The Biggest Environmental Crisis You’ve Never Heard Of
The world is running out of a crucial resource, and it’s an environmental and human rights disaster. Mirjam Mai is working on a solution.
It’s 2021 and we are facing a problem that threatens the very foundations of our planet. The funny thing is, you probably haven’t heard about it.
The problem? We are running out of sand.
Sand makes the glass in your cars and windows and computer screens. It makes paints and toothpastes, dinner plates and kitchen sinks, tiles, showers, toilets and computer chips. It filters water, casts metal, pulls oil and gas from the ground, and distills chemicals. It makes cleaning products, cooking oils and cold drinks. It processes food, mixes soaps and dyes, bolsters cosmetics and sunscreens, and lines athletic tracks and playing fields. And it makes up 65–75% of industrial concrete.
The sand that makes up so many corners of our world is pulled every day from shorelines and river beds around the globe. It is a market that is hard to regulate, hard to quantify, and even harder to replenish.
We live in a castle built of sand, and we are running out — fast.
