My home state Kerala in India is subject to rampant sand mining.
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b20dlI0_ZtU" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b20dlI0_ZtU</a>
Ironically, we fuel this via demand for coarse sand in construction.<p>The impact is immediate. Rivers are drying up and water beds are going deeper down: <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Thiruvananthapuram/sandmining-sound-the-death-knell-for-the-bharathapuzha/article3462733.ece" rel="nofollow">https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Thiruvananthapuram/sand...</a>
Ah, a fellow Half as Interesting viewer :)<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BApuzIPVTi8" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BApuzIPVTi8</a><p>This is a channel run by the same guy from Wendover Productions, highly recommend subscribing. Especially if you're into obscure things such as sand theft, or … really, anything aviation related.
Also happened in London until 1871, although technically it wasn't theft as it was from common land which had the right to dig confirmed in 1780:<p>"During the 19th century, there was an increasing demand for the high quality Bagshot Sand, for use in building and iron foundry casts. In response to this demand ... Eight loads a day in 1814 rose to thirty loads a day in 1866.
...
[By 1871] The whole space on the summit of the hill, to the right and the left of the high road ... has been ruthlessly dug up for gravel and sand; leaving a dreary, desert prospect of hideous pits and shapeless heaps as far as the view extends over the hill itself, with a few miserable furze bushes here and there, a ragged tuft of dusty ling; but without one square yard of verdant turf for a baby to roll on. The very body of the earth had been cut away to an amazing depth, with the entire surface of those parts of the heath which formed the brow and crown of the hill. Holes are scooped out close to the high road thirty feet or forty feet deep ..."[0]<p>[0] <a href="https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/green-spaces/hampstead-heath/heritage/Pages/sand-digging-at-the-heath.aspx" rel="nofollow">https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/green-spaces/ha...</a>
What I found most interesting about this article is Singapore's practice of buying an incredible amount of sand and using it to make more Singapore.<p>I made sure to read the cited source because this claim sounded way too similar to some past Wikipedia edit pranks.
See in particular this fascinating recent article regarding GPS jamming and sand theft in the port of Shanghai: <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614689/ghost-ships-crop-circles-and-soft-gold-a-gps-mystery-in-shanghai/" rel="nofollow">https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614689/ghost-ships-crop-c...</a>
Wiki either mistakenly changed the title from "Beach Theft" to "Sand theft" or doesn't understand the issue.<p>Sand theft is common. It's normally stolen by illegally dredging rivers.<p>Singapore 'stealing' sand from Asian countries has been systematically going on for years.<p>It's the same as theft of wood. Everywhere where there are corrupt government officials, it's organised crime, sometimes people die over it, and it's easy to go watch while having a beer.<p>Beach theft, which the wiki currently predominantly talks about is different.
Planet money had an episode about this:
<a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/07/13/628894815/episode-853-peak-sand" rel="nofollow">https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/07/13/628894815/epis...</a>
In Sardinia (Italy) we have a similar problem, many tourists steals beach sand as a souvenir. The number of tourists that does this is so big that some beaches got smaller, and goverment has choose to put a stop by giving huge fines and possibly jail time.<p><a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=sardinian+sand+theft" rel="nofollow">https://www.google.com/search?q=sardinian+sand+theft</a>
There is a rocky beach near where I live in Halifax Nova Scotia that was once a very large sand beach. It was mostly "taken" for highway and other construction: <a href="http://library2.smu.ca/xmlui/bitstream/handle/01/25865/hudak_magen_l_masters_2014.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y" rel="nofollow">http://library2.smu.ca/xmlui/bitstream/handle/01/25865/hudak...</a><p>"However, from as early as the 1940s, the beach was also the site of commercial resource extraction. Because of this, by 1966, it had ceased to operate as a fully functional recreational site. Rapid and dramatic changes to its geomorphological formation, due to the large-scale removal of its sand and gravel, saw the gradual reduction of Silver Sands’ once ‘silvery’ crest, into a predominantly rocky shoal. Particularly between the latter half of the 1950s and the mid 1960s, but all the way until 1971, its material was being used for various government construction projects around the Halifax Regional Municipality.<p>"
I am not surprised.<p>I built a 6x6x2 foot sandbox for my son and was pleasantly surprised that it would cost me around $720 to fill it with play sand from home depot. Maybe there is a way to get 'play sand' in bulk that I am not aware of. Most bulk sand you can buy is construction sand and isn't actually sand but ground up rocks and is very bad for playing with.
This is a topic with very scant literature. I'm curious if there's an account of global sand reserves. Unlike oil/shale, other mineral resources, it seems like available construction sand is basically all discovered by virtue of being on the surface. I'm wondering if there are predictions for peak sand, what current sand reserves translates to in total tons of future concrete production etc. Otherwise it seems like the kind of resource that need to managed properly, seeing how land reclamation projects will be increasingly necessary with raising water levels. Engineered timbre can replace some building needs, but I can't think of an alternative to concrete for other critical infrastructure like roads.
Not “theft” but interesting sand activities: <a href="https://www.hawaiimagazine.com/blogs/hawaii_today/2009/2/20/Waikiki_beach_sand" rel="nofollow">https://www.hawaiimagazine.com/blogs/hawaii_today/2009/2/20/...</a><p>“Erosion and rising sea levels have swallowed a foot of Waikiki Beach annually since 1985. This phenomenon, while accelerated in the last few decades, is nothing new. Reports from the 1920s and 1930s reveal that sand was brought in from Manhattan Beach, California, via ship and barge, to Waikiki Beach. Importation of sand into Hawaii ceased in the 1970s.”
<i>The 'sand mafia' fuelling India's $120 billion building boom (2017)</i><p><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-28/the-great-sand-heist-fuelling-india-120-billion-building/8390984" rel="nofollow">https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-28/the-great-sand-heist-...</a><p><i>India's Sand Mafia: The Dark Secrets of India's Construction Industry (2017, video)</i>
by Journeyman Pictures, and recommended by ABC Australia<p><a href="https://youtu.be/ugT-zyXGNIY" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/ugT-zyXGNIY</a>
I wonder if sand is only found on the intersection of water and land, or if it found throughout the ocean (just inconveniently under the water)<p>Also, on a humorous note:<p>Geologists: 'We May Be Slowly Running Out Of Rocks'<p><a href="https://www.theonion.com/geologists-we-may-be-slowly-running-out-of-rocks-1819571484" rel="nofollow">https://www.theonion.com/geologists-we-may-be-slowly-running...</a>
Sand theft is very rampant on Long Island. On the north shore, where there have been a slew of high-density developments built, first thing developers do is scrape all of the sand from the lot. Some projects are actually built on what was once sandy bluffs. The sand indigenous to LI is a fine sugar sand, valued for it's quality in concrete manufacture. There are entire lots where sand is excavated and then left for drainage issues. As one can guess, sand mining is heavily regulated and usually prohibited by law. The sand acts as a filter as water leaches down to recharge the aquifer where most of LI gets it's drinking water from.So think about that... they're destroying the land's ability to provide potable water because of greed. Yes, the aquifer fresh water levels are decreasing and pollution plumes are growing. As the fresh water level goes down, it acts to suck salt water into the aquifer.
The 99% Invisible podcast ran a good episode on this subject, and particularly the effects of sand theft. <a href="https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/built-on-sand/" rel="nofollow">https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/built-on-sand/</a>
I'm from Tamilnadu state in south India and I have seen this happen. This is called _manarkollai_ and its so rampant. There are some activist groups trying to make a difference and it has resulted in very little progress. Immediate substitution to coarse river sand is needed!
First off I think this is terrible, people and companies that take part in these practices including the purchasers should be caught and punished. That being said, this reminds me of a story about people taking the pebbles from the island the ABBA movie Mama Mia was filmed and to some extent the planet Bethselamin in the book HHG2G.
A Mexican company has been stealing tons of sand from Monterey (CA) beaches for years:<p><a href="https://www.theinertia.com/environment/stealing-sand-the-theft-of-californias-coast/" rel="nofollow">https://www.theinertia.com/environment/stealing-sand-the-the...</a>
Isn't sand made of silicon, which is one of the most common elements on Earth? I don't quite understand why it's scarce enough that stealing it's viable.
See also: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beach_nourishment" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beach_nourishment</a>