Stealing And Saving Sand

THE ANCIENT ROMANS invented concrete, and they rebuilt wooden Rome with it, much of which remains today in the form of ruins. The ancient Egyptians passed up a great opportunity there in the sandy desert, and instead carved blocks from limestone, and hauled them with slave labor from quarry to unpragmatic monuments, monuments which obviously had great symbolic value. If only they had known of concrete. Concrete is the magical mixture of sand, which is silicon dioxide, and cement, which is fine, feathery gray powder, essentially desiccated dirt. Add water, wait, let harden in desired shape. while hardening, scratch initials or press palm into, leaving lasting legacy. if apprehended, claim momentary lapse of judgment, ignorance of vandalism laws, or urgent necessity of leaving legacy. Offer to use trowel to repair damage. Post bail, Cop plea. Pay fine. Our modern world is made more of concrete than ancient Rome. we use fifty billion tones of it a year, dredging sand from ocean bottoms, river bottoms, luckless beaches. it takes longer for nature to make sand than for humans to steal it, and, in short, we are running out of sand, a fact which might seem surprising. Recycling concrete is possible, but not an option, for three reasons. Most modern concrete is lace with chemicals which impede separation, the amount of energy needed to pound int back into sand and start over in expensively prohibitive, and besides, concrete structures are built to last, and there is a very limited supply of it available for recycling. The encroaching scarcity of sand is such that its becoming expensive, so much so that people steal it from beaches, and from the piles of it which lay in waiting along highways under construction. A black market for sand has emerged, incredibly. In India, there is actually a "sand mafia" which controls the market, darkening the economy with such deadly intent and to such great effect as would make Al Capone proud. Many have died in service to black market sand. Whatever is valuable is illegally transferred, understandably. Concrete and glass are the primary products of sand, which also serves well for sun bathing on towels at beaches, barefoot jogging (beware the submerged glass shard or carelessly discarded beer tab), and the trapping of golf balls in hazards. The day may come when people fight wars over sand, as they long have over land and the minerals which lie beneath, and might someday over water, helium, phosphorous, and water, which are other vanishing resources. Much new land is being built around the world, using huge amounts of sand. the more land, the less remaining sand. The trade off might not be worth the effort. And, in any event, we humans can always find reason to fight, over almost anything.