1.1M
NBThis might sound crazy—but we’re running out of sand.
Not the kind on beaches. The kind we build cities with.
Here’s what’s going on—and how it affects you
Sand is the second most-used resource on Earth—right after water!
We use around 50 billion tons every year.
It’s in glass. Concrete. Even microchips.
But not all sand works.
Desert sand is too smooth.
Beach sand is often off-limits.
So where do we get it?
Mostly from riverbeds and seabeds.
And we’re mining them faster than nature can recover—causing floods, destroyed ecosystems and other environmental disasters.
We don’t have much time to fix this.
But some of the world’s brightest minds are stepping in.
In Australia, one startup turns demolished buildings into usable sand.
Others are 3D-printing homes from desert sand and bacteria.
We’ve got a long way to go—but innovations like this let us keep building the future without wrecking the planet
Let me know if you want a full explainer video and follow for more optimistic tech videos!
@nbtjacklyn
