WEBVTT - We Are Running Out of Sand and That Actually Matters 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:03.559 Hey, everybody, it's me Josh and this Wednesday, October two, 0:00:03.920 --> 0:00:07.040 I'm going to be in beautiful Austin, Texas to do 0:00:07.160 --> 0:00:09.680 the live version of my End of the World with 0:00:09.840 --> 0:00:13.040 Josh Clark show. I'll be at the North Door and 0:00:13.119 --> 0:00:16.960 you can get tickets in info at n D venue 0:00:17.320 --> 0:00:19.840 dot com. Just search for the End of the World 0:00:19.840 --> 0:00:23.680 with Josh Clark and there's a few tickets left for 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:26.680 the Stuff You Should Know live show in New Orleans 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:30.479 on October tent For those tickets and more information, go 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:34.080 to s y s K live dot com. Tickets are 0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:38.159 going fast to both shows, and we'll see you in October. Everybody. 0:00:38.840 --> 0:00:41.199 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of I 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:50.200 Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:50.240 --> 0:00:53.200 I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles W Chuck Bryant, there's 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:58.480 Jerry over there, and uh like Staying through the Hourglass. 0:00:59.320 --> 0:01:05.360 These are the uh podcasts of our lives. I love 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:08.240 that and that that beginning so much that I just 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:11.280 made an homage to it. I didn't even realize I 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:13.080 loved it until it was coming out of my mouth 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:18.280 and I was thinking, God, this is so good. You know, 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:20.319 we live in a cancel culture, we might get canceled 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:24.559 for that one for what the Days of Our Lives reference? Yeah, 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:29.399 just because it was so bad. Okay, yeah, yeah, we 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:31.560 we It's an odd time to be alive, isn't it. 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:35.000 That's right, we're in the transition. But in true stuff 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:37.080 you should know fashion we are doing an episode on 0:01:37.200 --> 0:01:41.800 sand after about what a month or so after an 0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:45.000 episode on sand dunes? Right, and this is technically not 0:01:45.120 --> 0:01:49.400 even necessarily the sand episode. It may be we're gonna better, 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:52.880 we're gonna put it together like it is, but there 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:55.600 may come a time fifty sixty years down the road 0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:59.640 when life extension is really kicked in and we're still 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:02.360 doing this where we're like, we gotta do just saying 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:06.640 it now. Yeah, except by then, the episode maybe titled 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:11.279 what was sand? That's right, man, because boy, this episode 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:15.160 is depressing. Yeah, and it could be titled sand colon 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:19.679 yet another way humans are destroying our planet. Yeah, oh look, 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:23.359 another ecological disaster added to the list. But we need 0:02:23.440 --> 0:02:27.120 hotels in fake islands. Yeah, the fake islands kind of 0:02:27.160 --> 0:02:31.600 got me the most, you know. Yeah, but we're spoiling 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:35.919 this thing. Oh sorry, sorry, So sand, there's a lot 0:02:36.000 --> 0:02:40.560 of it so much so. The way back in the day, Archimedes, 0:02:40.919 --> 0:02:44.320 one of our favorite people, UM used it in a 0:02:44.360 --> 0:02:47.480 thought experiment called the sand reckon Er. And in the 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:50.880 sand Reckoner, he basically he created this to to start 0:02:50.960 --> 0:02:54.359 figuring out how to how to create numbers to express 0:02:54.520 --> 0:03:00.000 extraordinarily large values, because that's what it's used for. Still, yeah, 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:02.320 just because there's so much of it. It's either it 0:03:02.400 --> 0:03:05.760 depends there's the world is divided into two types of people, Chuck, 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:10.079 people who point to the stars as an enormous number, 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:13.320 example of am enormous number, and people who point to sand, 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:16.720 and then people like us that use big max. That's right, 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:20.200 that's true. That's size, though not number, it's size. It 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:24.919 could be length member we've stacked him to the moon before, Um, 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:28.000 but so our comedies came up with a base of 0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:31.519 one million. That's what he started with, and he figured 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:33.840 out how to how to express numbers up to eight 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:36.640 times ten to the sixty three power with the sand 0:03:36.680 --> 0:03:39.800 reckon or thing. And the point of it is is like, yes, 0:03:39.840 --> 0:03:42.400 there's a ton of sand, a lot of sand, so 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:45.680 much so I've seen um that there's seven and a 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:49.200 half billion billion grains of sand just on the world's beaches. 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:54.280 That's from University Hawaii. I saw another one from Chris 0:03:54.360 --> 0:04:00.280 Flynn from Tour Observatory in Finland. He estimated a mill allion, 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:03.560 billion billion grains of sand just on the world's beaches. 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:08.680 So I'm just gonna say a jillion jillian bazillion because 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:12.440 apparently you can say whatever. Yeah, but there's a lot. 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:15.120 But the point is this, there is a lot of sand, 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:18.840 especially depending on the math and the grain of the 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:22.120 grain size, that kind of stuff. But there's a finite 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:25.919 amount of sand. And what's been going on behind the 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:32.520 scenes for decades now is a very um rapid depletion 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:36.600 of the available sources of sand, so much so that 0:04:36.640 --> 0:04:39.640 it is literally being shuffled from one part of the 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:43.839 world to another, from poorer countries to wealthier countries, sometimes 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:48.080 from uh some inland areas out to other areas, from 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:51.800 the rural areas to the cities. Um, there's a huge 0:04:51.839 --> 0:04:55.679 sand shuffle going on, and it is proving pretty rough 0:04:56.040 --> 0:05:00.320 for the environment as a result. Yeah. I mean, first all, 0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:04.400 I'm forty eight years old and this is the first 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:07.279 I've really heard of this. Like, I don't know, I 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:09.680 thought there was just enough sand for all of time, 0:05:09.920 --> 0:05:11.520 you would think. So, I mean, look at a desert. 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:13.960 That's a lot of sand, right, But here's the deal. 0:05:14.240 --> 0:05:19.960 We use about fifteen billion tons for just construction every year, 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:23.560 and they are mining worldwide about forty billion tons of 0:05:23.600 --> 0:05:27.520 sandy year. I think that's sand and gravel. But still, well, 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:30.080 I do know that it is. I think with gravel. 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:34.480 There's a u N report called Sand and Sustainability. That 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:39.320 report from UNIP United Nations Environment Program. So crushed rock, 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:42.039 sand and gravel account for the largest volume of extracted 0:05:42.080 --> 0:05:46.600 solid material worldwide. Okay, so you're saying, like more than oil, 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:50.400 more than natural gas, more than any other Is that 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:53.719 solid material? Yeah? Okay, I think so. I'm not sure 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:56.040 what they mean by that is, look, is oil is solid? 0:05:56.640 --> 0:05:58.800 I I don't know. So I saw it also. Put 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:02.559 as like um as are as extractable raw material, sand 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:06.560 and gravel is by far the most um extensively mind, 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:08.760 which is why I said that, and we'll get to 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:13.800 it in detail. But the spoiler here is although new 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:16.800 sand is being made constantly by erosion, which are also 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:21.640 also going to cover not nearly nearly quickly enough. Um, 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:24.159 you know, our use is far far out basing it, yeah, 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:27.800 which makes sand and non renewable resource. Technically, it's just 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:32.040 like oil like yeahs as if you know the environmental 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:35.200 conditions are right, over time, new oil will be made, 0:06:35.240 --> 0:06:38.520 but we're talking over very long periods. Sand doesn't take 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:40.800 nearly as long to form as oil does, but it 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:43.480 still takes way longer to replenish itself than than we're 0:06:43.640 --> 0:06:46.480 using it up. That's right. So, um, let's talk a 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:50.800 little bit about sand. Yeah, so we get sand. Um. 0:06:51.120 --> 0:06:54.640 Sand is the final product. I guess I even hate 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:56.240 calling it a product, but I don't mean it in 0:06:56.279 --> 0:06:58.280 the sense of something to be bought and sold, even 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:00.960 though it is. But it's the final product of erosion 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:05.039 from everything from water and wind of course, to ice 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:11.040 and land like glaciers. Grinding against stone creates sand and 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:16.200 volcanic lava. Even when that stuff chills and then shatters 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:17.960 when it makes contact with air. That's how you get 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:21.400 lava sand like the black sand in Hawaii. Yeah, and 0:07:21.400 --> 0:07:24.640 that stuff's really good. Is a soil a mender apparently? Yeah, 0:07:24.640 --> 0:07:27.560 because it's like a locked in carbon, I believe, right, Yeah, 0:07:27.560 --> 0:07:29.840 I mean, I'm sure it's add that some to the 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:33.600 red clay here in Georgia and you're cooking, Yeah, you're 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:40.040 cooking with volcanic ash um. There's also rain, the mild 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:43.240 bit of um like acid that is in rain. Still 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:46.720 even though we we beat acid, rain beat it bad um. 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:50.720 There there's still some in there always. And it weathers rocks, 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:53.800 so that helps the road rocks and create sand to um. 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:56.880 And you've got geological sources of sand, which is just 0:07:56.960 --> 0:07:59.800 straight up rocks. You also have biological sources of sand, 0:08:00.280 --> 0:08:07.760 things like coral um for minera I believe, for a minieria, No, 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:10.960 for a menifera. I got it. I got it, very 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:15.800 very very tiny shelled creatures um that that produced like 0:08:15.880 --> 0:08:19.400 white or pink sand sometimes. And then there's also we 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:21.960 get sand from the poop of the parrot fish. Did 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:24.120 you did you hear about that? Yeah, we talked about 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:27.080 that before, did we. It didn't strike me. It didn't 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:29.200 ring a bell at all. Yeah, it was either I 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:30.640 don't think it was in dunes. I feel like it 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:33.440 was further, it must have been coral reefs. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:36.280 that's it because they actually eat parts of the coral 0:08:36.360 --> 0:08:38.920 reef accidentally while they're eating food, and then there's guts 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:41.720 grind up the reef and then they poop out pure 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:44.559 beautiful white sand, like hundreds of pounds of white sand 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:47.640 a year. Yeah. But when you really are talking about 0:08:47.679 --> 0:08:51.000 sand that most of us think of a sand, we're 0:08:51.000 --> 0:08:55.360 thinking wind and water generally oceans, rivers, and then in 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:58.080 the desert of course wind right and then the desert. 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:00.200 We must have talked about this in sandy, is that 0:09:00.840 --> 0:09:05.360 the deserts are just ancient beaches from old like seabeds 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:08.600 and things like that, riverbeds sometimes that's right. And as 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:11.880 far as what sand is literally, you know, it's parts 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:16.680 of rock, uh se. The hardest parts of rock of 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:20.320 sand is quartz, but you've also got gypsum in there, 0:09:20.440 --> 0:09:23.920 you've got limestone. Um. We already talked about lava like 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:27.040 there are other compositions, and it really depends on what 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:29.480 kind of sand you're gonna have on obviously what kind 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:31.760 of rock it came from, like where you are in 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:35.679 the world, right. And then if you're an engineer or um, 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:40.559 somebody who makes use of sand, um, they typically don't 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:45.200 classify it or categorize it by composition. They more interested 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:49.720 in the size. Um. So sand is there's and there's 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:53.000 not one universal definition, which I found kind of surprising. 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:57.439 But um, depending on who you ask, uh it is. UH. 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:00.480 Civil engineering today says it's a small gray of rock, 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:07.280 finer than gravel, coarser than silt. The American Society for 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:11.160 Testing and Materials they produced their Standard Practice for Classification 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:17.280 of Soils for Engineering Purposes, Unified Soil Classification System. That's 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:20.840 all one title. They say that sand is particles of 0:10:20.880 --> 0:10:24.160 soil between seventy five microns and four point seven five 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:27.760 millimeters in size. That's a big piece of sand. And 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:30.080 then it comes in course medium and fine. And this 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:34.920 is extraordinarily boring. I understand that fully, but it points 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:38.640 out the fact that sand is still a rock. It's 0:10:38.679 --> 0:10:43.360 just a very very tiny size rock. Right Like there's gravel, 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:46.040 there's silt. They're stand in between, but it's still a rock. 0:10:46.080 --> 0:10:48.760 It's just a different size as far as like engineers 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:52.800 and construction people are concerned. Right, And depending on again 0:10:52.920 --> 0:10:54.880 what kind of rocket came from and what it's made 0:10:54.880 --> 0:10:56.920 of and where you get it and how it was formed, 0:10:57.000 --> 0:10:59.680 the shape is going to be different. It can be 0:10:59.800 --> 0:11:03.680 very rough, it can be very smoother. Around the river sand, 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:08.680 which is what's mainly used in construction is irregular, and 0:11:08.720 --> 0:11:11.079 they need that irregular shape for that kind of construction 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:15.840 because the middle sort of sand, which is the smoother 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:19.640 ocean sand, isn't as good. And desert sand, which is 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:24.760 the crime Dela crime of sand, very polished, very uniform 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:27.160 and smooth and round turns out is not good at 0:11:27.200 --> 0:11:30.160 all for construction. No. So, so the three types of 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:33.160 sand that we find on Earth, our river which is 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:37.000 a regularly shaped ocean, which is smooth, and desert which 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:42.400 is Billy D Williams Sorry for that. I was like, 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:45.200 did Josh just pass out because I just said all that? Right? Right? 0:11:45.240 --> 0:11:47.320 I know, I just had to rebuild it though for 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:53.280 the joke, I understand. So um you said that, Uh well, hey, 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:55.200 should we take a break now and come back and 0:11:55.200 --> 0:11:58.199 talk about how we use sand? I think saying this 0:11:58.280 --> 0:12:00.520 is really boring. Let's take a break is a perfect 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:02.559 opportunity for people to leave and not come back. So 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:30.319 let's do that. I'm thrilled, alright, Chuck is we're saying 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:33.880 I'm thrilled by this because I know we're building up 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:38.080 to the big payoff. You know, San did it in 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:41.959 the parlor. I was going to say the candlestick. I 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:45.120 always go to the candlestick For some reason. I think 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:47.080 the idea of just hitting someone over the head with 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:51.080 the candlestick really resonates with me. Wow, you know, not 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:52.960 like I want to do it or whatever. I just 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:57.640 I'm like, geez, you know, it's gotta hoit. I'm gonna 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:00.480 watch my back next time we're candle shopping. It's right, 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:02.959 That's why I always take your candle shopping. I'm always 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:05.160 always right there on the end. You're just trying to 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:09.120 work up the courage. Yeah, or just I'm like, just say, 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:12.000 just say the wrong thing, chick right now. And then 0:13:12.000 --> 0:13:14.559 I always turned around, you go, this one's pretty right. 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:20.199 Cut crystal, chuck. Look, So, speaking of cut crystal, sand 0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:24.040 is not made used to make cut crystal. Oh is 0:13:24.080 --> 0:13:27.040 that right? No, it's not. But sand is used to 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:31.520 make glass. And we did a great episode on was 0:13:31.559 --> 0:13:35.040 it glad Mirrors years ago, Yeah, where we talked a 0:13:35.040 --> 0:13:38.559 little bit about this, and then of course silicon microchips 0:13:38.559 --> 0:13:41.719 are made from silica sand. It's also used in plastic. 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:43.800 We should I know, we planned to do one on 0:13:43.880 --> 0:13:49.840 plastic at some point, so that'll figure in again. Cosmetics, cleaners, 0:13:49.880 --> 0:13:53.640 grit and the cleaner sometimes. Yeah, I mean, like, um, 0:13:53.720 --> 0:13:56.160 if you use something like soft scrub or something like that, 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:58.560 like that, grit's got to come from somewhere, and you 0:13:58.600 --> 0:14:02.360 can bet it's probably sand because again sand, it's just 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:04.480 very tiny rock. It's not gonna like break down or 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:08.160 anything over time. Um. And we've been using sand for 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:13.679 industrial purposes, specifically glassmaking, for at least years. I believe 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:16.400 they used it back in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Used in 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:19.240 Egypt for construction for sure, did they as well? Well, 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:21.360 they use it for glass too, So I mean we've 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:25.200 figured out that sands pretty pretty useful. We also now 0:14:25.240 --> 0:14:28.360 today use it for fracking. We did an episode on fracking. 0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:31.640 Remember that our world is getting smaller, and like you, 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:35.360 when you inject like water and slurry, um, part of 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:37.960 the slurry is sand to kind of use it to 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:41.760 break up rock to release natural gas. But just far 0:14:41.800 --> 0:14:45.160 and away, the biggest use of sand today by human 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:49.080 beings is to make concrete. That's right, and I'll say 0:14:49.080 --> 0:14:51.560 it again we said it before. Fifteen billion tons of 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:56.080 sand every year by the construction industry alone. Um. And 0:14:56.160 --> 0:14:59.320 here's a few stats for you. UM, A typical house 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:04.840 that's with that means that three bedroom, two bass feet 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:08.160 I guess made entirely of concrete. I guess. I don't 0:15:08.160 --> 0:15:12.040 know what's typical these days. Two hundred tons of sand. Um, 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:15.520 A larger building like a school, maybe about three thousand 0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:20.400 tons of sand. A nuclear power plant about twelve million 0:15:20.480 --> 0:15:23.480 tons of sand. And we just did an episode on 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:28.240 the US high interstate system. Remember all those roads, Yeah, 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:32.680 think about thirty thousand tons of sand per kilometer. Yeah, 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:36.680 So I did the math, and I converted about two 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:40.160 hundred thousand miles, because there's like forty eight thousand miles 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:42.560 of interstate and about a hundred and fifty thousand miles 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:45.800 of highway. Fair enough. Converted that to kilometers. I no 0:15:45.840 --> 0:15:49.400 longer remember what it converts to. But times thirty thousand 0:15:49.480 --> 0:15:53.720 tons of a kilometer, that's nine billion, six hundred and 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:59.160 fifty six million tons of sand locked into the highways, 0:15:59.280 --> 0:16:02.040 just in the U S alone, that are constantly being 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:05.160 re redone and they are you know. Yeah. And also 0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:08.680 apparently it's used in asphalt too, so just surface streets too. 0:16:08.760 --> 0:16:11.160 And that's a that's a big point. I used a 0:16:11.440 --> 0:16:14.520 really important word just now. Locked, Like when we use 0:16:14.600 --> 0:16:20.400 sand for concrete in construction. Um, it stays put. That's 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:23.120 the point of it. When you use sand in in concrete, 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:26.080 it's part of the aggregate. It's also part of the 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:30.600 binder because it's used in cement too. So when you 0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:32.640 use a bunch of sand and you create something out 0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:35.400 of concrete, that sand is staying put. And because it's 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:39.800 not a non renewable resource, it's you just used up 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:42.120 some sand and you're no longer shuffling around from place 0:16:42.160 --> 0:16:45.600 to place. It's it's in construction now, it's locked in. 0:16:46.000 --> 0:16:48.880 That's right. And as I mentioned before, it's locked together 0:16:49.800 --> 0:16:53.160 mainly that river sand that's really irregular, uh, and its 0:16:53.200 --> 0:16:55.680 shape locks together better that if you think about it, it 0:16:55.560 --> 0:16:59.120 it kind of makes sense that really smooth round desert sand. 0:16:59.240 --> 0:17:01.640 It's like, uh, put a bunch of ping pong balls 0:17:02.440 --> 0:17:05.119 in a bag that's not gonna lock together. That's a 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:07.439 good analogy. I would have said, more like putting a 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:10.400 bunch of Billy d Williams in a bag together. They're 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:14.440 not going to lock Hey man, that's some schlitzmalt locker 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:16.280 and you've got a party. Yeah. Wait, was that the 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:20.000 one he used to know? He did? Cult? Right? How 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:23.200 could I forget he never made Cult forty five taste 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:25.680 any better? Which was the one with the Oh I 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:27.479 guess it was Slits that had the bowl that wouldn't 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:31.119 charge into the bar and Billy d Williams wrestled that 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:34.160 bowl in one again. Can you imagine working on those 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:37.480 commercials back in the day. Yeah, I'm sure everybody was 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:39.920 really drunk on malt liquor. It's like, we're gonna build 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:43.240 a big set here on stage, a bar set, and 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:45.639 we're going to release a live bull and film it. 0:17:46.560 --> 0:17:49.800 See what half it? Wouldn't you have to be drunk 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:52.119 on malt liquor to do that? I guess. So what 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:56.080 about Errol Morris directing all those Miller like commercials? Those 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:59.040 are great Miller heavy? Oh was it? I thought? Was? 0:17:59.200 --> 0:18:01.840 Are you sure? Almost positive as light? I think were? 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:05.040 Those are Miller high life. Okay, So here's the thing 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:07.160 I like. I like Carol Morris. I like his work. 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:10.159 I think Thin Blue Line is arguably the best documentary 0:18:10.200 --> 0:18:13.680 ever made. It's certainly up there. Um It's not my favorite, 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:17.520 but I respect it. But I'm not like a junkie 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:19.679 for his work. I just love the fact that he 0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:22.840 just does whatever project appeals to him at the time. Yeah, 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:24.479 I mean, he directs a lot of commercials. That's that's 0:18:24.520 --> 0:18:27.560 where the money is. There's not money in documentaries. Okay, 0:18:27.720 --> 0:18:30.040 so he's not doing it because he's like there's some 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:33.840 you know, neat philosophical bent that he has toward Miller 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:36.359 at that moment, and so he's gonna go do. Oh 0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:39.639 he's just hired. And I'm sure they hire him for 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:43.000 his unique perview Okay, not per view but point of view. 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:46.639 But yeah, he's he's a commercial director for money, and 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:49.840 that affords him the ability to go um making no 0:18:49.920 --> 0:18:53.200 money on documentaries. I may love him even more now. 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:57.480 He's great. Okay, so we're talking about malt Lak or 0:18:57.600 --> 0:19:00.480 what was before that, Billy Do? But oh yeah, hey done. Though, 0:19:00.520 --> 0:19:03.159 there's this all comes full circle because Errol Morris directed 0:19:03.160 --> 0:19:07.480 a great documentary called Vernon, Florida and one of the 0:19:07.520 --> 0:19:10.240 elderly couples in Vernon, Florida that was a whole thing 0:19:10.280 --> 0:19:13.560 about the star of sand that they had and they 0:19:13.560 --> 0:19:16.240 talked about the fact that the sand they collected I 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:20.120 think from the desert in New Mexico is actually growing nice. 0:19:20.400 --> 0:19:23.040 So I'm glad you picked up on that, because that 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:25.080 is why I brought up Billy D Williams again so 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:27.560 we could get to that point. Man. Nice job, Chuck. 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:33.160 So um, you said that the river sand is really 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:36.680 the only kind you can use for construction. That's right, okay, 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:39.400 which is is true, and we're using a lot of it, 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:42.359 so much so that every time a city gets bigger 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:44.560 they build a new high rise or something like that. 0:19:44.960 --> 0:19:49.439 Somewhere in the world a river is scraped of its sand. 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:53.200 A river, a lake, maybe a dam, but some inland 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:56.679 system of water because really river sand, from what I 0:19:56.720 --> 0:20:01.560 can tell, is just beach sand that hasn't happened yet. Yeah, 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:03.640 I mean that's where it's all, but it all wants 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:06.280 to go there. It's all down the road and then 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:08.920 once it gets down to the beach, it's really broken 0:20:08.920 --> 0:20:12.040 down to like it's it's most you know, constituent, hardest 0:20:12.040 --> 0:20:14.920 parts that aren't going to wash away. Um, but it 0:20:15.080 --> 0:20:17.439 it's so it's still a regular it's not it's not 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:21.840 smooth or polished yet. So construction is an enormous consumer 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:25.880 of sand. I saw that China in either in three 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:30.639 years or every three years uses the more the an 0:20:30.640 --> 0:20:34.080 amount of sand that's greater than the entire amount of 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:38.119 sand the United States consumed in the twentieth century. Yeah, 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:40.159 and you know, we'll talk more about this, but a 0:20:40.200 --> 0:20:44.040 lot of this is um well, not in China, but 0:20:44.119 --> 0:20:47.280 in some of these vacation destinations, building these fake islands. 0:20:48.040 --> 0:20:50.000 No China is doing that too, Oh are they doing that? 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:53.880 They're using it for every possible idea you can think of, well, 0:20:53.920 --> 0:20:57.639 fake islands and then just adding you know, adding land 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:00.600 to the shoreline. Yeah, you want to talk a little 0:21:00.600 --> 0:21:04.800 bit about beach nourishment here. So there's a there's something 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:08.600 called beach nourishment or beach replenishment or beach filling, and 0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:11.520 it is basically like um, people are saying, Hey, are 0:21:11.560 --> 0:21:16.080 our beaches wearing away? We really like this incredibly valuable 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:20.680 coastal real estate, this plot, let's get the beach back. 0:21:21.680 --> 0:21:25.479 So they will go and get some sand. Sometimes they 0:21:25.520 --> 0:21:29.680 import it. Sometimes they go out offshore and actually literally 0:21:29.760 --> 0:21:32.840 vacuum the stuff up, or they'll use huge buckets to 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:36.240 dredge it up and then they dump it on shore 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:38.840 and then they run over it with some heavy equipment 0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:43.159 and they have extended the beach significantly. Depending on the 0:21:43.200 --> 0:21:47.520 size of the project. It can. It can replenish an 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:52.280 enormous beach for a very long stretch. Um. And that's 0:21:52.280 --> 0:21:56.320 that's beach nourishment. That's a huge use of sand right now. 0:21:56.800 --> 0:22:00.480 Um in addition to construction for river sand, but as 0:22:00.480 --> 0:22:03.560 far as like sea sand and coastal sand, beach nourishment 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:04.960 is a big use of it. And then like you 0:22:05.000 --> 0:22:08.600 were saying, building artificial islands is a is a huge use. 0:22:08.840 --> 0:22:12.280 Like islands that just aren't were never there, They were 0:22:12.320 --> 0:22:15.480 never It's not replenishing an island, it's hey, let's build 0:22:15.480 --> 0:22:17.879 an island here where there really wasn't one. Yeah. And 0:22:17.920 --> 0:22:21.439 the irony there is they're islands that are disappearing because 0:22:21.520 --> 0:22:24.440 the sand is being taken away to build island shaped 0:22:24.480 --> 0:22:28.040 like palm trees right off the coast. Yeah. Literally, that's 0:22:28.080 --> 0:22:31.160 what those islands. So, like I think in Indonesia at 0:22:31.200 --> 0:22:34.840 least twenty four islands have literally vanished because they were 0:22:34.880 --> 0:22:38.080 mined for their sand and it was moved over to um. 0:22:38.119 --> 0:22:40.520 I guess Dubai is that where it went. I think 0:22:40.680 --> 0:22:44.080 Dubai Dubai or Singapore one of the Singapore those are 0:22:43.880 --> 0:22:46.199 they're they're both doing a lot of that. Singapore, I 0:22:46.200 --> 0:22:49.280 think is created about fifty square miles of land and 0:22:49.320 --> 0:22:53.600 grown by twenty as a country, like physically grown because 0:22:53.640 --> 0:22:57.120 of adding sand. Yeah, but it's just shuffling sand from 0:22:57.160 --> 0:23:00.080 one part of the globe to another. And you know, 0:22:59.800 --> 0:23:02.919 and the one hand, it's like that's terrible, like that 0:23:03.040 --> 0:23:06.119 sand was meant to be there in Indonesia. Um. But 0:23:06.400 --> 0:23:10.600 Indonesia also has like sev in habited islands that are 0:23:10.640 --> 0:23:14.520 just basically made up of sand. Um. And who said 0:23:14.560 --> 0:23:16.760 that they had to be there? I think it's there's 0:23:17.000 --> 0:23:20.160 there's also something to be said about human ingenuity to say, hey, 0:23:20.240 --> 0:23:22.400 let's move this island over here and make this other 0:23:22.480 --> 0:23:25.439 island bigger. Yeah, can we do it? Yeah, we can 0:23:25.520 --> 0:23:27.960 do it. It's neat much so as far as this 0:23:28.000 --> 0:23:31.480 nourishment goes, though, it's called a soft soft armoring technique 0:23:31.880 --> 0:23:35.000 as opposed to hard armoring like building a sea wall. 0:23:35.800 --> 0:23:39.200 But here's the thing with beach nourishment is I mean 0:23:39.240 --> 0:23:41.840