2024-11-23T08:13:21-05:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/150171352/how-our-demand-for-sand-fuels-a-violent-global-black-market Alexander Walter 2019-11-20T16:22:00-05:00 >2019-11-20T16:39:35-05:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/c8/c88da40e4145f2166abb57f651b95bfc.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>The demand for that material is so intense that around the world, riverbeds and beaches are being stripped bare, and farmlands and forests torn up to get at the precious grains. And in a growing number of countries, criminal gangs have moved in to the trade, spawning an often lethal black market in sand.</p></em><br /><br /><p>Writing for <em>BBC Future</em>, Vince Beiser explains how sand &mdash; a very specific kind of sand &mdash; has become the second most consumed natural resource on the planet, fueling global environmental destruction, criminal enterprises, and even "<a href="http://www.harvarddesignmagazine.org/issues/39/built-on-sand-singapore-and-the-new-state-of-risk" target="_blank">sand wars</a>."</p> <p>"The demand for that material is so intense that around the world, riverbeds and beaches are being stripped bare, and farmlands and forests torn up to get at the precious grains," Beiser writes. "And in a growing number of countries, criminal gangs have moved in to the trade, spawning an often lethal black market in sand."<br></p>