The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization
Written by Vince Beiser
Narrated by Will Damron
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
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.
Editor's Note
Sand mafias…
Next time you go to the beach and build a sand castle, just think: Members of the sand mafias are probably fighting over the little grains you’re playing with. This is a fascinating look into the economy of sand and the environmental impact of this crucial, diminishing resource.
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Reviews for The World in a Grain
59 ratings7 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My friend suggested that I read this book! It was definitely an eye opener and I learned so much! I recommend that people should read this book to understand how bad our consumerism really is- we are even running out of renewable resources
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An eye opener! Biggest takeaway - watch out for China!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Another eye opener, very interesting easy read (or hear).
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is an exhaustive tome about silica which I read because I was prompted. It actually was pretty interesting though, and I cannot say that I will ever look at the world in general in quite the same way. From foundations, to sidewalks, to roads, to bridges, to dredging, to sand mining, to building up new land, to stealing from the sea, and construction applications, the breadth of this book is astounding. Its pretty well written too for that matter, and probably worth reading.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Sand, top soil, pollinating insects, drinkable water, oil, rare earths, goodwill - it's all running out. I guess the worst thing that can happen is life extension medicine appearing. Who'd want to live the dump we're going to leave behind?
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent description of an underdiagnosed problem. The audio version is also outstanding
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The World in a Grain: The story of sand and how it transformed civilization
Permanence is a matter of perspective.
As a squishy human that is merely a bag of meat and liquid, I view anything that is harder than my own body as permanent. I subconciously evaluate things around me and identify whether I could be killed or damaged by it landing on me, if it is impossible to move by hand, or is arguably a large dense rocklike element. These perspectives influence the scale and breadth with which I interract with others, my mental stability, and how I move about the world with confidence.
I never gave much thought to the confidence and sense of reliability manifested by the percieved longevity of these objects. By proxy, I never gave much thought to Sand as an element or a composite requirement of construction of the same. It was just sand, something for childrens playgrounds, for cats to pee in, and someplace to visit on the coast that comes home in your shoes. Sand is little and light weight. It is the antithesis of permanence. It is the big sister of dust. And zygote of Mt Everest.
The World in a Grain by Vince Beiser opened my eyes. I always knew sand was a critical ingredient in physical buildings and roadways but never thought about it as a commodity. It serves a purpose in our food production, and communication, even speckling our language with critical phrasing, affirmations, and descriptions.
My personal interpretation of the concept was hugely flawed by my perception that we will never run out of sand. Instead it is finite, with the majority of sand strip mined or pulled from the ocean floor, it serves to be a resource that where several variety are actually killed for.
Sand as a sybiote of practically everything is ‘faux permanent’. It all has a social and physical shelf life of a hundred years or so before the product manufacturing breaks down, wears away, or is smashed by us and replaced with brand new.
Permanence is a false safety net.