Sand Wars
PRESENTED BY: Meaningful Movies in Gig HarborMost of us think of it as a complementary ingredient of any beach vacation. Yet those seemingly insignificant grains of silica surround our daily lives. Every house, skyscraper and glass building, every bridge, airport and sidewalk in our modern society depends on sand. We use it to manufacture optical fiber, cell phone components and computer chips. We find it in our toothpaste, powdered foods and even in our glass of wine (both the glass and the wine, as a fining agent)!
Is sand an infinite resource? Can the existing supply satisfy a gigantic demand fueled by construction booms? What are the consequences of intensive beach sand mining for the environment and the neighboring populations?
Based on encounters with sand smugglers, barefoot millionaires, corrupt politicians, unscrupulous real estate developers and environmentalists, this investigation takes us around the globe to unveil a new gold rush and a disturbing fact: the “Sand Wars” have begun.
Sponsors: Greater Tacoma Community Foundation Marlene's Deli
3 Comments so far
Jump into a conversationNPR had a brief piece today on this issue: http://www.npr.org/2017/07/21/538472671/world-faces-global-sand-shortage
The film is available on YouTube. Important film to see to better understand other parts of our environmental crisis. There is a 57 min version and a longer one that is more in depth. Kit
This just shows once again: The world is overpopulated. Even if we could grow enough food for all people, we can certainly not provide for even a fraction of the population all the modern infrastructure that is built on sand, and yet make it sustainable.
Whenever people argue that we can feed 10 Bn people, they fail to look at the total equation of resource usage, sand being just another one of those gotchas.