The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization by Vince Beiser (PDF)

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A finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award The gripping story of the most important overlooked commodity in the world–sand–and the crucial role it plays in our lives. After water and air, sand is the natural resource that we consume more than any other–even more than oil. Every concrete building and paved road on Earth, every computer screen and silicon chip, is made from sand. From Egypt’s pyramids to the Hubble telescope, from the world’s tallest skyscraper to the sidewalk below it, from Chartres’ stained-glass windows to your iPhone, sand shelters us, empowers us, engages us, and inspires us. It’s the ingredient that makes possible our cities, our science, our lives–and our future. And, incredibly, we’re running out of it. The World in a Grain is the compelling true story of the hugely important and diminishing natural resource that grows more essential every day, and of the people who mine it, sell it, build with it–and sometimes, even kill for it. It’s also a provocative examination of the serious human and environmental costs incurred by our dependence on sand, which has received little public attention. Not all sand is created equal: Some of the easiest sand to get to is the least useful. Award-winning journalist Vince Beiser delves deep into this world, taking readers on a journey across the globe, from the United States to remote corners of India, China, and Dubai to explain why sand is so crucial to modern life. Along the way, readers encounter world-changing innovators, island-building entrepreneurs, desert fighters, and murderous sand pirates. The result is an entertaining and eye-opening work, one that is both unexpected and involving, rippling with fascinating detail and filled with surprising characters.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Who knew? We’ve been aware for a long time that humankind is running out of drinkable water and the rare earth elements essential to advanced communications technology. Overfishing is endangering fish populations. And arable land is also growing scarce. But sand? Really? Sand?Our civilization is built on sandWell, as journalist Vince Beiser tells us in his revealing study of the subject, The World in a Grain, it’s not strictly true. There’s far more sand in the world’s deserts than we would ever want, and they’re growing. But it turns out that there are numerous varieties of sand. And the stuff in deserts like the Sahara or the Gobi just isn’t suitable for use in concrete. The sand we do need to build all those buildings, manufacture computer chips, and lay all those roads, bridges, and dams is, indeed, becoming scarce. Just as is the case with oil, there may be more than enough of the stuff around, but it’s getting harder, and more expensive, to get it out. The problem is, sand is “about the most taken-for-granted natural resource in the world.” But it’s “the stuff they used to pave paradise and put up a parking lot.”Who knew that the story of sand could be so fascinating?Beiser’s book is a revelation. Reporting on a subject that could bore us to tears, he has produced a fascinating study of the history of civilization from the perspective of the sand we’ve used to build it. And even his ventures into the complex technical aspects of making concrete and harvesting sand are hard to put down.Progress is our most important product . . . and it’s killing usThe heart of the problem is the “progress” we celebrate as the fruits of civilization. “At the dawn of the twentieth century, almost all of the world’s large structures . . . were made with stone, brick, clay, or wood. The tallest buildings on Earth stood fewer than ten stories high. Roads were mostly paved with broken stone, or more likely, not paved at all. Glass in the form of windows or tableware was a relatively rare and expensive luxury.”Producing cement results in releasing 5-10 percent of total carbon emissions worldwideThen that all changed, as the automobile became a necessity, the science of making concrete advanced, and inventors found ways to automate the production of glass. Today, even though the use of sand in construction goes back at least to 7000 BCE, its use was never so widespread as to require extreme efforts to obtain it. But now “your life depends on sand. You may not realize it, but sand is there, making the way you live possible, in almost every minute of your day. We live in it, travel on it, communicate with it, surround ourselves with it.” And the price we pay is huge: “Cement is made in at least 150 countries, and produces between 5 and 120 percent of the total carbon emissions worldwide.”You think concrete buildings and roads are permanent? Guess again.Unfortunately, even though we assume that buildings, dams, and bridges made of concrete reinforced with steel are permanent, that is far from the case. Concrete inevitably weakens over time, and can even collapse if the builders cut corners by using inferior sand. Beiser quotes an expert on the subject, who wrote “Hardly any of the concrete structures that now exist are capable of enduring two centuries, and many will begin to disintegrate after fifty years.” If you’re a member of the Millennial Generation, that may seem like a very long time. But take it from me. It’s not. So don’t expect permanence from a civilization built on sand.Surprises galore in this fascinating bookThe World in a Grain is full of surprises:** Amazingly, “China alone used more cement between 2011 and 2013 than the United States used in the entire twentieth century.” But that should be no big surprise, since “[t]here are more than 220 Chinese cities with over a million inhabitants” compared to the whole of Europe, which counts only 35.** The harvesting of sand is nearly universal—”There is no one key source, no Saudi Arabia of sand”—and it’s everywhere damaging. (In fact, “Saudi Arabia is worried about running out of sand.”) Sadly, the increasing competition for sand has led to more and more extreme measures to harvest it. And “[the] process of pulling sand from the earth [and from rivers and oceans] causes at best a little damage, and at worst, catastrophe.”** The increasing scarcity of sand suitable for use in making concrete and glass has led to the rise of crime. Beiser details numerous horror stories such as this one: “Thieves in Jamaica made off with 1,300 feet of white sand from one of the islands finest beaches in 2008” and “[s]and miners have completely obliterated at least two dozen Indonesian islands since 2005.” Everywhere sand thieves operate, corruption and sometimes even murder comes in their wake.** While rising ocean levels drown low-lying coastal areas around the globe, efforts by Singapore, Dubai, and Lagos to reclaim land support the “booming market in sand.” Beiser notes that “human beings since 1985 have added 5,237 square miles of artificial land,” which has consumed titanic quantities of sand.** The roads and buildings we build with sand increase our need for air conditioning. “[P]aved areas can boost the temperature in some cities by as much as 19 degrees Fahrenheit.”Rising prosperity and overpopulation are the root of the problemAs is the case with the depletion of other natural resources, the increasing difficulty we’re facing is a direct result of overpopulation and the rise of prosperity around the world. “The building methods and materials that a hundred years ago were mostly confined to wealthy Western nations have in the past thirty spread to virtually every country,” Beiser notes. “This epochal shift is what lies behind the sand crisis.”So, what can be done? There’s really only one way to mitigate the problem, as Beiser sees it: use less stuff . . . and quickly.

⭐Have urbanization brought peace and happiness to Humankind? Is urbanization exactly what we are aiming at? If 7 billion of us unanimously long for the air-conditioned, car-dependent, energy-guzzling, resource-intensive American life style, Vince Beiser says, we’d need four and a half Earths. “The World In A Grain” overviews history and the current situation of sand and civilization. Most of us barely think about sand, yet it is most important solid substance on earth, we can’t live without it. Vince Beiser, enlarges on three major use of sand. Keeping abreast with industrial revolution and motorization, concrete architecture, paved road, and flat glass have built urbanized society. It is interesting to know miraculous inventor Thomas Edison even put out his tentacle on to the concrete house. Miami Beach, an artificial resort town made from sand, was created during Carl Graham Fisher’s road building process. Following to Michael Owens’ Bottle Machine, which has changed consumer product style and its distribution, Alastair Pilkington developed a technique of making plate glass. Concrete, asphalt, and glass transformed the built environment for the Western world, this sand-based way of life is spreading across the entire world with quick speed now.Globalized Digital World in the 21st century requires high-tech sand. Beiser describes this as the SEAL Team Six of the silica world. We never think about how our high-tech industries depend on sand. Unimin’s thorough secrecy on their business turns him away at the door. The part where Beiser pulls out his iPhone and asks Siri if she knew where her silicon brains come from makes us laugh. Silica sand also takes important role in oil/gas production. He writes almost three-quarters of the legions of silica sand is used for fracking. As a journalist, Beiser collects informations from every corner of the world. He finds Sisyphean task in renourishment of man-made Miami Beach. Notwithstanding heedless of the incoming tide, people keep on building their castles of sand. He doubts how long can we keep it up before either the money or the sand runs out. He visits the scene of land reclamation. He interviews a Brobdingnagian who dreams of a Xanadu in Dubai. China’s reclamation work on the Spratly Island has caused political friction with peripheral nations. On the other hand, decades of overfarming and overgrazing desiccated huge areas of it into pure desert. People stands against this reality with afforestation project. Planting trees that are not supposed to be there does not seem to be a sustainable countermeasure.Sand mining is the major source of the destruction of nature and environmental pollution. It is also a hotbed of corruption. Bribes, payoffs, and officials on the take, encourage illegal sand mining. It is the place sand mafia engage in secret maneuvers. Beiser witnesses the scene villagers are threatened by them. Sand promotes urban heat island phenomenon. Miles of warmed-up pavement and ubiquitous automobile accelerate carbon dioxide emission. The former National Stone, Sand, and Gravel Association’s chair, Ron Summers’s comment, “everyone wants sand, but no one wants sand mining near them,” seems real to us. Tragedy for us, concrete is not a perpetual method of construction. Every infrastructure needs to be maintained and rebuild. Concrete houses do not give out everlasting lives. To overcome these problems, scientists are working with bacteria that excrete the minerals calcite. They try various method like, to embed hydrogels, polymers that expand as they absorb moisture, a protective coating containing microcapsules full of a solution that turns solid on exposure to sunlight, geopolymer concrete, and replacing stele rebel with something more dependable. They develop a technique for using desert sand, recycled concrete, and even making artificial sand. They haven’t find final solution yet.How far are we willing to go? How much damage are we willing to do? Isn’t it physically possible to replicate American lifestyle worldwide? Can 7 billion of us have any sort of reasonable standard of living without doing any harm to the planet? Beiser points out sand is just one aspect of the much larger problem of overconsumption. He suggests only one long-term solution for us, that is, we have to start using less of everything. Human beings have to start using less sand for that matter. We can’t afford past luxury anymore. Sharing economy would be a choice. Figuring out a way to build a life for 7 billion people on a foundation sturdier than sand, we have to learn to conserve, reuse, find alternatives for, and generally get smarter about how we use those natural resources. “The World In A Grain” contains abundant topics for our further discussion.

⭐There’s some interesting facts but it’s presented more as journalism than as a researched book.

⭐I like popular science books and found this fascinating. What’s odd is it’s all around us and we don’t think about it at all. What’s slightly worrying is we’re running out of the useful stuff.

⭐In a world where sand is imported into desert countries like Saudi Arabia or dredged from the floor of the gulf in the United Arab Emirates, The World in a grain is a must read in order to appreciate why.

⭐It is a very nice extensive book about sand, structure and use of this material, the related industries and the enviromental impact of how sand is used today. It is based on scientific research but the language of the book is very flowing which makes digesting all this information easier. I wish there was more on desert sands but still, the bibliography is very useful and the book is a good read.As an industrial designer, I was also happy to read about some history of industrial design such as the Owen Industries, highway constructions and Miami beach replenishing. It makes a reader curious to learn more about different topics.

⭐Fascinating details. I was pleasantly intrigued by details not usually in the public readership.

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