SAND – RESOURCE SLIPPING AWAY

The world consumes roughly 40 to 50 billion tons of sand on an annual basis, which far exceeds the natural rate at which sand is being replenished by weathering of rocks with wind and water. Our entire society is built on sand. It is the world’s most consumed raw material after water and an essential ingredient to our everyday lives. It is the primary substance used in construction of houses, bridges, high-speed trains, and roads, it is used in glass for every window in the world, computer screen and smart phones, and production of silicon chips. It is estimated that by 2100 up to 85% of the world’s population will be living in cities. To house those people, industrial sand mining or aggregated extraction – where sand and gravel are removed from riverbeds, lakes, the oceans, and beaches for use in construction – is happening at a rate faster than the materials can be renewed and is having a huge impact on the environment. Sand can be found on almost every country on earth, blanketing deserts, and lining coastlines around the world. But that is not to say that all sand is useful. Grains of desert sand are rounded by being blown in the wind, and for this reason do not produce solid concrete, unlike the rough sand from the sea. Because of the huge demand for this special kind of sand our natural resource is slipping away. Peduzzi, who is the director of UNEP’s Global Resource Information Database in Geneva, Switzerland, described the global governance of sand resources as “the elephant in the room.” “We just think that sand is everywhere. We never thought we would run out of sand, but it is starting in some places. It is about anticipating what can happen in the next decade or so because if we don’t look forward, if we don’t anticipate, we will have massive problems about sand.” This least appreciated resource, but one of the world’s most important one, is rarely seen for its beauty. These photographs focus on its dynamic, ever-changing nature and their profoundly unique mysterious forms.