1 00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:03,559 Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, it's me Josh and this Wednesday, October two, 2 00:00:03,920 --> 00:00:07,040 Speaker 1: I'm going to be in beautiful Austin, Texas to do 3 00:00:07,160 --> 00:00:09,680 Speaker 1: the live version of my End of the World with 4 00:00:09,840 --> 00:00:13,040 Speaker 1: Josh Clark show. I'll be at the North Door and 5 00:00:13,119 --> 00:00:16,960 Speaker 1: you can get tickets in info at n D venue 6 00:00:17,320 --> 00:00:19,840 Speaker 1: dot com. Just search for the End of the World 7 00:00:19,840 --> 00:00:23,680 Speaker 1: with Josh Clark and there's a few tickets left for 8 00:00:23,720 --> 00:00:26,680 Speaker 1: the Stuff You Should Know live show in New Orleans 9 00:00:26,720 --> 00:00:30,479 Speaker 1: on October tent For those tickets and more information, go 10 00:00:30,680 --> 00:00:34,080 Speaker 1: to s y s K live dot com. Tickets are 11 00:00:34,080 --> 00:00:38,159 Speaker 1: going fast to both shows, and we'll see you in October. Everybody. 12 00:00:38,840 --> 00:00:41,199 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of I 13 00:00:41,320 --> 00:00:50,200 Speaker 1: Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. 14 00:00:50,240 --> 00:00:53,200 Speaker 1: I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles W Chuck Bryant, there's 15 00:00:53,320 --> 00:00:58,480 Speaker 1: Jerry over there, and uh like Staying through the Hourglass. 16 00:00:59,320 --> 00:01:05,360 Speaker 1: These are the uh podcasts of our lives. I love 17 00:01:05,440 --> 00:01:08,240 Speaker 1: that and that that beginning so much that I just 18 00:01:08,520 --> 00:01:11,280 Speaker 1: made an homage to it. I didn't even realize I 19 00:01:11,319 --> 00:01:13,080 Speaker 1: loved it until it was coming out of my mouth 20 00:01:13,800 --> 00:01:18,280 Speaker 1: and I was thinking, God, this is so good. You know, 21 00:01:18,360 --> 00:01:20,319 Speaker 1: we live in a cancel culture, we might get canceled 22 00:01:20,319 --> 00:01:24,559 Speaker 1: for that one for what the Days of Our Lives reference? Yeah, 23 00:01:24,920 --> 00:01:29,399 Speaker 1: just because it was so bad. Okay, yeah, yeah, we 24 00:01:29,400 --> 00:01:31,560 Speaker 1: we It's an odd time to be alive, isn't it. 25 00:01:31,880 --> 00:01:35,000 Speaker 1: That's right, we're in the transition. But in true stuff 26 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:37,080 Speaker 1: you should know fashion we are doing an episode on 27 00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:41,800 Speaker 1: sand after about what a month or so after an 28 00:01:41,800 --> 00:01:45,000 Speaker 1: episode on sand dunes? Right, and this is technically not 29 00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:49,400 Speaker 1: even necessarily the sand episode. It may be we're gonna better, 30 00:01:49,800 --> 00:01:52,880 Speaker 1: we're gonna put it together like it is, but there 31 00:01:52,920 --> 00:01:55,600 Speaker 1: may come a time fifty sixty years down the road 32 00:01:56,440 --> 00:01:59,640 Speaker 1: when life extension is really kicked in and we're still 33 00:01:59,640 --> 00:02:02,360 Speaker 1: doing this where we're like, we gotta do just saying 34 00:02:02,360 --> 00:02:06,640 Speaker 1: it now. Yeah, except by then, the episode maybe titled 35 00:02:06,880 --> 00:02:11,279 Speaker 1: what was sand? That's right, man, because boy, this episode 36 00:02:11,440 --> 00:02:15,160 Speaker 1: is depressing. Yeah, and it could be titled sand colon 37 00:02:16,040 --> 00:02:19,679 Speaker 1: yet another way humans are destroying our planet. Yeah, oh look, 38 00:02:19,720 --> 00:02:23,359 Speaker 1: another ecological disaster added to the list. But we need 39 00:02:23,440 --> 00:02:27,120 Speaker 1: hotels in fake islands. Yeah, the fake islands kind of 40 00:02:27,160 --> 00:02:31,600 Speaker 1: got me the most, you know. Yeah, but we're spoiling 41 00:02:31,639 --> 00:02:35,919 Speaker 1: this thing. Oh sorry, sorry, So sand, there's a lot 42 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:40,560 Speaker 1: of it so much so. The way back in the day, Archimedes, 43 00:02:40,919 --> 00:02:44,320 Speaker 1: one of our favorite people, UM used it in a 44 00:02:44,360 --> 00:02:47,480 Speaker 1: thought experiment called the sand reckon Er. And in the 45 00:02:47,520 --> 00:02:50,880 Speaker 1: sand Reckoner, he basically he created this to to start 46 00:02:50,960 --> 00:02:54,359 Speaker 1: figuring out how to how to create numbers to express 47 00:02:54,520 --> 00:03:00,000 Speaker 1: extraordinarily large values, because that's what it's used for. Still, yeah, 48 00:03:00,360 --> 00:03:02,320 Speaker 1: just because there's so much of it. It's either it 49 00:03:02,400 --> 00:03:05,760 Speaker 1: depends there's the world is divided into two types of people, Chuck, 50 00:03:06,160 --> 00:03:10,079 Speaker 1: people who point to the stars as an enormous number, 51 00:03:10,400 --> 00:03:13,320 Speaker 1: example of am enormous number, and people who point to sand, 52 00:03:13,560 --> 00:03:16,720 Speaker 1: and then people like us that use big max. That's right, 53 00:03:17,240 --> 00:03:20,200 Speaker 1: that's true. That's size, though not number, it's size. It 54 00:03:20,240 --> 00:03:24,919 Speaker 1: could be length member we've stacked him to the moon before, Um, 55 00:03:25,040 --> 00:03:28,000 Speaker 1: but so our comedies came up with a base of 56 00:03:28,520 --> 00:03:31,519 Speaker 1: one million. That's what he started with, and he figured 57 00:03:31,520 --> 00:03:33,840 Speaker 1: out how to how to express numbers up to eight 58 00:03:33,880 --> 00:03:36,640 Speaker 1: times ten to the sixty three power with the sand 59 00:03:36,680 --> 00:03:39,800 Speaker 1: reckon or thing. And the point of it is is like, yes, 60 00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:42,400 Speaker 1: there's a ton of sand, a lot of sand, so 61 00:03:42,480 --> 00:03:45,680 Speaker 1: much so I've seen um that there's seven and a 62 00:03:45,720 --> 00:03:49,200 Speaker 1: half billion billion grains of sand just on the world's beaches. 63 00:03:49,760 --> 00:03:54,280 Speaker 1: That's from University Hawaii. I saw another one from Chris 64 00:03:54,360 --> 00:04:00,280 Speaker 1: Flynn from Tour Observatory in Finland. He estimated a mill allion, 65 00:04:00,400 --> 00:04:03,560 Speaker 1: billion billion grains of sand just on the world's beaches. 66 00:04:04,360 --> 00:04:08,680 Speaker 1: So I'm just gonna say a jillion jillian bazillion because 67 00:04:08,680 --> 00:04:12,440 Speaker 1: apparently you can say whatever. Yeah, but there's a lot. 68 00:04:12,520 --> 00:04:15,120 Speaker 1: But the point is this, there is a lot of sand, 69 00:04:15,800 --> 00:04:18,840 Speaker 1: especially depending on the math and the grain of the 70 00:04:18,880 --> 00:04:22,120 Speaker 1: grain size, that kind of stuff. But there's a finite 71 00:04:22,160 --> 00:04:25,919 Speaker 1: amount of sand. And what's been going on behind the 72 00:04:25,960 --> 00:04:32,520 Speaker 1: scenes for decades now is a very um rapid depletion 73 00:04:33,120 --> 00:04:36,600 Speaker 1: of the available sources of sand, so much so that 74 00:04:36,640 --> 00:04:39,640 Speaker 1: it is literally being shuffled from one part of the 75 00:04:39,640 --> 00:04:43,839 Speaker 1: world to another, from poorer countries to wealthier countries, sometimes 76 00:04:44,120 --> 00:04:48,080 Speaker 1: from uh some inland areas out to other areas, from 77 00:04:48,360 --> 00:04:51,800 Speaker 1: the rural areas to the cities. Um, there's a huge 78 00:04:51,839 --> 00:04:55,679 Speaker 1: sand shuffle going on, and it is proving pretty rough 79 00:04:56,040 --> 00:05:00,320 Speaker 1: for the environment as a result. Yeah. I mean, first all, 80 00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:04,400 Speaker 1: I'm forty eight years old and this is the first 81 00:05:04,440 --> 00:05:07,279 Speaker 1: I've really heard of this. Like, I don't know, I 82 00:05:07,320 --> 00:05:09,680 Speaker 1: thought there was just enough sand for all of time, 83 00:05:09,920 --> 00:05:11,520 Speaker 1: you would think. So, I mean, look at a desert. 84 00:05:11,600 --> 00:05:13,960 Speaker 1: That's a lot of sand, right, But here's the deal. 85 00:05:14,240 --> 00:05:19,960 Speaker 1: We use about fifteen billion tons for just construction every year, 86 00:05:20,360 --> 00:05:23,560 Speaker 1: and they are mining worldwide about forty billion tons of 87 00:05:23,600 --> 00:05:27,520 Speaker 1: sandy year. I think that's sand and gravel. But still, well, 88 00:05:27,560 --> 00:05:30,080 Speaker 1: I do know that it is. I think with gravel. 89 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:34,480 Speaker 1: There's a u N report called Sand and Sustainability. That 90 00:05:34,520 --> 00:05:39,320 Speaker 1: report from UNIP United Nations Environment Program. So crushed rock, 91 00:05:39,400 --> 00:05:42,039 Speaker 1: sand and gravel account for the largest volume of extracted 92 00:05:42,080 --> 00:05:46,600 Speaker 1: solid material worldwide. Okay, so you're saying, like more than oil, 93 00:05:46,839 --> 00:05:50,400 Speaker 1: more than natural gas, more than any other Is that 94 00:05:50,480 --> 00:05:53,719 Speaker 1: solid material? Yeah? Okay, I think so. I'm not sure 95 00:05:53,720 --> 00:05:56,040 Speaker 1: what they mean by that is, look, is oil is solid? 96 00:05:56,640 --> 00:05:58,800 Speaker 1: I I don't know. So I saw it also. Put 97 00:05:58,839 --> 00:06:02,559 Speaker 1: as like um as are as extractable raw material, sand 98 00:06:02,600 --> 00:06:06,560 Speaker 1: and gravel is by far the most um extensively mind, 99 00:06:06,800 --> 00:06:08,760 Speaker 1: which is why I said that, and we'll get to 100 00:06:08,839 --> 00:06:13,800 Speaker 1: it in detail. But the spoiler here is although new 101 00:06:13,880 --> 00:06:16,800 Speaker 1: sand is being made constantly by erosion, which are also 102 00:06:17,279 --> 00:06:21,640 Speaker 1: also going to cover not nearly nearly quickly enough. Um, 103 00:06:21,680 --> 00:06:24,159 Speaker 1: you know, our use is far far out basing it, yeah, 104 00:06:24,240 --> 00:06:27,800 Speaker 1: which makes sand and non renewable resource. Technically, it's just 105 00:06:27,880 --> 00:06:32,040 Speaker 1: like oil like yeahs as if you know the environmental 106 00:06:32,040 --> 00:06:35,200 Speaker 1: conditions are right, over time, new oil will be made, 107 00:06:35,240 --> 00:06:38,520 Speaker 1: but we're talking over very long periods. Sand doesn't take 108 00:06:38,600 --> 00:06:40,800 Speaker 1: nearly as long to form as oil does, but it 109 00:06:40,839 --> 00:06:43,480 Speaker 1: still takes way longer to replenish itself than than we're 110 00:06:43,640 --> 00:06:46,480 Speaker 1: using it up. That's right. So, um, let's talk a 111 00:06:46,520 --> 00:06:50,800 Speaker 1: little bit about sand. Yeah, so we get sand. Um. 112 00:06:51,120 --> 00:06:54,640 Speaker 1: Sand is the final product. I guess I even hate 113 00:06:54,640 --> 00:06:56,240 Speaker 1: calling it a product, but I don't mean it in 114 00:06:56,279 --> 00:06:58,280 Speaker 1: the sense of something to be bought and sold, even 115 00:06:58,279 --> 00:07:00,960 Speaker 1: though it is. But it's the final product of erosion 116 00:07:01,720 --> 00:07:05,039 Speaker 1: from everything from water and wind of course, to ice 117 00:07:05,800 --> 00:07:11,040 Speaker 1: and land like glaciers. Grinding against stone creates sand and 118 00:07:11,200 --> 00:07:16,200 Speaker 1: volcanic lava. Even when that stuff chills and then shatters 119 00:07:16,240 --> 00:07:17,960 Speaker 1: when it makes contact with air. That's how you get 120 00:07:18,040 --> 00:07:21,400 Speaker 1: lava sand like the black sand in Hawaii. Yeah, and 121 00:07:21,400 --> 00:07:24,640 Speaker 1: that stuff's really good. Is a soil a mender apparently? Yeah, 122 00:07:24,640 --> 00:07:27,560 Speaker 1: because it's like a locked in carbon, I believe, right, Yeah, 123 00:07:27,560 --> 00:07:29,840 Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure it's add that some to the 124 00:07:29,880 --> 00:07:33,600 Speaker 1: red clay here in Georgia and you're cooking, Yeah, you're 125 00:07:34,360 --> 00:07:40,040 Speaker 1: cooking with volcanic ash um. There's also rain, the mild 126 00:07:40,040 --> 00:07:43,240 Speaker 1: bit of um like acid that is in rain. Still 127 00:07:43,280 --> 00:07:46,720 Speaker 1: even though we we beat acid, rain beat it bad um. 128 00:07:47,080 --> 00:07:50,720 Speaker 1: There there's still some in there always. And it weathers rocks, 129 00:07:50,720 --> 00:07:53,800 Speaker 1: so that helps the road rocks and create sand to um. 130 00:07:54,040 --> 00:07:56,880 Speaker 1: And you've got geological sources of sand, which is just 131 00:07:56,960 --> 00:07:59,800 Speaker 1: straight up rocks. You also have biological sources of sand, 132 00:08:00,280 --> 00:08:07,760 Speaker 1: things like coral um for minera I believe, for a minieria, No, 133 00:08:08,360 --> 00:08:10,960 Speaker 1: for a menifera. I got it. I got it, very 134 00:08:11,040 --> 00:08:15,800 Speaker 1: very very tiny shelled creatures um that that produced like 135 00:08:15,880 --> 00:08:19,400 Speaker 1: white or pink sand sometimes. And then there's also we 136 00:08:19,480 --> 00:08:21,960 Speaker 1: get sand from the poop of the parrot fish. Did 137 00:08:21,960 --> 00:08:24,120 Speaker 1: you did you hear about that? Yeah, we talked about 138 00:08:24,160 --> 00:08:27,080 Speaker 1: that before, did we. It didn't strike me. It didn't 139 00:08:27,160 --> 00:08:29,200 Speaker 1: ring a bell at all. Yeah, it was either I 140 00:08:29,200 --> 00:08:30,640 Speaker 1: don't think it was in dunes. I feel like it 141 00:08:30,680 --> 00:08:33,440 Speaker 1: was further, it must have been coral reefs. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 142 00:08:33,440 --> 00:08:36,280 Speaker 1: that's it because they actually eat parts of the coral 143 00:08:36,360 --> 00:08:38,920 Speaker 1: reef accidentally while they're eating food, and then there's guts 144 00:08:39,240 --> 00:08:41,720 Speaker 1: grind up the reef and then they poop out pure 145 00:08:41,760 --> 00:08:44,559 Speaker 1: beautiful white sand, like hundreds of pounds of white sand 146 00:08:44,600 --> 00:08:47,640 Speaker 1: a year. Yeah. But when you really are talking about 147 00:08:47,679 --> 00:08:51,000 Speaker 1: sand that most of us think of a sand, we're 148 00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:55,360 Speaker 1: thinking wind and water generally oceans, rivers, and then in 149 00:08:55,400 --> 00:08:58,080 Speaker 1: the desert of course wind right and then the desert. 150 00:08:58,480 --> 00:09:00,200 Speaker 1: We must have talked about this in sandy, is that 151 00:09:00,840 --> 00:09:05,360 Speaker 1: the deserts are just ancient beaches from old like seabeds 152 00:09:05,360 --> 00:09:08,600 Speaker 1: and things like that, riverbeds sometimes that's right. And as 153 00:09:08,640 --> 00:09:11,880 Speaker 1: far as what sand is literally, you know, it's parts 154 00:09:11,880 --> 00:09:16,680 Speaker 1: of rock, uh se. The hardest parts of rock of 155 00:09:16,720 --> 00:09:20,320 Speaker 1: sand is quartz, but you've also got gypsum in there, 156 00:09:20,440 --> 00:09:23,920 Speaker 1: you've got limestone. Um. We already talked about lava like 157 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:27,040 Speaker 1: there are other compositions, and it really depends on what 158 00:09:27,400 --> 00:09:29,480 Speaker 1: kind of sand you're gonna have on obviously what kind 159 00:09:29,480 --> 00:09:31,760 Speaker 1: of rock it came from, like where you are in 160 00:09:31,760 --> 00:09:35,679 Speaker 1: the world, right. And then if you're an engineer or um, 161 00:09:35,720 --> 00:09:40,559 Speaker 1: somebody who makes use of sand, um, they typically don't 162 00:09:41,200 --> 00:09:45,200 Speaker 1: classify it or categorize it by composition. They more interested 163 00:09:45,240 --> 00:09:49,720 Speaker 1: in the size. Um. So sand is there's and there's 164 00:09:49,760 --> 00:09:53,000 Speaker 1: not one universal definition, which I found kind of surprising. 165 00:09:53,559 --> 00:09:57,439 Speaker 1: But um, depending on who you ask, uh it is. UH. 166 00:09:57,559 --> 00:10:00,480 Speaker 1: Civil engineering today says it's a small gray of rock, 167 00:10:01,200 --> 00:10:07,280 Speaker 1: finer than gravel, coarser than silt. The American Society for 168 00:10:07,360 --> 00:10:11,160 Speaker 1: Testing and Materials they produced their Standard Practice for Classification 169 00:10:11,360 --> 00:10:17,280 Speaker 1: of Soils for Engineering Purposes, Unified Soil Classification System. That's 170 00:10:17,280 --> 00:10:20,840 Speaker 1: all one title. They say that sand is particles of 171 00:10:20,880 --> 00:10:24,160 Speaker 1: soil between seventy five microns and four point seven five 172 00:10:24,240 --> 00:10:27,760 Speaker 1: millimeters in size. That's a big piece of sand. And 173 00:10:27,800 --> 00:10:30,080 Speaker 1: then it comes in course medium and fine. And this 174 00:10:30,160 --> 00:10:34,920 Speaker 1: is extraordinarily boring. I understand that fully, but it points 175 00:10:34,960 --> 00:10:38,640 Speaker 1: out the fact that sand is still a rock. It's 176 00:10:38,679 --> 00:10:43,360 Speaker 1: just a very very tiny size rock. Right Like there's gravel, 177 00:10:43,440 --> 00:10:46,040 Speaker 1: there's silt. They're stand in between, but it's still a rock. 178 00:10:46,080 --> 00:10:48,760 Speaker 1: It's just a different size as far as like engineers 179 00:10:48,800 --> 00:10:52,800 Speaker 1: and construction people are concerned. Right, And depending on again 180 00:10:52,920 --> 00:10:54,880 Speaker 1: what kind of rocket came from and what it's made 181 00:10:54,880 --> 00:10:56,920 Speaker 1: of and where you get it and how it was formed, 182 00:10:57,000 --> 00:10:59,680 Speaker 1: the shape is going to be different. It can be 183 00:10:59,800 --> 00:11:03,680 Speaker 1: very rough, it can be very smoother. Around the river sand, 184 00:11:04,200 --> 00:11:08,680 Speaker 1: which is what's mainly used in construction is irregular, and 185 00:11:08,720 --> 00:11:11,079 Speaker 1: they need that irregular shape for that kind of construction 186 00:11:11,720 --> 00:11:15,840 Speaker 1: because the middle sort of sand, which is the smoother 187 00:11:15,920 --> 00:11:19,640 Speaker 1: ocean sand, isn't as good. And desert sand, which is 188 00:11:19,720 --> 00:11:24,760 Speaker 1: the crime Dela crime of sand, very polished, very uniform 189 00:11:24,840 --> 00:11:27,160 Speaker 1: and smooth and round turns out is not good at 190 00:11:27,200 --> 00:11:30,160 Speaker 1: all for construction. No. So, so the three types of 191 00:11:30,160 --> 00:11:33,160 Speaker 1: sand that we find on Earth, our river which is 192 00:11:33,200 --> 00:11:37,000 Speaker 1: a regularly shaped ocean, which is smooth, and desert which 193 00:11:37,040 --> 00:11:42,400 Speaker 1: is Billy D Williams Sorry for that. I was like, 194 00:11:42,440 --> 00:11:45,200 Speaker 1: did Josh just pass out because I just said all that? Right? Right? 195 00:11:45,240 --> 00:11:47,320 Speaker 1: I know, I just had to rebuild it though for 196 00:11:47,400 --> 00:11:53,280 Speaker 1: the joke, I understand. So um you said that, Uh well, hey, 197 00:11:53,280 --> 00:11:55,200 Speaker 1: should we take a break now and come back and 198 00:11:55,200 --> 00:11:58,199 Speaker 1: talk about how we use sand? I think saying this 199 00:11:58,280 --> 00:12:00,520 Speaker 1: is really boring. Let's take a break is a perfect 200 00:12:00,520 --> 00:12:02,559 Speaker 1: opportunity for people to leave and not come back. So 201 00:12:02,640 --> 00:12:30,319 Speaker 1: let's do that. I'm thrilled, alright, Chuck is we're saying 202 00:12:30,520 --> 00:12:33,880 Speaker 1: I'm thrilled by this because I know we're building up 203 00:12:33,920 --> 00:12:38,080 Speaker 1: to the big payoff. You know, San did it in 204 00:12:38,120 --> 00:12:41,959 Speaker 1: the parlor. I was going to say the candlestick. I 205 00:12:41,960 --> 00:12:45,120 Speaker 1: always go to the candlestick For some reason. I think 206 00:12:45,160 --> 00:12:47,080 Speaker 1: the idea of just hitting someone over the head with 207 00:12:47,120 --> 00:12:51,080 Speaker 1: the candlestick really resonates with me. Wow, you know, not 208 00:12:51,240 --> 00:12:52,960 Speaker 1: like I want to do it or whatever. I just 209 00:12:53,360 --> 00:12:57,640 Speaker 1: I'm like, geez, you know, it's gotta hoit. I'm gonna 210 00:12:57,760 --> 00:13:00,480 Speaker 1: watch my back next time we're candle shopping. It's right, 211 00:13:00,880 --> 00:13:02,959 Speaker 1: That's why I always take your candle shopping. I'm always 212 00:13:03,280 --> 00:13:05,160 Speaker 1: always right there on the end. You're just trying to 213 00:13:05,679 --> 00:13:09,120 Speaker 1: work up the courage. Yeah, or just I'm like, just say, 214 00:13:09,320 --> 00:13:12,000 Speaker 1: just say the wrong thing, chick right now. And then 215 00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:14,559 Speaker 1: I always turned around, you go, this one's pretty right. 216 00:13:15,240 --> 00:13:20,199 Speaker 1: Cut crystal, chuck. Look, So, speaking of cut crystal, sand 217 00:13:20,280 --> 00:13:24,040 Speaker 1: is not made used to make cut crystal. Oh is 218 00:13:24,080 --> 00:13:27,040 Speaker 1: that right? No, it's not. But sand is used to 219 00:13:27,080 --> 00:13:31,520 Speaker 1: make glass. And we did a great episode on was 220 00:13:31,559 --> 00:13:35,040 Speaker 1: it glad Mirrors years ago, Yeah, where we talked a 221 00:13:35,040 --> 00:13:38,559 Speaker 1: little bit about this, and then of course silicon microchips 222 00:13:38,559 --> 00:13:41,719 Speaker 1: are made from silica sand. It's also used in plastic. 223 00:13:42,200 --> 00:13:43,800 Speaker 1: We should I know, we planned to do one on 224 00:13:43,880 --> 00:13:49,840 Speaker 1: plastic at some point, so that'll figure in again. Cosmetics, cleaners, 225 00:13:49,880 --> 00:13:53,640 Speaker 1: grit and the cleaner sometimes. Yeah, I mean, like, um, 226 00:13:53,720 --> 00:13:56,160 Speaker 1: if you use something like soft scrub or something like that, 227 00:13:56,240 --> 00:13:58,560 Speaker 1: like that, grit's got to come from somewhere, and you 228 00:13:58,600 --> 00:14:02,360 Speaker 1: can bet it's probably sand because again sand, it's just 229 00:14:02,440 --> 00:14:04,480 Speaker 1: very tiny rock. It's not gonna like break down or 230 00:14:04,480 --> 00:14:08,160 Speaker 1: anything over time. Um. And we've been using sand for 231 00:14:08,200 --> 00:14:13,679 Speaker 1: industrial purposes, specifically glassmaking, for at least years. I believe 232 00:14:13,720 --> 00:14:16,400 Speaker 1: they used it back in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Used in 233 00:14:16,480 --> 00:14:19,240 Speaker 1: Egypt for construction for sure, did they as well? Well, 234 00:14:19,240 --> 00:14:21,360 Speaker 1: they use it for glass too, So I mean we've 235 00:14:21,360 --> 00:14:25,200 Speaker 1: figured out that sands pretty pretty useful. We also now 236 00:14:25,240 --> 00:14:28,360 Speaker 1: today use it for fracking. We did an episode on fracking. 237 00:14:28,640 --> 00:14:31,640 Speaker 1: Remember that our world is getting smaller, and like you, 238 00:14:31,800 --> 00:14:35,360 Speaker 1: when you inject like water and slurry, um, part of 239 00:14:35,360 --> 00:14:37,960 Speaker 1: the slurry is sand to kind of use it to 240 00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:41,760 Speaker 1: break up rock to release natural gas. But just far 241 00:14:41,800 --> 00:14:45,160 Speaker 1: and away, the biggest use of sand today by human 242 00:14:45,200 --> 00:14:49,080 Speaker 1: beings is to make concrete. That's right, and I'll say 243 00:14:49,080 --> 00:14:51,560 Speaker 1: it again we said it before. Fifteen billion tons of 244 00:14:51,600 --> 00:14:56,080 Speaker 1: sand every year by the construction industry alone. Um. And 245 00:14:56,160 --> 00:14:59,320 Speaker 1: here's a few stats for you. UM, A typical house 246 00:14:59,600 --> 00:15:04,840 Speaker 1: that's with that means that three bedroom, two bass feet 247 00:15:05,640 --> 00:15:08,160 Speaker 1: I guess made entirely of concrete. I guess. I don't 248 00:15:08,160 --> 00:15:12,040 Speaker 1: know what's typical these days. Two hundred tons of sand. Um, 249 00:15:12,120 --> 00:15:15,520 Speaker 1: A larger building like a school, maybe about three thousand 250 00:15:15,600 --> 00:15:20,400 Speaker 1: tons of sand. A nuclear power plant about twelve million 251 00:15:20,480 --> 00:15:23,480 Speaker 1: tons of sand. And we just did an episode on 252 00:15:23,520 --> 00:15:28,240 Speaker 1: the US high interstate system. Remember all those roads, Yeah, 253 00:15:28,520 --> 00:15:32,680 Speaker 1: think about thirty thousand tons of sand per kilometer. Yeah, 254 00:15:33,120 --> 00:15:36,680 Speaker 1: So I did the math, and I converted about two 255 00:15:36,760 --> 00:15:40,160 Speaker 1: hundred thousand miles, because there's like forty eight thousand miles 256 00:15:40,160 --> 00:15:42,560 Speaker 1: of interstate and about a hundred and fifty thousand miles 257 00:15:42,560 --> 00:15:45,800 Speaker 1: of highway. Fair enough. Converted that to kilometers. I no 258 00:15:45,840 --> 00:15:49,400 Speaker 1: longer remember what it converts to. But times thirty thousand 259 00:15:49,480 --> 00:15:53,720 Speaker 1: tons of a kilometer, that's nine billion, six hundred and 260 00:15:53,720 --> 00:15:59,160 Speaker 1: fifty six million tons of sand locked into the highways, 261 00:15:59,280 --> 00:16:02,040 Speaker 1: just in the U S alone, that are constantly being 262 00:16:02,120 --> 00:16:05,160 Speaker 1: re redone and they are you know. Yeah. And also 263 00:16:05,200 --> 00:16:08,680 Speaker 1: apparently it's used in asphalt too, so just surface streets too. 264 00:16:08,760 --> 00:16:11,160 Speaker 1: And that's a that's a big point. I used a 265 00:16:11,440 --> 00:16:14,520 Speaker 1: really important word just now. Locked, Like when we use 266 00:16:14,600 --> 00:16:20,400 Speaker 1: sand for concrete in construction. Um, it stays put. That's 267 00:16:20,440 --> 00:16:23,120 Speaker 1: the point of it. When you use sand in in concrete, 268 00:16:23,440 --> 00:16:26,080 Speaker 1: it's part of the aggregate. It's also part of the 269 00:16:26,080 --> 00:16:30,600 Speaker 1: binder because it's used in cement too. So when you 270 00:16:30,720 --> 00:16:32,640 Speaker 1: use a bunch of sand and you create something out 271 00:16:32,640 --> 00:16:35,400 Speaker 1: of concrete, that sand is staying put. And because it's 272 00:16:35,440 --> 00:16:39,800 Speaker 1: not a non renewable resource, it's you just used up 273 00:16:39,840 --> 00:16:42,120 Speaker 1: some sand and you're no longer shuffling around from place 274 00:16:42,160 --> 00:16:45,600 Speaker 1: to place. It's it's in construction now, it's locked in. 275 00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:48,880 Speaker 1: That's right. And as I mentioned before, it's locked together 276 00:16:49,800 --> 00:16:53,160 Speaker 1: mainly that river sand that's really irregular, uh, and its 277 00:16:53,200 --> 00:16:55,680 Speaker 1: shape locks together better that if you think about it, it 278 00:16:55,560 --> 00:16:59,120 Speaker 1: it kind of makes sense that really smooth round desert sand. 279 00:16:59,240 --> 00:17:01,640 Speaker 1: It's like, uh, put a bunch of ping pong balls 280 00:17:02,440 --> 00:17:05,119 Speaker 1: in a bag that's not gonna lock together. That's a 281 00:17:05,119 --> 00:17:07,439 Speaker 1: good analogy. I would have said, more like putting a 282 00:17:07,440 --> 00:17:10,400 Speaker 1: bunch of Billy d Williams in a bag together. They're 283 00:17:10,400 --> 00:17:14,440 Speaker 1: not going to lock Hey man, that's some schlitzmalt locker 284 00:17:14,440 --> 00:17:16,280 Speaker 1: and you've got a party. Yeah. Wait, was that the 285 00:17:16,320 --> 00:17:20,000 Speaker 1: one he used to know? He did? Cult? Right? How 286 00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:23,200 Speaker 1: could I forget he never made Cult forty five taste 287 00:17:23,240 --> 00:17:25,680 Speaker 1: any better? Which was the one with the Oh I 288 00:17:25,680 --> 00:17:27,479 Speaker 1: guess it was Slits that had the bowl that wouldn't 289 00:17:27,840 --> 00:17:31,119 Speaker 1: charge into the bar and Billy d Williams wrestled that 290 00:17:31,200 --> 00:17:34,160 Speaker 1: bowl in one again. Can you imagine working on those 291 00:17:34,160 --> 00:17:37,480 Speaker 1: commercials back in the day. Yeah, I'm sure everybody was 292 00:17:37,640 --> 00:17:39,920 Speaker 1: really drunk on malt liquor. It's like, we're gonna build 293 00:17:39,920 --> 00:17:43,240 Speaker 1: a big set here on stage, a bar set, and 294 00:17:43,359 --> 00:17:45,639 Speaker 1: we're going to release a live bull and film it. 295 00:17:46,560 --> 00:17:49,800 Speaker 1: See what half it? Wouldn't you have to be drunk 296 00:17:49,800 --> 00:17:52,119 Speaker 1: on malt liquor to do that? I guess. So what 297 00:17:52,240 --> 00:17:56,080 Speaker 1: about Errol Morris directing all those Miller like commercials? Those 298 00:17:56,119 --> 00:17:59,040 Speaker 1: are great Miller heavy? Oh was it? I thought? Was? 299 00:17:59,200 --> 00:18:01,840 Speaker 1: Are you sure? Almost positive as light? I think were? 300 00:18:01,880 --> 00:18:05,040 Speaker 1: Those are Miller high life. Okay, So here's the thing 301 00:18:05,400 --> 00:18:07,160 Speaker 1: I like. I like Carol Morris. I like his work. 302 00:18:07,160 --> 00:18:10,159 Speaker 1: I think Thin Blue Line is arguably the best documentary 303 00:18:10,200 --> 00:18:13,680 Speaker 1: ever made. It's certainly up there. Um It's not my favorite, 304 00:18:13,680 --> 00:18:17,520 Speaker 1: but I respect it. But I'm not like a junkie 305 00:18:17,560 --> 00:18:19,679 Speaker 1: for his work. I just love the fact that he 306 00:18:19,800 --> 00:18:22,840 Speaker 1: just does whatever project appeals to him at the time. Yeah, 307 00:18:22,880 --> 00:18:24,479 Speaker 1: I mean, he directs a lot of commercials. That's that's 308 00:18:24,520 --> 00:18:27,560 Speaker 1: where the money is. There's not money in documentaries. Okay, 309 00:18:27,720 --> 00:18:30,040 Speaker 1: so he's not doing it because he's like there's some 310 00:18:30,240 --> 00:18:33,840 Speaker 1: you know, neat philosophical bent that he has toward Miller 311 00:18:33,880 --> 00:18:36,359 Speaker 1: at that moment, and so he's gonna go do. Oh 312 00:18:36,440 --> 00:18:39,639 Speaker 1: he's just hired. And I'm sure they hire him for 313 00:18:39,760 --> 00:18:43,000 Speaker 1: his unique perview Okay, not per view but point of view. 314 00:18:43,920 --> 00:18:46,639 Speaker 1: But yeah, he's he's a commercial director for money, and 315 00:18:46,680 --> 00:18:49,840 Speaker 1: that affords him the ability to go um making no 316 00:18:49,920 --> 00:18:53,200 Speaker 1: money on documentaries. I may love him even more now. 317 00:18:53,480 --> 00:18:57,480 Speaker 1: He's great. Okay, so we're talking about malt Lak or 318 00:18:57,600 --> 00:19:00,480 Speaker 1: what was before that, Billy Do? But oh yeah, hey done. Though, 319 00:19:00,520 --> 00:19:03,159 Speaker 1: there's this all comes full circle because Errol Morris directed 320 00:19:03,160 --> 00:19:07,480 Speaker 1: a great documentary called Vernon, Florida and one of the 321 00:19:07,520 --> 00:19:10,240 Speaker 1: elderly couples in Vernon, Florida that was a whole thing 322 00:19:10,280 --> 00:19:13,560 Speaker 1: about the star of sand that they had and they 323 00:19:13,560 --> 00:19:16,240 Speaker 1: talked about the fact that the sand they collected I 324 00:19:16,280 --> 00:19:20,120 Speaker 1: think from the desert in New Mexico is actually growing nice. 325 00:19:20,400 --> 00:19:23,040 Speaker 1: So I'm glad you picked up on that, because that 326 00:19:23,160 --> 00:19:25,080 Speaker 1: is why I brought up Billy D Williams again so 327 00:19:25,119 --> 00:19:27,560 Speaker 1: we could get to that point. Man. Nice job, Chuck. 328 00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:33,160 Speaker 1: So um, you said that the river sand is really 329 00:19:33,160 --> 00:19:36,680 Speaker 1: the only kind you can use for construction. That's right, okay, 330 00:19:36,880 --> 00:19:39,400 Speaker 1: which is is true, and we're using a lot of it, 331 00:19:40,000 --> 00:19:42,359 Speaker 1: so much so that every time a city gets bigger 332 00:19:42,640 --> 00:19:44,560 Speaker 1: they build a new high rise or something like that. 333 00:19:44,960 --> 00:19:49,439 Speaker 1: Somewhere in the world a river is scraped of its sand. 334 00:19:49,560 --> 00:19:53,200 Speaker 1: A river, a lake, maybe a dam, but some inland 335 00:19:53,320 --> 00:19:56,679 Speaker 1: system of water because really river sand, from what I 336 00:19:56,720 --> 00:20:01,560 Speaker 1: can tell, is just beach sand that hasn't happened yet. Yeah, 337 00:20:01,600 --> 00:20:03,640 Speaker 1: I mean that's where it's all, but it all wants 338 00:20:03,680 --> 00:20:06,280 Speaker 1: to go there. It's all down the road and then 339 00:20:06,280 --> 00:20:08,920 Speaker 1: once it gets down to the beach, it's really broken 340 00:20:08,920 --> 00:20:12,040 Speaker 1: down to like it's it's most you know, constituent, hardest 341 00:20:12,040 --> 00:20:14,920 Speaker 1: parts that aren't going to wash away. Um, but it 342 00:20:15,080 --> 00:20:17,439 Speaker 1: it's so it's still a regular it's not it's not 343 00:20:17,560 --> 00:20:21,840 Speaker 1: smooth or polished yet. So construction is an enormous consumer 344 00:20:21,840 --> 00:20:25,880 Speaker 1: of sand. I saw that China in either in three 345 00:20:25,960 --> 00:20:30,639 Speaker 1: years or every three years uses the more the an 346 00:20:30,640 --> 00:20:34,080 Speaker 1: amount of sand that's greater than the entire amount of 347 00:20:34,119 --> 00:20:38,119 Speaker 1: sand the United States consumed in the twentieth century. Yeah, 348 00:20:38,160 --> 00:20:40,159 Speaker 1: and you know, we'll talk more about this, but a 349 00:20:40,200 --> 00:20:44,040 Speaker 1: lot of this is um well, not in China, but 350 00:20:44,119 --> 00:20:47,280 Speaker 1: in some of these vacation destinations, building these fake islands. 351 00:20:48,040 --> 00:20:50,000 Speaker 1: No China is doing that too, Oh are they doing that? 352 00:20:50,040 --> 00:20:53,880 Speaker 1: They're using it for every possible idea you can think of, well, 353 00:20:53,920 --> 00:20:57,639 Speaker 1: fake islands and then just adding you know, adding land 354 00:20:57,680 --> 00:21:00,600 Speaker 1: to the shoreline. Yeah, you want to talk a little 355 00:21:00,600 --> 00:21:04,800 Speaker 1: bit about beach nourishment here. So there's a there's something 356 00:21:04,840 --> 00:21:08,600 Speaker 1: called beach nourishment or beach replenishment or beach filling, and 357 00:21:08,600 --> 00:21:11,520 Speaker 1: it is basically like um, people are saying, Hey, are 358 00:21:11,560 --> 00:21:16,080 Speaker 1: our beaches wearing away? We really like this incredibly valuable 359 00:21:16,320 --> 00:21:20,680 Speaker 1: coastal real estate, this plot, let's get the beach back. 360 00:21:21,680 --> 00:21:25,479 Speaker 1: So they will go and get some sand. Sometimes they 361 00:21:25,520 --> 00:21:29,680 Speaker 1: import it. Sometimes they go out offshore and actually literally 362 00:21:29,760 --> 00:21:32,840 Speaker 1: vacuum the stuff up, or they'll use huge buckets to 363 00:21:32,920 --> 00:21:36,240 Speaker 1: dredge it up and then they dump it on shore 364 00:21:36,320 --> 00:21:38,840 Speaker 1: and then they run over it with some heavy equipment 365 00:21:39,320 --> 00:21:43,159 Speaker 1: and they have extended the beach significantly. Depending on the 366 00:21:43,200 --> 00:21:47,520 Speaker 1: size of the project. It can. It can replenish an 367 00:21:47,640 --> 00:21:52,280 Speaker 1: enormous beach for a very long stretch. Um. And that's 368 00:21:52,280 --> 00:21:56,320 Speaker 1: that's beach nourishment. That's a huge use of sand right now. 369 00:21:56,800 --> 00:22:00,480 Speaker 1: Um in addition to construction for river sand, but as 370 00:22:00,480 --> 00:22:03,560 Speaker 1: far as like sea sand and coastal sand, beach nourishment 371 00:22:03,640 --> 00:22:04,960 Speaker 1: is a big use of it. And then like you 372 00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:08,600 Speaker 1: were saying, building artificial islands is a is a huge use. 373 00:22:08,840 --> 00:22:12,280 Speaker 1: Like islands that just aren't were never there, They were 374 00:22:12,320 --> 00:22:15,480 Speaker 1: never It's not replenishing an island, it's hey, let's build 375 00:22:15,480 --> 00:22:17,879 Speaker 1: an island here where there really wasn't one. Yeah. And 376 00:22:17,920 --> 00:22:21,439 Speaker 1: the irony there is they're islands that are disappearing because 377 00:22:21,520 --> 00:22:24,440 Speaker 1: the sand is being taken away to build island shaped 378 00:22:24,480 --> 00:22:28,040 Speaker 1: like palm trees right off the coast. Yeah. Literally, that's 379 00:22:28,080 --> 00:22:31,160 Speaker 1: what those islands. So, like I think in Indonesia at 380 00:22:31,200 --> 00:22:34,840 Speaker 1: least twenty four islands have literally vanished because they were 381 00:22:34,880 --> 00:22:38,080 Speaker 1: mined for their sand and it was moved over to um. 382 00:22:38,119 --> 00:22:40,520 Speaker 1: I guess Dubai is that where it went. I think 383 00:22:40,680 --> 00:22:44,080 Speaker 1: Dubai Dubai or Singapore one of the Singapore those are 384 00:22:43,880 --> 00:22:46,199 Speaker 1: they're they're both doing a lot of that. Singapore, I 385 00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:49,280 Speaker 1: think is created about fifty square miles of land and 386 00:22:49,320 --> 00:22:53,600 Speaker 1: grown by twenty as a country, like physically grown because 387 00:22:53,640 --> 00:22:57,120 Speaker 1: of adding sand. Yeah, but it's just shuffling sand from 388 00:22:57,160 --> 00:23:00,080 Speaker 1: one part of the globe to another. And you know, 389 00:22:59,800 --> 00:23:02,919 Speaker 1: and the one hand, it's like that's terrible, like that 390 00:23:03,040 --> 00:23:06,119 Speaker 1: sand was meant to be there in Indonesia. Um. But 391 00:23:06,400 --> 00:23:10,600 Speaker 1: Indonesia also has like sev in habited islands that are 392 00:23:10,640 --> 00:23:14,520 Speaker 1: just basically made up of sand. Um. And who said 393 00:23:14,560 --> 00:23:16,760 Speaker 1: that they had to be there? I think it's there's 394 00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:20,160 Speaker 1: there's also something to be said about human ingenuity to say, hey, 395 00:23:20,240 --> 00:23:22,400 Speaker 1: let's move this island over here and make this other 396 00:23:22,480 --> 00:23:25,439 Speaker 1: island bigger. Yeah, can we do it? Yeah, we can 397 00:23:25,520 --> 00:23:27,960 Speaker 1: do it. It's neat much so as far as this 398 00:23:28,000 --> 00:23:31,480 Speaker 1: nourishment goes, though, it's called a soft soft armoring technique 399 00:23:31,880 --> 00:23:35,000 Speaker 1: as opposed to hard armoring like building a sea wall. 400 00:23:35,800 --> 00:23:39,200 Speaker 1: But here's the thing with beach nourishment is I mean 401 00:23:39,240 --> 00:23:41,840 Speaker 1: it sounds great, like, hey, the beach is eroding, let's 402 00:23:41,920 --> 00:23:43,560 Speaker 1: just add a bunch of sand and now the beach 403 00:23:43,680 --> 00:23:46,679 Speaker 1: is back. But think about everything on that beach. Just 404 00:23:46,800 --> 00:23:50,119 Speaker 1: dumping tons of sand on the beach, is I mean 405 00:23:50,160 --> 00:23:52,880 Speaker 1: they use a word like nourishment, I think, very purposefully 406 00:23:53,119 --> 00:23:54,800 Speaker 1: to make it sound like, oh, this is so good, 407 00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:58,760 Speaker 1: we're nourishing something. But which when you dump you know, tons, 408 00:23:58,800 --> 00:24:02,000 Speaker 1: you know, thousands of tons of sand on something, you're 409 00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:05,080 Speaker 1: gonna kill a lot of stuff underneath it. Yes, so 410 00:24:05,119 --> 00:24:09,080 Speaker 1: they're figuring out that beach nourishment in particular, if you're 411 00:24:09,080 --> 00:24:11,760 Speaker 1: going to do it, it's preferable to building a sea wall. 412 00:24:12,119 --> 00:24:14,840 Speaker 1: They're saying, like everyone agrees with that, And the reason 413 00:24:14,920 --> 00:24:17,200 Speaker 1: why is because once you build a sea wall, you're 414 00:24:17,240 --> 00:24:21,640 Speaker 1: actually preventing erosion so that the beach can never replenish itself. 415 00:24:22,560 --> 00:24:25,800 Speaker 1: And you're not necessarily affecting your own beach. You're affecting 416 00:24:25,840 --> 00:24:30,439 Speaker 1: beaches down the coast where your beach is being moved 417 00:24:30,520 --> 00:24:32,919 Speaker 1: down to that beach, and now that beach is not 418 00:24:32,920 --> 00:24:35,440 Speaker 1: being replenished because you build a sea wall. So bringing 419 00:24:35,480 --> 00:24:38,879 Speaker 1: in imported sand is preferable to building a sea wall. 420 00:24:39,160 --> 00:24:41,639 Speaker 1: But the problem is, like you're saying, you're dumping a 421 00:24:41,680 --> 00:24:44,320 Speaker 1: bunch of sand h and a place where it wasn't before, 422 00:24:44,359 --> 00:24:46,879 Speaker 1: so you're killing everything in there. And then we humans 423 00:24:46,920 --> 00:24:49,320 Speaker 1: tend to think of beaches is just a deposit of sand. 424 00:24:49,440 --> 00:24:53,919 Speaker 1: That's absolutely not correct. There is a lot of life 425 00:24:54,280 --> 00:24:58,000 Speaker 1: and ecosystems going on in the sand that we can't see. 426 00:24:58,160 --> 00:25:00,240 Speaker 1: Just because we can't see it doesn't mean it's not there. 427 00:25:00,800 --> 00:25:03,879 Speaker 1: Um that are really vital to an area. And it 428 00:25:03,920 --> 00:25:07,720 Speaker 1: has a chain reaction when you dump an enormous amount 429 00:25:07,800 --> 00:25:10,600 Speaker 1: of sand onto a beach and that it kills the 430 00:25:10,600 --> 00:25:13,480 Speaker 1: stuff that was already there, which means that higher and 431 00:25:13,560 --> 00:25:16,800 Speaker 1: higher up the food chain, that the chain is broken 432 00:25:16,880 --> 00:25:18,959 Speaker 1: or the food web is broken, and so you have 433 00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:20,800 Speaker 1: a lot of animals that just move out of the 434 00:25:20,840 --> 00:25:24,679 Speaker 1: area because you've just created a literal food desert in 435 00:25:24,720 --> 00:25:27,480 Speaker 1: the area by by dumping this stuff. So they figured 436 00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:30,879 Speaker 1: out that there's best practices on how to nourish a beach, 437 00:25:31,119 --> 00:25:33,000 Speaker 1: and part of it is to do it in smaller, 438 00:25:33,080 --> 00:25:37,400 Speaker 1: incremental projects rather than one huge project that just kills 439 00:25:37,440 --> 00:25:41,639 Speaker 1: everything off. That's a big step one to doing it right. Sure, 440 00:25:41,680 --> 00:25:43,439 Speaker 1: they also say, you know, maybe do it at the 441 00:25:43,480 --> 00:25:46,840 Speaker 1: time of the year where there are um maybe fewer seabirds. 442 00:25:46,840 --> 00:25:49,720 Speaker 1: And because this is this has a ripple effect on everything. 443 00:25:49,720 --> 00:25:51,760 Speaker 1: It's not just the creatures you're dumping the sand on, 444 00:25:52,440 --> 00:25:55,200 Speaker 1: it's birds that feed on the things down there because 445 00:25:55,200 --> 00:25:57,159 Speaker 1: all of a sudden they're going to different parts of 446 00:25:57,160 --> 00:26:00,479 Speaker 1: the beach. It affects the you know, if they're dredging 447 00:26:00,520 --> 00:26:04,560 Speaker 1: it from the ocean, you're not just scooping sand and 448 00:26:04,600 --> 00:26:08,240 Speaker 1: everything's fine. You're you're creating like these big mud zones 449 00:26:08,359 --> 00:26:11,640 Speaker 1: offshore that it's going to affect the sea life out there, 450 00:26:11,640 --> 00:26:15,040 Speaker 1: creating construction projects on the beach, which is never fun, 451 00:26:15,280 --> 00:26:17,840 Speaker 1: never good. Um. So they're saying, maybe do it at 452 00:26:17,840 --> 00:26:20,359 Speaker 1: the time of year where they're are there are less 453 00:26:20,359 --> 00:26:24,600 Speaker 1: like seabirds around. Um, you sand that has a similar 454 00:26:24,640 --> 00:26:27,359 Speaker 1: composition to the natural sand, like try and match like 455 00:26:27,520 --> 00:26:30,040 Speaker 1: sand with like sand at least. Yeah, because again like 456 00:26:30,080 --> 00:26:33,160 Speaker 1: we think, well sand is sand, that is utterly incorrect. 457 00:26:33,240 --> 00:26:36,400 Speaker 1: Like it really depends on the size, the composition. Um, 458 00:26:36,880 --> 00:26:39,119 Speaker 1: A lot of different factors are involved. And when you 459 00:26:39,359 --> 00:26:42,800 Speaker 1: when you introduce a different sand into a native sand area, 460 00:26:43,040 --> 00:26:46,119 Speaker 1: you've just utterly changed the habitat and that has a 461 00:26:46,200 --> 00:26:49,720 Speaker 1: huge effect too. So they say, you need to sample, um, 462 00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:51,920 Speaker 1: what your borrow source sand is going to be before 463 00:26:51,920 --> 00:26:53,600 Speaker 1: you use it, to make sure it matches what you're 464 00:26:53,600 --> 00:26:56,320 Speaker 1: putting on shore. And it's all they say, to plow 465 00:26:56,320 --> 00:26:58,919 Speaker 1: it afterward because that helps. But here's the thing, like, 466 00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:01,959 Speaker 1: none of this is some kind of permanent solution anyway, 467 00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:05,960 Speaker 1: because you're not stopping the erosion process. It's just a 468 00:27:06,040 --> 00:27:09,560 Speaker 1: stop gap measure. I guess that over time is just 469 00:27:09,640 --> 00:27:13,320 Speaker 1: wasted time and money. Really, well, it depends. I think 470 00:27:13,520 --> 00:27:18,360 Speaker 1: they're figuring out that there might be a a useful 471 00:27:18,560 --> 00:27:21,760 Speaker 1: least harmful way to do this, and it seems like 472 00:27:22,280 --> 00:27:25,840 Speaker 1: going out and getting the sand that you put back 473 00:27:25,880 --> 00:27:29,080 Speaker 1: that was washed out to see last time and bringing 474 00:27:29,080 --> 00:27:31,280 Speaker 1: it back is probably the best way to do it. 475 00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:34,400 Speaker 1: Although even no matter when you do it, every time, 476 00:27:34,400 --> 00:27:36,400 Speaker 1: it's going to have some sort of impact just from 477 00:27:36,400 --> 00:27:39,960 Speaker 1: the dumping the introduction of all this new sand. Yeah, 478 00:27:39,960 --> 00:27:41,399 Speaker 1: and I wonder how much of this has to do 479 00:27:41,480 --> 00:27:45,480 Speaker 1: with the fact that um generally like wealthier people on 480 00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:49,760 Speaker 1: this beach front property and they you know, they're not 481 00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:51,760 Speaker 1: having it, so we got to do something about it. 482 00:27:51,880 --> 00:27:55,160 Speaker 1: That's a huge, huge part of it. So there's there's 483 00:27:54,960 --> 00:27:58,080 Speaker 1: a third option to building sea walls and replenishing the 484 00:27:58,119 --> 00:28:02,760 Speaker 1: beach um. It's called managed retreat, which is basically saying 485 00:28:04,160 --> 00:28:06,960 Speaker 1: don't develop up on the beach, like give it way 486 00:28:06,960 --> 00:28:09,040 Speaker 1: more space than we give it and let the beach 487 00:28:09,080 --> 00:28:13,680 Speaker 1: handle itself. And everyone just laughs at whatever. Ecologists brings 488 00:28:13,720 --> 00:28:16,399 Speaker 1: that up every time. Yeah, when I go to uh 489 00:28:16,440 --> 00:28:19,920 Speaker 1: Isle of Palms, their houses, some people I think don't 490 00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:22,200 Speaker 1: like it because the houses don't sit on the sand. 491 00:28:22,920 --> 00:28:25,560 Speaker 1: They're they're way back. They're like, you know, a couple 492 00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:28,359 Speaker 1: of hundred yards back, which makes them you know a 493 00:28:28,400 --> 00:28:32,600 Speaker 1: little bit safer obviously from from tropical storms and hurricanes. 494 00:28:32,680 --> 00:28:35,520 Speaker 1: But other beaches along the coastline, you know, some of 495 00:28:35,560 --> 00:28:38,440 Speaker 1: them have water splashing up onto the porches. You know, 496 00:28:38,480 --> 00:28:41,000 Speaker 1: they're so close, right, And yeah, you want to build 497 00:28:41,040 --> 00:28:43,160 Speaker 1: behind the dunes. But the thing is, if you remember 498 00:28:43,200 --> 00:28:46,040 Speaker 1: from the Sand Dunes episode, sand dudes move further and 499 00:28:46,040 --> 00:28:48,160 Speaker 1: further inland, so eventually you're going to be in front 500 00:28:48,200 --> 00:28:50,480 Speaker 1: of the dunes even though you built way behind the dunes. 501 00:28:50,720 --> 00:28:53,520 Speaker 1: So that managed retreat is saying like, dude, build even 502 00:28:53,600 --> 00:28:55,880 Speaker 1: further back than that, Like you have to basically drive 503 00:28:55,960 --> 00:28:58,320 Speaker 1: to the beach from what I gather. Yeah, and most 504 00:28:58,320 --> 00:29:00,680 Speaker 1: of the ones that I've seen that are have the 505 00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:04,960 Speaker 1: waves splashing up on you are behind big rock and 506 00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:07,960 Speaker 1: wood sea walls, right, which is not good for the 507 00:29:08,080 --> 00:29:12,480 Speaker 1: coast down coast, you want to take another break, Yeah, 508 00:29:12,600 --> 00:29:40,600 Speaker 1: let's do it. So. Um we talked about chuck, Like 509 00:29:40,640 --> 00:29:43,120 Speaker 1: when you go out and get sand and replenish your 510 00:29:43,160 --> 00:29:48,160 Speaker 1: beach or nurse sorry, um, your beach. Um, the you're 511 00:29:48,200 --> 00:29:50,840 Speaker 1: actually going out and vacuuming it up. That's one form 512 00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:54,280 Speaker 1: of what's called dredging. You also have huge things with 513 00:29:54,600 --> 00:29:57,920 Speaker 1: enormous buckets, um that go out and scoop the sand up, 514 00:29:57,960 --> 00:30:01,840 Speaker 1: just like a vacuum would, uh or the vacuum dredges would. 515 00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:05,240 Speaker 1: And then you also have like really low five versions 516 00:30:05,280 --> 00:30:09,080 Speaker 1: to where people just take buckets and shovels and start 517 00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:11,360 Speaker 1: digging up the beach. And if you get enough people 518 00:30:11,400 --> 00:30:14,640 Speaker 1: working and enough um dump trucks in a line that 519 00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:17,240 Speaker 1: are just getting filled up by hand, you can have 520 00:30:17,400 --> 00:30:21,360 Speaker 1: the same effect as using a really fancy you know, 521 00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:28,760 Speaker 1: trailing suction hopper dredge. Yeah. About half or more of 522 00:30:28,800 --> 00:30:32,640 Speaker 1: this stuff is usually illegally mined. So when you see 523 00:30:33,600 --> 00:30:39,200 Speaker 1: uh humans um diving, which they will do. Uh, that's 524 00:30:39,440 --> 00:30:41,520 Speaker 1: you know. I think in Morocco about half the sand 525 00:30:42,280 --> 00:30:45,520 Speaker 1: is illegal from the coastline, and when you see these boats. 526 00:30:45,520 --> 00:30:48,400 Speaker 1: There's a great article and Wired called the Deadly Global 527 00:30:48,400 --> 00:30:53,800 Speaker 1: War for Sand written by Vents Bassier in two thousand fifteen. 528 00:30:54,320 --> 00:30:57,560 Speaker 1: Highly recommend people read this one because they get into 529 00:30:57,640 --> 00:31:00,800 Speaker 1: the black market for sand and the illegue sand trade 530 00:31:01,320 --> 00:31:03,840 Speaker 1: and the fact that you know, there's this one farming 531 00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:06,240 Speaker 1: village where this man was straight up murdered because for 532 00:31:06,320 --> 00:31:10,400 Speaker 1: ten years he'd been campaigning to authorities to get what's 533 00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:13,640 Speaker 1: called the sand mafia shut down, so they will straight 534 00:31:13,680 --> 00:31:16,840 Speaker 1: up murder people. In India, the sand mafia is has 535 00:31:16,920 --> 00:31:20,440 Speaker 1: killed hundreds of people. Yeah, including like cops, Oh yeah, 536 00:31:20,440 --> 00:31:23,720 Speaker 1: government officials. The bribes. I think in two thousand ten, 537 00:31:23,840 --> 00:31:27,960 Speaker 1: dozens of Malaysian officials, Um, we're charged with accepting bribes, 538 00:31:28,240 --> 00:31:32,000 Speaker 1: sexual favors. Um. Even if you have a permit. I 539 00:31:32,040 --> 00:31:34,360 Speaker 1: think in some of these places, I think um Bali, 540 00:31:34,480 --> 00:31:38,120 Speaker 1: for instance, seven percent of sand mines have no permits. 541 00:31:38,480 --> 00:31:40,720 Speaker 1: And even if you do have a legal permit, you're 542 00:31:40,800 --> 00:31:44,280 Speaker 1: using bribes and kickbacks to dig deeper and wider. So 543 00:31:44,640 --> 00:31:47,600 Speaker 1: there are at least a dozen countries where illegal smuggling 544 00:31:48,200 --> 00:31:51,400 Speaker 1: is just perpetually going on. Right, like sand, we're talking 545 00:31:51,440 --> 00:31:54,240 Speaker 1: sand here. We didn't accidentally trapes into like heroin. We're 546 00:31:54,240 --> 00:31:57,200 Speaker 1: talking about sand. Yeah, that's how much of a demand 547 00:31:57,200 --> 00:32:00,320 Speaker 1: there is for it, and what's crazy is it's still 548 00:32:00,440 --> 00:32:03,200 Speaker 1: relatively cheap. I saw as low as ten dollars a 549 00:32:03,240 --> 00:32:06,760 Speaker 1: ton um ed has in here up to I think 550 00:32:07,160 --> 00:32:11,480 Speaker 1: has twenty a ton, And granted sand is very very heavy, 551 00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:15,560 Speaker 1: um so like a ton is something like a cubic yard, 552 00:32:15,640 --> 00:32:18,960 Speaker 1: I believe. But still that's a lot of work and 553 00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:21,320 Speaker 1: a lot of murder for something that you sell for 554 00:32:21,400 --> 00:32:25,240 Speaker 1: ten dollars a ton. But even at that price point, 555 00:32:25,440 --> 00:32:30,000 Speaker 1: that's still something like a seven increase in the price 556 00:32:30,040 --> 00:32:33,280 Speaker 1: of that commodity since the nineteen seventies. And the reason 557 00:32:33,360 --> 00:32:38,760 Speaker 1: why it's been skyrocketing and value is because we're using 558 00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:41,200 Speaker 1: so much of it and locking so much of it 559 00:32:41,320 --> 00:32:45,440 Speaker 1: up in construction projects and and using it also to 560 00:32:45,520 --> 00:32:49,320 Speaker 1: create artificial islands. Yeah. This one UM article though I 561 00:32:49,320 --> 00:32:51,240 Speaker 1: think it was a Wired one that was talking about Morocco. 562 00:32:51,920 --> 00:32:53,960 Speaker 1: They said, you know, parts of Morocco now looked like 563 00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:56,880 Speaker 1: the surface of the moon, whereas years ago there were 564 00:32:57,120 --> 00:33:00,720 Speaker 1: you know, sandy beaches, and now they're rocky. So the 565 00:33:00,760 --> 00:33:04,360 Speaker 1: irony is they're there, you know, they don't have any 566 00:33:04,400 --> 00:33:07,440 Speaker 1: more beaches because they're taking all the sand to use 567 00:33:07,880 --> 00:33:14,000 Speaker 1: to build hotels and fake islands to attract people to beaches, right, 568 00:33:14,560 --> 00:33:18,320 Speaker 1: So it's just basically a shuffling of sand around the 569 00:33:18,320 --> 00:33:22,440 Speaker 1: globe in that sense. But river sand that's different. And 570 00:33:22,480 --> 00:33:25,400 Speaker 1: no matter how you how you extract center where you 571 00:33:25,480 --> 00:33:30,840 Speaker 1: extract it from, you are deeply impacting the local ecosystem. 572 00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:33,760 Speaker 1: Like turning a beautiful beach of Morocco into the surface 573 00:33:33,840 --> 00:33:36,560 Speaker 1: of the Moon is going to have some negative effects. 574 00:33:36,840 --> 00:33:40,000 Speaker 1: Same thing goes for river dredging as well. Um, the 575 00:33:40,040 --> 00:33:43,920 Speaker 1: biggest sand mine in the world is uh Po young 576 00:33:44,520 --> 00:33:48,760 Speaker 1: Po p O y n G Lake, which is south 577 00:33:48,760 --> 00:33:52,400 Speaker 1: of Shanghai, which is helping fuel Shanghai's enormous construction boom 578 00:33:52,480 --> 00:33:55,800 Speaker 1: right now. And there's also sand mining basically everywhere you 579 00:33:56,200 --> 00:33:59,600 Speaker 1: everywhere there's a river, there's probably somebody mining it, including 580 00:33:59,600 --> 00:34:02,520 Speaker 1: in the u US there's sand mines. Um, there's one 581 00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:04,840 Speaker 1: and along the San Jacino River. Is that how you 582 00:34:04,880 --> 00:34:09,800 Speaker 1: say that san Jacinto? Yeah? Okay um. And it's the problem. 583 00:34:09,800 --> 00:34:13,359 Speaker 1: One of the problems, aside from just impacting the local wildlife, 584 00:34:13,400 --> 00:34:16,680 Speaker 1: that that the sand, this silt and sand is part 585 00:34:16,719 --> 00:34:20,200 Speaker 1: of like the the ecosystem. Is when you take out 586 00:34:20,800 --> 00:34:25,680 Speaker 1: part of the river bed, you expand that river's potential 587 00:34:25,880 --> 00:34:29,920 Speaker 1: for flow. And they think that Hurricane Harvey in Houston 588 00:34:30,480 --> 00:34:35,560 Speaker 1: was really exacerbated from this sand mining along the San 589 00:34:35,640 --> 00:34:39,040 Speaker 1: Jacino River that allowed way more flood and storm water 590 00:34:39,120 --> 00:34:42,319 Speaker 1: to flow through it, way more quickly. Yeah, and here's 591 00:34:42,320 --> 00:34:44,640 Speaker 1: the other thing is, you know we've talked about besides 592 00:34:44,719 --> 00:34:48,200 Speaker 1: the fact that we are you know, naturally sand isn't 593 00:34:48,239 --> 00:34:51,520 Speaker 1: being produced nearly enough to account for what we're um 594 00:34:51,600 --> 00:34:55,520 Speaker 1: stealing and locking in. But six of the world's rivers 595 00:34:55,640 --> 00:35:00,680 Speaker 1: are interrupted by dams. So even if we're in a 596 00:35:00,800 --> 00:35:04,000 Speaker 1: in an ideal case like producing enough sand to kind 597 00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:07,000 Speaker 1: of be equal, it's not getting down to the mouth 598 00:35:07,040 --> 00:35:09,560 Speaker 1: of the river where it all wants to eventually go. No, 599 00:35:10,040 --> 00:35:12,319 Speaker 1: but I did see that. One one thing you can 600 00:35:12,360 --> 00:35:15,120 Speaker 1: do is like, if you're a sand mining company, you'd 601 00:35:15,120 --> 00:35:17,359 Speaker 1: be very smart to make a contract with a dam 602 00:35:17,440 --> 00:35:21,200 Speaker 1: operator and say you need the sand like out of 603 00:35:21,239 --> 00:35:23,879 Speaker 1: your dam, Right, I can get it out, Just let 604 00:35:23,880 --> 00:35:27,520 Speaker 1: me take it for free, and you've you've solved two problems. Right. 605 00:35:27,840 --> 00:35:32,439 Speaker 1: But because we're consuming sand at about double the rate 606 00:35:32,480 --> 00:35:36,040 Speaker 1: of production for river sand, about half of that sand 607 00:35:36,080 --> 00:35:37,640 Speaker 1: you get out of a dam should be brought back 608 00:35:37,760 --> 00:35:40,799 Speaker 1: up to the river and basically spread through like the 609 00:35:40,800 --> 00:35:44,040 Speaker 1: head of the river. Um. But they're not going to 610 00:35:44,120 --> 00:35:46,919 Speaker 1: do that because they can sell it instead. But yeah, 611 00:35:47,040 --> 00:35:51,560 Speaker 1: as I puts, like our our ecological disasters are creating 612 00:35:51,560 --> 00:35:55,839 Speaker 1: problems for other ecological disasters. Yeah. And but going back 613 00:35:55,880 --> 00:35:59,399 Speaker 1: to the ocean sand, which is can be illegally mine 614 00:35:59,440 --> 00:36:02,480 Speaker 1: from the ocean floor by people diving, they're also exploiting 615 00:36:02,600 --> 00:36:06,360 Speaker 1: people and workers because there's I looked up. I was 616 00:36:06,400 --> 00:36:08,799 Speaker 1: trying to get a pay rate and this one guy 617 00:36:09,280 --> 00:36:11,760 Speaker 1: forty one years old dives two hundred times a day. 618 00:36:11,800 --> 00:36:14,920 Speaker 1: This is from that Wired article, and he makes sixteen 619 00:36:14,960 --> 00:36:18,600 Speaker 1: dollars a day. And like you know, their families are 620 00:36:18,600 --> 00:36:21,560 Speaker 1: all at work, and they're literally diving off of boats 621 00:36:21,560 --> 00:36:25,799 Speaker 1: with buckets and then swimming back to the top like 622 00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:29,239 Speaker 1: John Steinbeck style and putting sand in a boat right 623 00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:33,080 Speaker 1: with a bucket of sand, which is not exactly light. 624 00:36:33,719 --> 00:36:37,000 Speaker 1: It's a really dangerous thing to do. Yeah, in India, 625 00:36:37,080 --> 00:36:39,400 Speaker 1: you know where I think it's got the worst problems. 626 00:36:39,400 --> 00:36:42,280 Speaker 1: They're trying to do stuff. But from what I've gathered, 627 00:36:42,360 --> 00:36:45,520 Speaker 1: it's sort of a lot of it is for show, 628 00:36:45,760 --> 00:36:48,279 Speaker 1: Like anytime someone knew is elected or there's a new 629 00:36:48,320 --> 00:36:50,920 Speaker 1: person in power. They make a big show about stopping 630 00:36:50,920 --> 00:36:52,960 Speaker 1: the you know, the sand wars and the sand trade. 631 00:36:53,680 --> 00:36:56,360 Speaker 1: But it's a country of a billion people and it 632 00:36:56,520 --> 00:37:01,200 Speaker 1: is got hundreds or probably thousands of illegal operations going on. 633 00:37:01,400 --> 00:37:04,040 Speaker 1: And you shut one down, another pops like ten more 634 00:37:04,080 --> 00:37:07,879 Speaker 1: pop up, and it's so corrupt and violent that it's 635 00:37:08,040 --> 00:37:11,120 Speaker 1: you know, it's looking pretty grim as far as like, hey, 636 00:37:11,200 --> 00:37:14,719 Speaker 1: let's really stop this from happening. Yeah, but also don't 637 00:37:14,719 --> 00:37:17,440 Speaker 1: don't forget the fact that like these mafia have proven 638 00:37:17,640 --> 00:37:22,239 Speaker 1: that they will like murder people, including government officials. So 639 00:37:22,360 --> 00:37:25,080 Speaker 1: that's a really intractable problem. It seems like over there, 640 00:37:25,120 --> 00:37:27,520 Speaker 1: people in smaller villages are doing you know, they will 641 00:37:27,560 --> 00:37:30,600 Speaker 1: like block off roads with cars and stuff to stop 642 00:37:30,680 --> 00:37:32,839 Speaker 1: or with trees to stop the cars and trucks, but 643 00:37:33,360 --> 00:37:36,080 Speaker 1: then they will get attacked. So it's really grim. And 644 00:37:36,120 --> 00:37:39,400 Speaker 1: this is sand, right, it is sand. So if you 645 00:37:39,480 --> 00:37:42,959 Speaker 1: wanted to address this, you have to think of it 646 00:37:44,040 --> 00:37:46,160 Speaker 1: in just the same way that you think of something 647 00:37:46,239 --> 00:37:50,839 Speaker 1: like um, Like anytime there's an organized crime involved, you 648 00:37:50,880 --> 00:37:53,000 Speaker 1: have to think of it just like you're dealing with, say, 649 00:37:53,040 --> 00:37:56,040 Speaker 1: like the flow of cocaine. Do you go after the 650 00:37:56,080 --> 00:37:58,319 Speaker 1: farmers who produced the cocaine. Do you go after the 651 00:37:58,360 --> 00:38:01,120 Speaker 1: cartels who are smuggling the coke cane or do you 652 00:38:01,160 --> 00:38:04,600 Speaker 1: go do you try to um keep the end user 653 00:38:05,040 --> 00:38:08,400 Speaker 1: from wanting it? Do you do you affect demand? And 654 00:38:08,440 --> 00:38:11,600 Speaker 1: there's some proposals that seem to say, well, we're not 655 00:38:11,640 --> 00:38:14,160 Speaker 1: going to be able to do anything about production, let's 656 00:38:14,200 --> 00:38:17,440 Speaker 1: try to see what we can do about demand. And 657 00:38:17,560 --> 00:38:19,960 Speaker 1: one of the first things to do is to say, 658 00:38:20,239 --> 00:38:23,279 Speaker 1: don't use so much concrete, Like, let's figure out some 659 00:38:23,320 --> 00:38:26,799 Speaker 1: other materials that that that we can use for like 660 00:38:26,880 --> 00:38:31,040 Speaker 1: smaller construction projects that really don't necessarily need concrete, and 661 00:38:31,280 --> 00:38:33,880 Speaker 1: we'll we'll use those instead and save concrete for this 662 00:38:33,920 --> 00:38:36,480 Speaker 1: stuff where it is really needed. Yeah, like if you're 663 00:38:36,520 --> 00:38:39,640 Speaker 1: building a nuclear power plant, you need the concrete. But 664 00:38:39,680 --> 00:38:42,800 Speaker 1: if you're building an average home, there are probably ways 665 00:38:42,840 --> 00:38:45,279 Speaker 1: to get around this. Sure, you can use things like 666 00:38:45,480 --> 00:38:50,040 Speaker 1: panda claws or condor feathers as building materials rather than 667 00:38:50,120 --> 00:38:53,640 Speaker 1: precious sand. Well, there's glass, and you know we talked 668 00:38:53,640 --> 00:38:58,080 Speaker 1: earlier about sand as uh is glass to a certain degree, 669 00:38:58,080 --> 00:39:00,800 Speaker 1: and you why don't you just crush that down, grind 670 00:39:00,840 --> 00:39:04,160 Speaker 1: it up again. Um, there is also artificial sand because 671 00:39:04,239 --> 00:39:06,680 Speaker 1: you know, sand is just rock. You can technically, you 672 00:39:06,680 --> 00:39:09,319 Speaker 1: can grind down rocks down to sand, but all of 673 00:39:09,360 --> 00:39:11,960 Speaker 1: that stuff is I mean, no one's gonna do that 674 00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:15,319 Speaker 1: because it's so expensive for now, for now. But that's 675 00:39:15,320 --> 00:39:17,960 Speaker 1: the whole idea is is to get these kind of 676 00:39:18,440 --> 00:39:21,319 Speaker 1: get these things in place, and the more scarce real 677 00:39:21,360 --> 00:39:24,799 Speaker 1: sand becomes than people, you know, the equal the cost 678 00:39:24,880 --> 00:39:27,719 Speaker 1: might equal out and people might turn to artificial sand, right. 679 00:39:27,760 --> 00:39:30,200 Speaker 1: But the unfortunate thing is is that implies that we 680 00:39:30,239 --> 00:39:33,040 Speaker 1: need to keep waiting and just abide this kind of 681 00:39:33,080 --> 00:39:37,399 Speaker 1: ecological disaster that is sand mining, until sand becomes so 682 00:39:37,480 --> 00:39:42,120 Speaker 1: scarce that artificial sand becomes a viable alternative. Which sucks. Yeah, 683 00:39:42,160 --> 00:39:46,080 Speaker 1: I don't. I mean, hopefully this falls under the under 684 00:39:46,120 --> 00:39:49,680 Speaker 1: the umbrella of people who want to have best practices 685 00:39:49,719 --> 00:39:52,640 Speaker 1: for the environment. Put this is on the radar now, 686 00:39:52,760 --> 00:39:56,080 Speaker 1: you know, along with like solar power and everything else. Yeah, 687 00:39:56,320 --> 00:39:58,560 Speaker 1: we need somebody to come along and figure out how 688 00:39:58,680 --> 00:40:03,360 Speaker 1: to create artificial sand from gravel very easily, although gravel 689 00:40:03,400 --> 00:40:07,319 Speaker 1: extractions not exactly environmental impact free. We need to figure 690 00:40:07,320 --> 00:40:12,040 Speaker 1: out how to turn trash into vastly superior river sand. 691 00:40:13,280 --> 00:40:15,560 Speaker 1: That would be great. Okay, can someone get on that. 692 00:40:16,640 --> 00:40:20,520 Speaker 1: Can we divert one of our multiple ventriloquists who are 693 00:40:20,560 --> 00:40:25,200 Speaker 1: apparently not doing anything useful in Chuck's opinion, to figuring 694 00:40:25,239 --> 00:40:29,680 Speaker 1: out how to convert trash into river sand. You know what, 695 00:40:29,760 --> 00:40:33,719 Speaker 1: we didn't get one angry letter from a ventriloquist. As 696 00:40:33,719 --> 00:40:35,759 Speaker 1: a matter of fact, you seem to have a You 697 00:40:35,920 --> 00:40:40,120 Speaker 1: enjoy wide support in your opinion of ventriloquists, You really do. 698 00:40:40,440 --> 00:40:44,400 Speaker 1: Most people don't like them apparently. So, uh, are you 699 00:40:44,400 --> 00:40:47,359 Speaker 1: got anything else about ventriloquists or sand? No? I don't 700 00:40:47,360 --> 00:40:48,840 Speaker 1: think so. I think this is a good one to 701 00:40:48,840 --> 00:40:53,080 Speaker 1: put on people's radar during Well, I guess this is 702 00:40:53,120 --> 00:40:55,000 Speaker 1: sort of the tail end of summer beach season. But 703 00:40:55,840 --> 00:40:58,040 Speaker 1: you know, when you're out there with the sand and 704 00:40:58,120 --> 00:41:00,640 Speaker 1: you're just look around and think about a little bit. 705 00:41:00,640 --> 00:41:03,080 Speaker 1: I know that ocean sand isn't what they're using for construction. 706 00:41:03,120 --> 00:41:05,239 Speaker 1: But next time you go to a lake or a river, 707 00:41:05,560 --> 00:41:08,920 Speaker 1: just kind of keep this in the back of your head. Yeah, really, 708 00:41:09,400 --> 00:41:14,359 Speaker 1: let it like depress your experience and watch your back case. 709 00:41:14,440 --> 00:41:18,799 Speaker 1: Josh is nearby with a candlestick, right. Uh, Well, I 710 00:41:18,880 --> 00:41:22,080 Speaker 1: think that's it for sand for now. If you want 711 00:41:22,080 --> 00:41:23,840 Speaker 1: to know more about Sand and Sand to please and 712 00:41:23,840 --> 00:41:26,040 Speaker 1: go check it out. There's a lot of ink that's 713 00:41:26,080 --> 00:41:28,759 Speaker 1: been spilled over it. And since I said that it's 714 00:41:28,840 --> 00:41:34,759 Speaker 1: time for the listener mail, that's right before listener mail, though, 715 00:41:34,800 --> 00:41:37,200 Speaker 1: we want to do a couple of things. Um, I 716 00:41:37,200 --> 00:41:40,120 Speaker 1: know we had the at the onset of this show, 717 00:41:40,160 --> 00:41:42,879 Speaker 1: we probably had a little little pre role for our 718 00:41:43,080 --> 00:41:45,879 Speaker 1: upcoming shows. But we're just a couple of weeks out, 719 00:41:46,239 --> 00:41:50,840 Speaker 1: by my math from being in New Orleans and Orlando 720 00:41:51,080 --> 00:41:54,440 Speaker 1: for live shows. So we'd love to just encourage people 721 00:41:54,440 --> 00:41:56,239 Speaker 1: to go out there. We're gonna be in Orlando a 722 00:41:56,320 --> 00:41:59,560 Speaker 1: Plaza live on October night, in New Orleans the next 723 00:41:59,640 --> 00:42:02,080 Speaker 1: night on t Then I don't know if tickets are 724 00:42:02,120 --> 00:42:04,360 Speaker 1: going to be around, so you hopefully you can you 725 00:42:04,360 --> 00:42:07,040 Speaker 1: can still get him at this point, yes, I would 726 00:42:07,360 --> 00:42:10,319 Speaker 1: skidaddle over to the internet and try to get your 727 00:42:10,360 --> 00:42:13,560 Speaker 1: hands on some right now. And then our friends at 728 00:42:13,600 --> 00:42:18,040 Speaker 1: co ED, the Cooperative for Education many years ago, they 729 00:42:18,440 --> 00:42:22,680 Speaker 1: took us down along with Jerry to Guatemala and we 730 00:42:22,719 --> 00:42:25,200 Speaker 1: went on one of their tours and it was great. Yes, 731 00:42:25,239 --> 00:42:28,239 Speaker 1: it was. Um that the stuff you should know Guatemalan 732 00:42:28,320 --> 00:42:30,359 Speaker 1: Adventure Parts one and two you can still go listen 733 00:42:30,360 --> 00:42:32,759 Speaker 1: to those and they want to encourage people to come 734 00:42:32,760 --> 00:42:35,320 Speaker 1: out again for some tours. They've had stuff you should 735 00:42:35,320 --> 00:42:39,600 Speaker 1: know members members, Army members, I guess yeah, Army members, 736 00:42:39,719 --> 00:42:43,160 Speaker 1: listeners go down to these tours because of us mentioning 737 00:42:43,160 --> 00:42:45,720 Speaker 1: on the show, and it's really life changing. They're still 738 00:42:45,719 --> 00:42:47,560 Speaker 1: doing this kind of work down there. They're breaking the 739 00:42:47,600 --> 00:42:51,640 Speaker 1: cycle of poverty in Guatemala through education, and they're still 740 00:42:51,680 --> 00:42:54,680 Speaker 1: hosting people just like they did us on these week 741 00:42:54,719 --> 00:42:57,600 Speaker 1: long trips. Um, it's a lot of fun, it's very 742 00:42:57,640 --> 00:43:01,920 Speaker 1: eye opening, it's very meaningful. It's all the things put together. Um, 743 00:43:01,960 --> 00:43:05,040 Speaker 1: you're gonna make some lifelong friends, I guarantee it. And 744 00:43:05,239 --> 00:43:07,399 Speaker 1: there you know, we just can't encourage you to enough 745 00:43:07,440 --> 00:43:09,200 Speaker 1: to go on one of these tours. Yeah. Co Ide 746 00:43:09,200 --> 00:43:10,960 Speaker 1: really knows how to take care of their guests too, 747 00:43:11,040 --> 00:43:13,040 Speaker 1: Like they really get across what they're doing and they 748 00:43:13,080 --> 00:43:15,120 Speaker 1: take you to the places that are being helped. But 749 00:43:15,200 --> 00:43:16,879 Speaker 1: they also I mean it is a lot of fun 750 00:43:16,920 --> 00:43:19,439 Speaker 1: as well, and they take you some very beautiful spots. Sure, 751 00:43:19,680 --> 00:43:21,919 Speaker 1: it's all these great things wrapped up into one great 752 00:43:21,920 --> 00:43:26,040 Speaker 1: opportunity coming up in November. In February, you can learn 753 00:43:26,040 --> 00:43:29,319 Speaker 1: more about these tours at Cooperative for Education dot org 754 00:43:29,719 --> 00:43:35,879 Speaker 1: slash tours. Chuck. Now finally a listener mail. Alright, lay 755 00:43:35,880 --> 00:43:38,000 Speaker 1: it honest, Chuck, because speaking of live shows, we just 756 00:43:38,040 --> 00:43:41,040 Speaker 1: finished up our shows in Boston, Portland, Maine and they 757 00:43:41,040 --> 00:43:45,360 Speaker 1: were great. And this is from an attendee. Okay, I 758 00:43:45,400 --> 00:43:46,920 Speaker 1: wanted to write in to tell you guys how much 759 00:43:46,960 --> 00:43:50,200 Speaker 1: fun your live show in Portland was. I am from Connecticut, 760 00:43:50,280 --> 00:43:53,080 Speaker 1: but my sister just started as a freshman at the 761 00:43:53,160 --> 00:43:56,240 Speaker 1: University of New England and Biddeford, which is just south 762 00:43:56,280 --> 00:43:58,880 Speaker 1: of Portland. I was already planning on coming up to 763 00:43:59,000 --> 00:44:02,160 Speaker 1: visit her after her first week in school, and I 764 00:44:02,200 --> 00:44:04,560 Speaker 1: was listening heard you were coming to Portland and it 765 00:44:04,600 --> 00:44:07,799 Speaker 1: couldn't have been more perfect timing wise. Coming to one 766 00:44:07,800 --> 00:44:09,600 Speaker 1: of your shows was. It was a bucket list item 767 00:44:09,640 --> 00:44:11,600 Speaker 1: for me and it's cool that I got to explore 768 00:44:11,600 --> 00:44:14,919 Speaker 1: a new place, even though I myself was um never 769 00:44:15,040 --> 00:44:20,360 Speaker 1: big into topic redacted. You guys always know how to 770 00:44:20,400 --> 00:44:23,720 Speaker 1: make all of the topics so interesting and reach different audiences. Plus, 771 00:44:24,000 --> 00:44:25,920 Speaker 1: it was really cool just to be around so many 772 00:44:25,960 --> 00:44:28,440 Speaker 1: stuff you should know fans. Even better, my wife, who 773 00:44:28,480 --> 00:44:31,000 Speaker 1: was not even a listener. It was a great sport. 774 00:44:31,080 --> 00:44:32,799 Speaker 1: Came to the show. It was amazed to see how 775 00:44:32,800 --> 00:44:34,480 Speaker 1: many people were there and had a lot of fun. 776 00:44:35,360 --> 00:44:36,600 Speaker 1: Although you hear it all the time, I want to 777 00:44:36,640 --> 00:44:39,480 Speaker 1: say again thank you what you and the other podcasters 778 00:44:39,480 --> 00:44:42,480 Speaker 1: out there due uh to cultivate learning and creativity for 779 00:44:42,520 --> 00:44:45,560 Speaker 1: all ages and communities is awesome. And that is from 780 00:44:45,600 --> 00:44:49,479 Speaker 1: Alex and thank you. Boston and Portland, Maine. Great great 781 00:44:49,520 --> 00:44:52,439 Speaker 1: time on those shows. Yeah, but that was an amazing time. 782 00:44:52,480 --> 00:44:57,200 Speaker 1: And driving between Boston and Portland was really awesome too. 783 00:44:57,680 --> 00:45:00,279 Speaker 1: It was wonderful. Uh. Emily and my daughter came up 784 00:45:00,320 --> 00:45:02,759 Speaker 1: and we spent the weekend in Portland and I went 785 00:45:02,760 --> 00:45:05,839 Speaker 1: out to can A bunk Port and Cape Elizabeth and 786 00:45:06,719 --> 00:45:10,080 Speaker 1: Peaks Island and it is a pretty magical place there 787 00:45:10,080 --> 00:45:13,920 Speaker 1: in the summertime, it really is. It's crazy. Yeah, So 788 00:45:14,000 --> 00:45:16,000 Speaker 1: thanks everybody for having us out and we'll see you 789 00:45:16,000 --> 00:45:18,279 Speaker 1: again soon. Well, if you want to get in touch 790 00:45:18,320 --> 00:45:20,120 Speaker 1: with us, you can go on to Stuff you Should 791 00:45:20,160 --> 00:45:24,520 Speaker 1: Know and uh follow us on our social stuff, and 792 00:45:24,520 --> 00:45:26,319 Speaker 1: then you can also just send us a good old 793 00:45:26,320 --> 00:45:29,160 Speaker 1: fashioned email, wrap it up, spank it on the bottom, 794 00:45:29,239 --> 00:45:32,600 Speaker 1: and send it off to Stuff Podcast at I Heeart 795 00:45:32,719 --> 00:45:38,400 Speaker 1: radio dot com. Stuff you Should Know is a production 796 00:45:38,440 --> 00:45:41,160 Speaker 1: of iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more podcasts for 797 00:45:41,200 --> 00:45:44,000 Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, 798 00:45:44,080 --> 00:45:45,760 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.