They are knocking down the old apartment complex in my Regent Park neighbourhood in Toronto, with no attempt to recycle materials like the bricks. That got me wondering if building materials are limitless. Cities are built on sand. As the world becomes more urbanised so the demand for bricks, glass and concrete continues to explode. All of these need sand. Where is the sand coming from?
Buildings need sand that is bathed in water – whether the sea, lake or river. The water does something to the sand that makes it perfect for construction.
Sometime ago I took short walks in the Sahara Desert just to see what it was like to be surrounded by a world of sand. Fine and powdery, the sand brushed Queen Hatshepsut's Temple in Egypt. In Tunisia, the sand shimmered in the bright sunlight and hurt uncovered eyes and skin. So much sand is in deserts, yet it is useless for construction. Sand born on the land is too smooth and polished.
Sand mining is a multibillion-dollar industry. Whether legal or illegal. Sand is the second most used material in the world, knocked off the top spot only by our use of water. The bottomless demand for sand has turned it into a profitable crime business. Sand cartels and mafias are real. And they don't use the sand to build sandcastles.
Sand is not limitless. It is being used up faster than nature can replace it. We can now add sand mining to the other ways that we are fucking with the environment – including chopping down the forests, over-fishing and oil fracking.
Miles of endless sandy beaches, golden or silver, are a cliché in the tourism marketing of the Caribbean. I walked along these beaches in Barbados, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico. Yet the most memorable was the rare black sand beach in Grenada. The fine grains once erupted from the crater of a boiling volcano.
Sand buffers the effects of the wind and waves on the beaches. Removing the sand speeds up their erosion. It is not good for the land, for shore birds or for turtles that nest in the sand.
Taking sand from the bottom of the sea disturbs marine life. It destroys fish habitats and eliminates income for fishermen. It speeds up the waves hitting the land and so increases beach erosion. Now add rising sea levels caused by the climate crisis and there is now a feedback loop that only ends in disaster.
Asbridge's Bay is my favourite sandy beach in Toronto. Its boardwalk is a great place to daydream, and to watch the sky, wind and waves play. Add the walking, cycling, swimming, and birdwatching. The massive beach is wide, long and seemed endless. One day it disappeared.
A late spring storm washed away the beach and flood water covered what remained. These storms are becoming stronger and more unpredictable due to the climate crisis. Canada is a vast and rich nation. Here the disappearing sand was just an inconvenience as a few weeks later it was replaced. Though the beach now has a mass of native plants on the newly built-up dunes and massive rocks scattered along the shorelines. All of this helps to halt erosion.
That is not so easily done in poor nations like the Caribbean. The impact of the climate crisis there is merely building on the after-life of slavery and the legacies of colonialism. Reparations for the sins of slavery, which made Europe and North America so rich, must also go towards repairing the ecology and landscapes of the islands.
The sand in an hourglass is meant to run out. Not the sand in the real world.
© Jacqueline L. Scott. You can support the blog here.
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