DRAWING A LINE IN THE SAND

 

DRAWING A LINE IN THE SAND

Drawing a line in the sand traditionally is a futile endeavour but now is the time when we need to draw a deep red line on its exploitation.

Last week before the winter sets in for good, I wanted to spread some sand on the lawn which helps the drainage of ample rainwater during the winter.

The price has gone up, no surprise there. When looking up for sand prices on the net I saw an interesting fact. Will you believe it! Sand is the most consumed natural resource, second only to water! The sand is an essential ingredient for concrete, asphalt, glass, and silicon, all building blocks of our modern civilization.

 According to a report by UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) 50 billion tons are extracted every year and is increasing year on year, enough to build a wall 27 metres wide and 27 metres high around planet Earth. This equates to 18 kg per person per day.

I thought there is so much of it in the vast sandy deserts around the Earth and equally huge amount in the seas. Where is the problem! Those who know these things say these sands are different and are not suitable for making concrete. The desert sand is too smooth and too small and too rounded, and sea sand has a high salt and chemical content. The “Cinderella sand” that is most suitable as building material is the sand from rivers, coastal beaches and lakes and quarries. But this sand performs a vital role in preserving the ecosystems at macro and micro levels. Depletion of these pockets of sands greatly increases the chances of costal erosion and floods. It seriously endangers the marine and riverine fauna and flora, threatens the fisheries and increases the risk of salinization of freshwater aquifers¹.

What is more, in many countries its extraction is unregulated, or the regulations are poorly enforced. This leads to a proliferation of organised criminal gangs adding to people’s miseries.

This immense amount of sand used by us humans is clearly not sustainable. It is surpassing the Nature’s ability to replace it by the geological processes of breaking and grinding the rocks which takes several thousands to many millions of years.

UNEP produced a detailed report on Sand and Sustainability with strategic recommendations for averting a crisis in April 2022². Only lip service has been paid to it by the responsible authorities and the public alike.

Clearly time has come when we stop thinking of sand as an insignificant and of a low value commodity which we, the humans can exploit for our commercial interests without any care or consideration.

We MUST visualise it as an indispensable ingredient for our environment and as an endangered natural resource which demands the utmost respect and attention from us all.

 

 

REFERENCES

 1. “Reducing sand mining’s growing toll on marine biodiversity” by Aurora Torres, Jean-Baptiste Jouffray, Vera Van Lancker, Arnaud Vander Velpen and Jianguo Liu, 21 February 2025, One Earth.

One Earth | Vol 8, Issue 2, 21 February 2025 | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier

 

2. Sand-And-Sustainability-10-Strategic-Recommendations

Sand and Sustainability: 10 Strategic Recommendations to Avert a Crisis | UNEP - UN Environment Programme

LUCK, RANDOMNESS & PROBABILITY

   

LUCK, RANDOMNESS AND PROBABILITY 

      I was waiting for the result of an MRI scan. My doctor, yesterday, texted me, “got the result of the MRI and will ring you tomorrow in the morning.” No time given. I checked my phone when I got up today. I did not want to miss this call. I checked the volume on my phone. Asked my wife to make a call to me to make sure the network was ok, and my phone was working.

        I kept the phone in my pocket or in hand all the time. At 11:30 someone knocked at the door. The postman was there. He had a registered letter for me for which he wanted my signature. I put the phone on the console in the hallway. The letter was from HM Revenue and Customs. A registered letter from inland revenue. Something was serious. I took the letter in the study. Two pages, it took about five minutes to get through their jargon. It did not make a sense. I looked at the envelope. The letter was not for me! The name and address were for the next-door neighbour.

The postman had made a mistake. I put the letter back in the envelope. I went to the hallway to open the door and to drop the letter in my neighbour’s letterbox. I saw my phone on the console.

I have missed two calls from my doctor in those twelve minutes. Did he have to ring precisely in this time slot when I left my phone in the hallway? Did the postman have to make an error at that particular day and time? And me, why did I leave the phone in the hallway?

Anyway, I immediately rang back on the number from which the call was made. All I got after going through a choice of multiple options interrogations, was a recorded message “we are closed now, ring us between 10am and 12am Monday to Friday.” Tomorrow was Saturday. I will have to wait till Monday. What a bad luck, I felt angry, anxious, and sad.

Thinking calmly, I realised, no one was to be blamed. it has nothing to do with luck. Things happen, mostly randomly. It is we, who as individuals define them as good or bad in retrospect. I do not mean that because things happen randomly, we do not have to make any effort to achieve what we want, like Sant Maluka Daas “ अजगर करै न चाकरी, पंछी करै न काम। दास मलूका कहि गए, सबके दाता राम। “*

But We do have an agency. We must make every effort, take due care and diligence to increase the probability of the result going in our favour. This is what I mean by making one’s own luck. Of course, remember, probability is not surety! But it is far better than absolute randomness. 

 I should have kept my phone with me. I should have checked the address before signing for that letter. If I would have increased the probability of “good luck”!

*The python doesn’t plow, the bird doesn’t work. Maluka Daas says, God Ram is the provider for all”