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Sand from Glacial Melt Could Be Greenland's Economic Salvation

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

Phoenix666 writes:

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: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday February 12 2019, @05:14PM (3 children)

    by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday February 12 2019, @05:14PM (#800160)

    We're not invading them for their minerals and strategic position, because they are in charge of keeping the fresh water cubes for our cocktails.
    Now they're obviously not preventing them from melting.
    What do you think would happen to Switzerland if they stopped keeping good care of our money ?

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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday February 12 2019, @09:02PM (2 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 12 2019, @09:02PM (#800316) Journal

    What do you think would happen to Switzerland if they stopped keeping good care of our money ?

    Not much of anything except, of course, people would stop using their banks.

    • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday February 12 2019, @10:08PM (1 child)

      by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday February 12 2019, @10:08PM (#800360)

      Prime strategic real estate in the heart of Europe, with beautiful vacation spots for the elite ?
      People have been invaded for way less than that.

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday February 12 2019, @11:00PM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 12 2019, @11:00PM (#800378) Journal

        People have been invaded for way less than that.

        In what century? Ignoring that Switzerland is a really hard target for invasion, we still have that your sort of invasion is increasingly scarce.