Posted on 09/14/2017 2:53:17 PM PDT by Jagermonster
SURFACING MODELS OF THOUGHT
Out of the complexity of the global sand trade has emerged something of a butterfly effect, in which an economic decision in one place can wreak social and environmental havoc on the other side of the world.
If youre looking for a way to express something thats staggeringly hard to count, you wont find a more reliable metaphor than grains of sand.
There is indeed quite a bit of it about 7.5 quintillion grains on Earths beaches and deserts, according to one estimate. But if you think that this would be sufficient to supply an ever-expanding global economy with all the concrete, asphalt, glass, and semiconductors it could possibly desire, think again.
Our consumption of sand is outpacing our understanding of the economics and environmental impacts of extracting, transporting, and consuming it, finds research published last Thursday in the journal Science. Out of the complexity of the global sand trade has emerged something of a butterfly effect, in which an economic decision in one place can wreak social and environmental havoc on the other side of the world. Using a holistic, interdisciplinary approach called telecoupling, the researchers analysis of the global sand trade opens a window into the global interconnection of human and natural systems.
The demand is skyrocketing, and the supply is increasingly limited. And also the consequences, both the environmental and the socioeconomic impact, are enormous, says Jianguo Jack Liu, director of Michigan State Universitys Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability and a co-author of the paper.
Sand mafias and vanishing islands
Modern society is literally built on sand. Most of our buildings and bridges are made with concrete...
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Here’s another Thread from last week, same subject:
https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3584009/posts
Venezuela is importing oil
and there’s a sand shortage.
We’re not doing it right.
Just great, another thing to obsess over.
Anthropogenic Sand Shortage Cooling Warming Change!
Another reason to invest in beachfront property.
Have we witnessed peak sand?
Sand fleas hardest hit.
Too bad there isn’t a bullsh!t shortage.
Now what happens when demand increases and supply decreased? Very good, price goes UP... making it profitable and worthwhile to grab sand from under the water, at ever-increasing depths.
Why must Liberals make everything far, far more difficult than it should be?
Another crock of BS
So, have we reached Peak Sand? We will now go into sand scarcity just as Global Warming, or, perhaps, a new Ice Age, or maybe Climate Change...depending on the hysteria of the moment, where our lack of sand will...uhm...make it easier to have sex on the beach?
I am surrounded by a sea of sand in Florida. My contents of my carpet alone would build enough iPhone IC’s to supply the globe. I will happily supply anybody! Bring money.
Sand is clearly a social justice issue.
The White man’s hand controls the land with the sand!
New Mexico
Saudi Arabia’s next big export. And we thought by ruining OPEC we could make them eat sand. SANDPEC, the world’s next great cartel.
Michigan
That's nickels and dime stuff. You should invest in North Africa, get thousands of acres of Sahara sand for real cheap! Over 3.6 million square miles of desert sand, equal to the size of China.
Rats!
The Mid-East wins again!
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