[SUBMITTED] Sandbagging

[Baggieland]

I just watched a documentary on Al Jazeera, I thought to myself "hey there's not an NS issue on this topic!" so as I'm not going out much these days, I wrote up a draft in record time!

[TITLE] Sandbagging

[DESCRIPTION] A tiny uninhabited @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ island recently vanished into the sea. The reason for this disappearance was the removal of sand for the construction industry.

[VALIDITY] all

[OPTION] "It's just a piddly little island," states @@RANDOMNAME@@, your Minister of Infrastructure, as @@HE@@ builds a rather impressive tower from a deck of cards on your desk. "Are we going to halt the modernisation of @@NAME@@ because of an island that nobody lived on nor visited? We need more roads and buildings, and sand is a main ingredient of concrete. And did I mention it's free? There are loads of similar islands dotted around our seas, mandate that they be earmarked for sand extraction and when those islands are gone, we'll start dredging the seabed."

[EFFECT] seafront hotels can no longer boast of being next to the beach

[OPTION] "Our addiction to sand is quite staggering," declares @@RANDOMNAME@@, your Environment Minister, as @@HE@@ demonstrates how easy it is to reuse everyday objects by cleaning @@HIS@@ fingernails with one of your paper clips. "It takes 30,000 tonnes of sand to build just one km of a motorway. Those islands are important ecological habitats and they also define our maritime borders. Ban the extraction of sand from islands, beaches and seabeds, and start a national campaign to use renewable sources everywhere."

[EFFECT] the treehouse in @@ANIMAL@@ Park is the tallest building in @@NAME@@

[OPTION] "I've got an idea," proclaims your young nephew, whom you hadn't noticed was playing in the corner of your office. "Instead of using sand to build concrete homes, why don't you make homes out of sand? I'm really good at making sandcastles, I'll make you a really big one!"

[EFFECT] homes get flooded every time there's a high tide

[TITLE] Sandbagging

[DESCRIPTION] @@A@@ @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ island has vanished into the sea, a river has burst its banks and flooded the local town, seafront homes have disappeared into the sea and construction projects all over @@NAME@@ have ground to a halt remaining unfinished. The reason for all of this is the unabated extraction of sand.

[VALIDITY] all

[OPTION] "Our addiction to sand is staggering," declares @@RANDOMNAME@@, your Environment Minister, as @@HE@@ proves how easy it is to reuse everyday objects by cleaning @@HIS@@ fingernails with a paper clip. "At first the sand companies extracted it from quarries, but when those ran out, they took sand from beaches, then islands and now they're dredging the seabed. This environmental disaster is adversely changing our rivers, islands and seas. Did you know it takes 30,000 tonnes of sand to build just one km of a motorway? The construction industry needs to stop using concrete and move to recyclable materials only."

[EFFECT] the treehouse in @@ANIMAL@@ Park is the tallest building in @@NAME@@

[OPTION] "We can't stop the modernisation of @@NAME@@," states @@RANDOMNAME@@, your Minister of Infrastructure, as @@HE@@ builds a rather impressive tower from a deck of cards. "We need more roads and buildings, and sand is a main ingredient of concrete, also did I mention it's free? When, I mean, if our sand runs out, we can import more of it from countries like Macronesia."

[EFFECT] seafront hotels can no longer boast of being next to the beach

[OPTION] "I've got an idea," proclaims @@RANDOMNAME@@, one of your science advisers, as @@HE@@ stretches some kind of Day-Glo gunk. "We have all the sand we need in the desert. The problem is that desert sand is too fine and doesn't bond together like sea sand. Throw copious amounts of @@CURRENCYPLURAL@@ at my department and we'll find a way to make desert sand stickier."

[EFFECT] camel dung is a popular motif on newly finished construction projects

[TITLE] Sandbagging

[DESCRIPTION] @@A@@ @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ island has vanished into the sea, a river has burst its banks and flooded the local town, seafront homes have disappeared into the sea and construction costs have sky-rocketed all over @@NAME@@. The reason for all of this is the unabated extraction of sand.

[VALIDITY] all

[OPTION] "Our addiction to sand is staggering," declares @@RANDOMNAME@@, your Environment Minister, as @@HE@@ proves how easy it is to reuse everyday objects by cleaning @@HIS@@ fingernails with a paper clip. "Did you know it takes 30,000 tonnes of sand to build just one km of a motorway? At first they extracted it from quarries, but when those ran out, they took sand from beaches, then islands, then they dredged the seabed. Now we're paying to import sand from countries like Macronesia. The construction industry needs to stop using concrete and move to recyclable materials only."

[EFFECT] the treehouse in @@ANIMAL@@ Park is the tallest building in @@NAME@@

[OPTION] "We can't stop the modernisation of @@NAME@@," states @@RANDOMNAME@@, your Minister of Infrastructure, as @@HE@@ builds a rather impressive tower from a deck of cards. "We need more roads and buildings, and sand is a main ingredient of concrete. There are plenty of countries like Macronesia which have hatfuls of sand and they're happy to sell it to us. Nothing should hinder the development of @@NAME@@."

[EFFECT] seafront hotels can no longer boast of being next to the beach

[OPTION] "I've got an idea," proclaims @@RANDOMNAME@@, one of your science advisers, as @@HE@@ stretches some kind of Day-Glo gunk. "We have all the sand we need in the desert. The problem is that desert sand is too fine and doesn't bond together like sea sand. Throw copious amounts of @@CURRENCYPLURAL@@ at my department and we'll find a way to make desert sand stickier."

[EFFECT] camel dung is a popular motif on newly finished construction projects

[Australian rePublic]

Option 3- you still need to transport the sand to wherever people wanna live. Also, can you decrease the size of your borders by making sand disappear? Does it really work like that?

[Baggieland]

Option 3- you still need to transport the sand to wherever people wanna live

Of course. They can use trucks, if cars are banned they can use donkeys with packs or a human chain with buckets. I don't think that requires being mentioned though.

can you decrease the size of your borders by making sand disappear? Does it really work like that?

By making islands disappear you can.

https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2017/12/sand-wars-171213082235210.html

https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/sand-mining-construction-black-market-gangs-a7097911.html

[Australian rePublic]

Option 3- you still need to transport the sand to wherever people wanna live

Of course. They can use trucks, if cars are banned they can use donkeys with packs or a human chain with buckets. I don't think that requires being mentioned though.

can you decrease the size of your borders by making sand disappear? Does it really work like that?

By making islands disappear you can.

https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2017/12/sand-wars-171213082235210.html

https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/sand-mining-construction-black-market-gangs-a7097911.html

Option 3- so what's the difference between building house made from sand vs using snd to make concrete

[Baggieland]

Option 3- so what's the difference between building house made from sand vs using snd to make concrete

If you use sand to make concrete, that sand is gone forever. If you make sandcastle style homes, that sand can be reused. You can refabricate your home as many times as you like, in as many ways as you like, just like Patrick Star in Spongebob! You can also 'donate' parts of your home to your neighbours, if you want.

[Trotterdam]

Also, if you make sandcastle-style homes, you're not going to be able to live in them. The roof would collapse. Sandcastles work because they only need to look like real buildings from the outside and it's fine if they have no actual hollow interior.

[Australian rePublic]

Option 3- so what's the difference between building house made from sand vs using snd to make concrete

If you use sand to make concrete, that sand is gone forever. If you make sandcastle style homes, that sand can be reused. You can refabricate your home as many times as you like, in as many ways as you like, just like Patrick Star in Spongebob! You can also 'donate' parts of your home to your neighbours, if you want.

You can recycle concrete...

Also, if you make sandcastle-style homes, you're not going to be able to live in them. The roof would collapse. Sandcastles work because they only need to look like real buildings from the outside and it's fine if they have no actual hollow interior.

That, plus if you transport that much sand away from a beach it'll blow away. Unless you're in the desert. Despite the exponential growth in the amount of desert sand, desert sand is unsustainable for conscruction of concrete as well as unsuitable for construction of sand castles. If you built your sand castle home in the desert, it would blow away and blend in with inferior desert sand. That what's makes it the stupid, impracticle, never will work option

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Those linked articles are really interesting, and the second link answered my question of "why don't they just go to the deserts?"

Having said that, this...

[DESCRIPTION] A tiny uninhabited @@DEMONYMADJECTIVE@@ island recently vanished into the sea. The reason for this disappearance was the removal of sand for the construction industry.

...doesn't have anywhere near the same impact the linked articles do.

That description just makes me think "so what? it's tiny, uninhabited, and made of sand, which there's plenty of, so why is this even an issue?"

The linked articles do a great job of explaining why this is an issue, but I think you need to bring some of that into the issue itself.

[Candensia]

I actually wrote a draft on essentially this topic. I took a different angle, and never really felt satisfied enough to send it in. Feel free to pick through it if you'd like.

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=452322

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Surprised that draft didn't make it. Maybe it was too dry!

[Baggieland]

That description just makes me think "so what? it's tiny, uninhabited, and made of sand, which there's plenty of, so why is this even an issue?"

The linked articles do a great job of explaining why this is an issue, but I think you need to bring some of that into the issue itself.

Okay, tried to make it juicier!

I actually wrote a draft on essentially this topic. I took a different angle, and never really felt satisfied enough to send it in. Feel free to pick through it if you'd like.

Thanks Candensia, I see your draft focused more on the illegal companies that take sand. Whilst I did consider this, I thought it better that I take the angle of the effects of sand running out.

2nd draft is up.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Much better!

[Chan Island]

I can understand the first 3 catastrophes of over-extracting sand, but the fourth one is a bit out of left field. Surely construction projects would be the one thing that doesn't get disrupted due to over-extracting sand? Where else would it all be going if not to concrete? Unless it's run out, in which case the fact that there is now a shortage of it (since all of the beaches are gone) would itself be the issue, not the extraction.

[Baggieland]

I can understand the first 3 catastrophes of over-extracting sand, but the fourth one is a bit out of left field. Surely construction projects would be the one thing that doesn't get disrupted due to over-extracting sand? Where else would it all be going if not to concrete? Unless it's run out, in which case the fact that there is now a shortage of it (since all of the beaches are gone) would itself be the issue, not the extraction.

Thanks Chan, a good point.

3rd draft is up.

[Baggieland]

Submitted, thanks for everyone's help.

[Australian rePublic]

Good Luck

[Baggieland]

Good Luck

Cheers y'all!