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posted by martyb on Monday February 11 2019, @11:33PM   Printer-friendly
from the getting-grounded dept.

Phys.org:

As climate change melts Greenland's glaciers and deposits more river sediment on its shores, an international group of researchers has identified one unforeseen economic opportunity for the Arctic nation: exporting excess sand and gravel abroad, where raw materials for infrastructure are in high demand.
...
"The melting Greenland Ice Sheet delivers an enormous amount of sediments to the coast," said Mette Bendixen, a researcher at CU Boulder's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) and a Carlsberg Foundation research fellow. "Eight percent of the annual sediment contribution delivered to the global oceans comes from the Greenland Ice Sheet and with continued global warming, this number is expected to increase."
...
Simultaneously, global sand reserves have been rapidly depleted in recent decades while demand has only increased thanks to global urbanization and infrastructure investments. The study estimates that the amount of sand delivered to Greenland's coast each year has a market value equivalent to more than half of the Greenland gross domestic product ($2.22 billion in 2015) and this value is expected to double within the next 25 years if the global sand prices continue to increase.

Greenland's melting ice sheet might stall out the Gulf Stream, but the sand and sediment it's depositing at the coast could become a valuable export.


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  • (Score: 1) by redneckmother on Tuesday February 12 2019, @03:42AM (2 children)

    by redneckmother (3597) on Tuesday February 12 2019, @03:42AM (#799922)

    So, the sand is going to be extremely valuable to... who?

    Who will be around to have a hardon for sand?

    Fresh water, food, environmental shelter, and cooling technology - there's the market of the future!

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    Mas cerveza por favor.
  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday February 12 2019, @03:43AM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Tuesday February 12 2019, @03:43AM (#799923) Journal

    What happened to seasteading?

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    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
  • (Score: 2) by arslan on Tuesday February 12 2019, @06:04AM

    by arslan (3462) on Tuesday February 12 2019, @06:04AM (#799959)

    Didn't you watch waterworld, dirt is the new gold.