We all have our areas of expertise. I've been watching what resources we as a modern civilization use and here in the United States I've marked fresh water as a resource that will become in short supply, especially here in the West. The competition between farming, fish, shipping (on rivers), cooling, flushing and drinking are all going to collide with one another. This shortage will be brought about by changes in population and climate impacting how the West Coast accesses its fresh water. Conservation can do a great deal, as Las Vegas has shown, but eventually it will be an end sum game.
But this blog post is not about water, it is about sand. Yes, sand! Read or listen to this NPR story,
World Faces Global Sand Shortage, which details how it is possible to run out of sand. We seem to use it in many things, especially construction. The one factoid that jumped out at me was that China has used more sand in the last few years than the USA used in all of the 20th century. I guess the redefines what a "building boom" actually is.
Meanwhile, our infrastructure continues to crumble and fail.
Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.
