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暴力集團涉「砂石黑市」 美記者出書爆20小島遭掏空
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本報2016年6月30日綜合外電報導，姜唯編譯；蔡麗伶審校
美國記者拜瑟（Vince Beiser）尚未出版的新書揭露全球砂石短缺，甚至有暴力集團自河川和海岸盜採大量砂石銷往黑市，導致20幾個小島消失的秘辛。
砂石是有限的地球資源。圖為台灣東海岸金樽漁港便道施工。攝影：黃苑蓉。圖片來源：本報資料照。
拜瑟在紐約時報撰文指出，砂是打造現代生活不可或缺的原料，但是這個資源卻越來越少。
砂是水泥和混凝土的主要成分，也用於製作玻璃、路面以及大型造陸計畫，如新加坡和杜拜等地。如果將人類一年用掉的砂打造成20公尺高、20公尺寬的牆，可繞地球赤道一週。
都市的數量和規模快速成長，特別是開發中國家；地球人口逐年增加，越來越多人移往都市居住。1950年起，全球都市人口已從7億4600萬暴增到39億。中國2011至2013年使用的水泥，比美國整個20世紀使用的水泥還要多。
沙漠的沙是風力侵蝕而成，形狀比較圓而且沒有黏著性，不像河流侵蝕的砂顆粒粗糙，適合用於建築。
「砂是有限資源...為了取得所需的砂，我們掏空河床、泛濫平原和海岸。」拜瑟寫道。
「採砂石產值約700億美金，規模大致跨國公司的巨型挖泥船，小至村民的鐵鏟和水桶。陸上砂石掏光了就往海裡挖。這往往造成龐大的環境成本。在印度，河床採砂石破壞生態系統，殺死無數魚鳥。在印尼，據悉2005年起陸續有20幾個小島因採砂石而消失。」
此外，砂石黑市也變得越來越暴戾。「印度和印尼皆傳出對抗黑市砂石集團的行動人士和政府官員被殺。」拜瑟說。
聯合國也很關心這個問題。今年稍早，聯合國環境規劃署全球變遷與脆弱小組主持人佩杜兹（Pascal Peduzzi）指出，砂石是人類必需資源，非法採砂石已經成為不可忽視的問題。「在某些地區，砂石資源已經不再豐沛，我們必須重新審視我們利用砂石的方式。」佩杜兹說。
Entire islands disappear as violent gangs steal sand amid global shortage
'Activists and government officials confronting black-market sand mining gangs have been killed'
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A global shortage of sand has prompted violent black market gangs to steal large amounts from rivers and beaches and even the complete disappearance of dozens of small islands, according to an author working on a book about the problem.
Sand is used as a main ingredient in cement and concrete in buildings, to make glass, in roads and in massive land reclamation projects in places like Singapore and Dubai.
If all the sand used by humans in a single year was turned into a wall it would be 20 metres high, 20 metres wide and stretch all the way around the equator.
In an article for the New York Times, writer and journalist Vince Beiser said: “Sand is the essential ingredient that makes modern life possible. And we are starting to run out.
“That’s mainly because the number and size of cities is exploding, especially in the developing world. Every year there are more people on the planet, and every year more of them move to cities. Since 1950, the world’s urban population has ballooned to over 3.9 billion from 746 million.
“From 2011 to 2013, China used more cement than the United States used in the entire 20th century.”
Desert sand, shaped by the wind, is often unsuitable for use in construction as it is too round and does not stick together as well as the rougher sand produced by water erosion.
“Usable sand is a finite resource … To get the sand we need, we are stripping riverbeds, floodplains and beaches,” Mr Beiser wrote.
“Extracting the stuff is an estimated $70bn (about £47bn) industry. It runs the gamut from multinational companies’ deploying enormous dredges to villagers toting shovels and buckets. In places where onshore sources have been exhausted, sand miners are turning to the seas.
“This often inflicts terrible costs on the environment. In India, river sand mining is disrupting ecosystems, killing countless fish and birds. In Indonesia, some two dozen small islands are believed to have disappeared since 2005 because of sand mining.”
And the black market in sand is turning violent.
“In India and Indonesia, activists and government officials confronting black-market sand mining gangs have been killed,” Mr Beiser said.
“It once seemed as if the planet had such boundless supplies of oil, water, trees and land that we didn’t need to worry about them. But of course, we’re learning the hard way that none of those things are infinite, and the price we’ve paid so far for using them is going up fast.”
The United Nations is also concerned about the problem.
Speaking earlier this year, Pascal Peduzzi, head of the Global Change & Vulnerability Unit at the United Nations Environment Programme, said sand was a resource that “we can't do without” and illegal mining had become a "quite big" problem.
“In some places, sand is not abundant anymore, so we need to reconsider the way we are dealing with sand,” he said.
- More about:
- sand
- Construction
- Population
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