if Airbnb et al mean we can stay in people’s extra rooms when traveling instead of in a hotel, fewer hotels need to be built. The legions of sand that would have been drafted to build those hotels, with their driveways and parking lots, could instead be left in the ground. (Not to mention all the other resources that would be saved.)
And if we have less need for new buildings, the expansion of cities might slow down. Then we wouldn’t need to dredge up so much ocean sand to create artificial land. Maybe we’d also reduce water use enough that we could stop draining it from drylands, lessening the threat of desertification.
Making fewer cars and buildings also means we’d use less energy, reducing our need for fossil fuels. Then there would be less need for fracking, which would mean we could stop tearing up Wisconsin farmland to get frac sand.
* * *
—
The sands of time are running out. Our houses are built upon sand. Pick your metaphor. But understand: it’s not just a metaphor. Sand is the floor beneath our feet and the roof over our head. It is the substrate of modernity. On top of it we have built an economy and a society that depends on sand for far more purposes than Ernest Ransome, Michael Owens, and even Dwight D. Eisenhower could have dreamed of.
And yet, sand is about the most taken-for-granted natural resource in the world. Hardly anyone thinks about it—where it comes from or what we do to get it. But in a world of 7 billion people, more and more of whom want apartments to live in, offices to work in, malls to shop in, and cell phones to communicate with, we can’t afford that luxury anymore.
It once seemed like we had such boundless supplies of oil, water, trees, and land that we didn’t need to worry about them. But of course we’re learning the hard way that none of those things are infinite, and the price we’ve paid so far for using them is rising fast. We’re having to learn to conserve, reuse, find alternatives for, and generally get smarter about how we use those natural resources. We have to start thinking that way about sand, too.
But we also need to understand that the bigger issue isn’t just about being more careful or smarter about how we use individual resources. It’s about how we use all those resources. It’s about figuring out a way to build a life for 7 billion people on a foundation sturdier than sand.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I could not have written this book without the many, many people in many places around the world who gave generously of their time, expertise, and encouragement. I am especially indebted to Aakash Chauhan, who risked his own safety to help me tell the story of the murder of his father, Paleram Chauhan, in an article for Wired magazine from which this book grew. Chauhan continues to speak out courageously against India’s sand mafias, for which he deserves even more thanks. The indefatigable Sumaira Abdulali, perhaps India’s foremost campaigner against illegal sand mining and other overlooked environmental scourges, was also a key ally on that first article. So was Vikrant Tongad, founder of Social Action for Forest and Environment, and journalist Kumar Sambhav. Speaking of journalists: my utmost respect to the many in India who regularly cover the violence and destruction sand miners are inflicting on their country—and who themselves are not infrequently targets of that violence. And a heartfelt hat-tip to Jakob Villioth, whom I have never met but whose report on the global sand industry for Ejolt.org first made me aware there even is such a thing.
In North Carolina, Alex Glover and David Biddix were excellent guides to the sights of Spruce Pine, and bountiful sources of information on its unique history and geology. Dr. Tom Gallo was kind enough to share not only his story but his expertise in the quartz industry. Jessica Roberts of Roskill Information Services also provided invaluable technical details.
In Wisconsin, my thanks to Ken Schmitt and Donna Brogan for squiring me around their respective counties, Crispin Pierce for letting me tag along on a research trip with his students, and the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism for their database on fracking sites.
In Florida, activists Dan Clark and Ed Tichenor, and Robert Weber, coastal coordinator for the town of Palm Beach, gave generously of their time to show me different aspects of beach nourishment.
In Dubai, much appreciation to journalist Jim Krane for introductions to some key locals (and for his excellent book), and to Lubna Sharief Takruri, fixer extraordinaire from the West Bank to the Persian Gulf.
In China, my thanks to Kong Lingyu, smartphone impresario and outstanding fixer/interpreter; to documentary makers Qiong Wang and Xiao Qiping, who took me to some obscure corners of Poyang Lake; and to David Shankman, America’s unofficial ambassador to the city of Nanchang. Also to Jennifer Turner at the Wilson Center, who introduced me to a whole squad of contacts. Chief among them was Luan Dong, who arranged for me to give a BEER talk in Beijing, which was just as much fun as it sounds like.
In Indonesia, Anton Muhajir got me everywhere I needed to go. In Cambodia, Oudom Tat did likewise. I am also grateful to Alex Gonzalez-Davidson and his colleagues at Mother Nature Cambodia for their brave work and the help they gave me in Koh Kong. Thanks also to Jacob Kushner for reporting help from Kenya, and to Peter Klein for recommendations to interpreters/f
ixers in many countries.
The unsung statisticians at the United States Geological Service, tabulators of sand usage for over a century, deserve a special commendation, as does Sterling Kelly at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, who also provided me with the excellent Jorge Luis Borges quote that introduces Part I. Pascal Peduzzi of the United Nations Environment Programme, who authored the first authoritative report on the sand crisis, provided some key early material. Thanks to Bailey Wood of the National Stone, Sand, and Gravel Association for several rounds of answers and introductions. Geologist Michael Welland was a huge help with my early research, both by phone and via his excellent books; I was very sorry to hear of his passing while this book was still under way.
Special thanks, of course, to Lisa Bankoff, literary agent nonpareil, and to Jake Morrissey, editor extraordinaire at Riverhead Books. Both of them gave critical advice in shaping this book, which I didn’t always accept with the best of grace at the time, but most of which turned out to be exactly right. My thanks also to my editors at Wired, The New York Times, the Guardian, Pacific Standard, and Mother Jones, who published what would become portions of this book, especially Wired’s Adam Rogers, who shepherded my first big feature on the topic. I am very grateful to Tom Hundley and the rest of the staff at the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, who provided grants that helped make all the travel possible. Thanks also to Michelle Delgado for the cheeriest assistance with research and logistics any scrivener could ask for. And to Vinnie Hollywood, Vladimir Reptilio, and the whole crew at Blessed Reptile Productions, for all that they do.
I am also indebted to many colleagues, friends, and relatives. Taras Grescoe, Tom Zoellner, David Davis, Justin Pritchard, Linda Marsa, Scott Carney, Hector Tobar, and Cari Lynn gave kindly and insightful feedback on chapter drafts and/or shared their wisdom on the book-writing business. They’re all top-notch writers, and you should buy their books. Special thanks to Adara and Isaiah Beiser Shilling for tolerating their dad’s many trips away over the past couple of years (and for joining me on one of them), and to Kaile Shilling, who plowed through and constructively critiqued two full-length drafts, as if being married to me hadn’t already obliged her to hear more than she ever wanted to about sand.
NOTES
In the course of researching this book, I have interviewed more than a hundred people and made my way through upwards of a thousand studies, reports, news articles, and other documents. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes are from interviews, in person or by phone. I have footnoted only those facts that I think might be particularly surprising, contentious, or difficult for the reader to verify on his/her own.
Chapter 1: The Most Important Solid Substance on Earth
1. “World Construction Aggregates,” Freedonia Group, 2016.
2. Michael Welland, Sand: The Never-Ending Story (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009), 1–2.
3. Welland, Sand, 240.
4. Tom’s of Maine, “Hydrated Silica,” http://www.tomsofmaine.com/ingredients/overlay/hydrated-silica; American Dental Association, “Oral Health Topics-Toothpastes,” http://www.ada.org/en/science-research/ada-seal-of-acceptance/product-category-information/toothpaste.
5. Pascal Peduzzi, “Sand, rarer than one thinks,” United Nations Environment Programme Report, March 2014, 3.
6. “World Construction Aggregates,” 2016.
7. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, “World Urbanization Prospects,” 2014.
8. Peduzzi, “Sand, rarer than one thinks,” 1.
9. Ana Swanson, “How China used more cement in 3 years than the U.S. did in the entire 20th century.” Washington Post, March 24, 2015. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/03/24/how-china-used-more-cement-in-3-years-than-the-u-s-did-in-the-entire-20th-century/?utm_term=.bbae0f4bc08a.
10. Welland, Sand, 252–53.
11. Peduzzi, “Sand, rarer than one thinks,” 6.
12. Raymond Siever, Sand (New York: Scientific American Library), 1988, 17.
13. Welland, Sand, 16.
14. Mark Miodownik, Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014), 140.
15. Welland, Sand, 1–23.
16. Siever, Sand, 55.
17. Thomas Dolley, “Sand and Gravel: Industrial,” US Geological Survey Mineral Commodity Summaries, January 2016, 144–45.
18. “What Is Industrial Sand?” National Industrial Sand Association, http://www.sand.org/page/industrial_sand.
19. Welland, Sand, 13.
20. Jason Christopher Willett, “Sand and Gravel (Construction),” US Geological Survey Mineral Commodity Summaries, January 2017, 142.d/mining/usgs sand construct 2016.
21. “Annual Review 2015–2016,” European Aggregates Association, 4.
22. “Specialty Sands,” Cemex, http://www.cemexusa.com/ProductsServices/LapisSpecialtySands.aspx.
23. Denis Cuff, “State sued over sand mining in San Francisco Bay,” East Bay Times, January 31, 2017.
24. Erwan Garel, Wendy Bonne, and M. B. Collins. “Offshore Sand and Gravel Mining,” Encyclopedia of Ocean Sciences, 2nd ed., John Steele, Steve Thorpe, and Karl Turekian, eds. (New York: Academic Press, 2009), 4162–170.
25. “The Mineral Products Industry at a Glance,” Mineral Products Association, 2016, 10.
26. Garel, et al., “Offshore Sand and Gravel Mining,” 3.
27. G. Mathias Kondolf, et al., “Freshwater Gravel Mining and Dredging Issues,” White Paper Prepared for Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, April 4, 2002, 49, 64.
28. Peduzzi, “Sand, rarer than one thinks,” 4.
29. Global Witness, “Shifting Sand,” May 2010, 18.
30. Wildlife Conservation Society Cambodia, “Cambodia’s Royal Turtle Facing Increased Threats to Survival,” https://cambodia.wcs.org/About-Us/Latest-News/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/8888/Cambodias-Royal-Turtle-Facing-Increased-Threats-to-Survival.aspx.
31. Kondolf, et al., “Freshwater Gravel Mining and Dredging Issues,” 71, 81–88.
32. Felicity James, “NT sand mining destroying environmentally significant area without impact assessment, EPA confirms,” ABC News, November 1, 2015; http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-01/no-environmental-assessment-of-nt-sand-mining/6901840.
33. Kiran Pereira, “Curbing Illegal Sand Mining in Sri Lanka,” Water Integrity in Action report, 2013, 14–15.
34. Supreme Court of India, Deepak Kumar and Others v. State of Haryana and Others, 2012.
35. Kondolf, et al., “Freshwater Gravel Mining and Dredging Issues,” 108.
36. Ibid., 60, 80.
37. D. Padmalal and K. Maya, Sand Mining: Environmental Impacts and Selected Case Studies (New York: Springer, 2014), 40, 60, and Kondolf, et al., “Freshwater Gravel Mining and Dredging Issues.” 62, 65.
38. “Heavy Machinery Miyun Pirates . . . ,” The Beijing News, December 21, 2015; http://epaper.bjnews.com.cn/html/2015-12/21/content_614577.htm?div=-1.
39. “Sand mining a trigger for crocodile attacks,” The Times of India, March 15, 2017; http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolhapur/sand-mining-a-trigger-for-croc-attacks/articleshow/57638419.cms.
40. “Attorney General Lockyer Files $200 Million Taxpayer Lawsuit Against Bay Area ‘Sand Pirates,’” official press release, October 24, 2003; https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-lockyer-files-200-million-taxpayer-lawsuit-against-bay-area.
41. Interview with Bill Fonda, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, March 2, 2017.
42. Peduzzi, “Sand, rarer than one thinks,” 7, and Orrin H. Pilkey and J. Andrew G. Cooper, The Last Beach (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014), 32.
43. Cited in “A shore thing: An improbable global shortage: sand,” The Economist, March 30, 2017; economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21719797-thanks-bo
oming-construction-activity-asia-sand-high-demand.
44. Many of the details about Paleram Chauhan’s case come from my interviews with his family members and court documents they provided to me.
45. “Site visit to ascertain the factual position of illegal sand mining in Gautam Budh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh,” official report, August 8, 2013.
Chapter 2: The Skeleton of Cities
1. “The San Francisco Earthquake, 1906,” EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (1997).
2. Robert Courland, Concrete Planet: The Strange and Fascinating Story of the World’s Most Common Man-Made Material (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2011), Kindle Location 1881.
3. Michael Welland, Sand: The Never-Ending Story (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009), 235.
4. Mark Miodownik, Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014), 56.
5. Courland, Concrete Planet, Kindle Location 1009.
6. Courland, Concrete Planet, Kindle Locations 992–994.
7. Earl Swift, The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011), Kindle Location, 85.
8. Courland, Concrete Planet, Kindle Locations 1248–1252, 1383, 1421.
9. Miodownik, Stuff Matters, 58.
10. Ibid., 59.
11. “Cement Manufacturing Basics,” Lehigh Hanson, http://www.lehighhanson.com/learn/articles.
12. Courland, Concrete Planet, 2033–2089, 2157, 2325.
