Thread by @Reuters

The messy business of sand mining explained: A 21st century construction boom is driving unregulated sand mining around the world - eroding rivers and coastlines, disrupting ecosystems and hurting livelihoods reut.rs/3dtcIou by @TmarcoH @SimonScarr and @katydaigle

Sand is the planet’s most mined material, with some 50 billion tons extracted from lakes, riverbeds, coastlines and deltas each year, according to the United Nations Environment Programme

From Shanghai to Seattle, the world’s cities are built on sand - massive amounts of sand. It’s in the cement and concrete that make the bulk of most buildings. The glass in those buildings’ windows is made with sand, too. So is the tarmac laid onto the roads around them

Demand for sand is only expected to grow, as the global population continues to climb, cities expand and countries further develop. But in much of the world, sand mining faces little to no government scrutiny. Few entities monitor or document the trade for its impact

There are scant regulations for protecting the environment, or workers’ safety. The result is that sand is being extracted far more quickly than it can naturally be replaced. That’s causing environmental damage and, in some cases, jeopardizing livelihoods

The impact of sand mining is clear in this stretch of the Da Dang River, in the Vietnamese province of Lam Dong. River banks have badly degraded over a five-year period, illustrated in these satellite images released by Digital Globe and Airbus and analyzed by Earthrise Media

Demand for sand has surged in the last two decades, thanks to urbanization and construction in China, India and other fast-developing countries. China already has used more cement since 2006 than was used in the United States during the entire 20th century

The damage from sand extraction can be seen clearly in satellite images, with coastlines eroded, ecosystems destroyed, and even entire small islands in Southeast Asia wiped off the map. Read more: reut.rs/2ZwzVxS by @ReutersGraphics