Desert sand doesn’t work in construction, because grains shaped by wind rather than water are too smooth and round to bind together. (That’s why Australia exports sand to the Middle East.) Illegal sand mines and criminal control of an increasingly dark trade have become commonplace. Sand mining has erased dozens of islands in Indonesia and sand divers in India have carved new rivers fifty feet deep.
This is about concrete. But it reminded me of sneering at the "silica mine" in "Enemy Mine." Perhaps that wasn't so dorky after all...
