The world is running out of sand — and there's a black market for it now

businessinsider.com ^ | 6/11/2018 | Rob Ludacer

[rktman]

If you're planning a beach vacation, you'd better get to it soon. An alarming statistic for you: 67% of Southern California beaches? GONE by 2100. All because of sand. Even if you don't think about the grainy stuff, you use it daily. You're reading this off something made with sand, looking at it through a screen made with sand, surrounded by buildings made with concrete. I could let you guess what's in concrete, but I suspect you're already catching onto a theme here. The following is a transcript of the video.

I'll try to make this quick since we don't have a lot of time. The world is running out of sand.

[rktman]

Hmmmm. After the thread about the outer banks being covered with sand because of a recent nor'easter I recalled this piece. I think grrrrrrreta has something to do with this. Rising oceans and shrinking sands. HOW DARE WE?!

[BipolarBob]

I thought the Sahara and Gobi desert had plenty to export.

[rightwingcrazy]

[wally_bert]

The bern or aoc must be managing the deserts.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

The problem is that desert sand is different from river sand, and much less satisfactory for construction purposes.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Harry Kelly was a prophet.

[dead]

"See this?! See this?! You know what this is? This is SAND! Yes, sand... You know what's its going to be a hundred years from now? IT'S GONNA BE SAND! SAND!"
- Sam Kennison

[Mark17]

GONE by 2100.

Gone by 2100? I guess it doesn’t really matter, since we only have about 11 years left. 😁

[TexasGator]

You didnt read the article and are guilty of fake news!

[rktman]

Yup. Nearly gone now.

[rfp1234]

It’s the cats’ fault, for using all that kitty litter.

[Terry L Smith]

All the old titles of esteem seem to have washed away ...”You’ve got sand!”
All the younger crowd hasn’t got it, nor understands it!

[Fungi]

Nice case, but that is just one side of the story.

[ChildOfThe60s]

The site blocked me because I have an ad blocker so I went elsewhere since the media all copies each other.

While some or all of this may be accurate, this quote from The Smithsonian (another environment whore) threw up a red flag for me

Media coverage of this issue is growing, thanks to work by organizations such as the United Nations Environment Programme, but the scale of the problem is not widely appreciated.

When we have a genuine crisis, it will be ignored at least partly because of the endless scare mongering and lying from the UN

[MNJohnnie]

The stupid is strong with this one

[rktman]

Probably less sand and more grit.

[rktman]

WUT? Two sides to a story? When did that become a thing?

[rktman]

Yes, the smifsonian and natgeo both make me throw up these days.

[Karl Spooner]

Dave the sand! Stop the fracking! Just say NO to OIL!

[Calvin Locke]

Depends. Put a liberal in charge of it, and in about a decade, no sand.

In all seriousness, Sahara dust does end up in FL via weather events.

Haven’t come across anything about where Gobi dust goes.

Hollywood’s been on the case for a while. I recall an “Elementary” epi a few years back with a plot point involving a NYS bridge that was being undermined by the illegal mining of river sand.