4 ms·

Built on Sand: Singapore and the New State of Risk

96 points by hboon 12y ago

lostlogin 12y ago
>>Singapore, in keeping with its policy of transparency...<< Wow, straight face and all. Let's discuss freedom of speech, politics or any other human rights and see how transparent things remain.
- slyall 12y ago
  The writer was being sarcastic
  - jessaustin 12y ago
    Yeah it seems so, since earlier was this line: A number of importers, including Singapore, consider the details of their sourcing to be confidential and a matter of national security. As in, they won't even admit from where the sand is being imported.
bretthopper 12y ago
Artificial shore/land expansion is really interesting so I loved this article. This article mentions illegal sand trade but doesn't go into much detail about sand theft. In 2008 someone stole 500 truck loads of sand from a Jamaican beach. There's some details on that one and another in Hungary [1]. One question I wish this article addressed is what Singapore does with the land excavated from all its building developments. In Toronto for example, our waterfront has been expanded for over 50 years with land excavated from digging down for building foundations. I believe it extends a kilometre more than the natural shoreline [2]. They even created a 5km long "spit" [3] to act as a breakwater. And I'm sure this is common in a lot of bigger waterfront cities as well. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beach_theft http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beach_theft [2] http://www.blogto.com/city/2011/07/that_time_toronto_filled_in_the_harbour/ http://www.blogto.com/city/2011/07/that_time_toronto_filled_... [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Street_Spit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Street_Spit
- damon_c 12y ago
  Also, see Battery Park City in NYC. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battery_Park_City http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battery_Park_City
Punoxysm 12y ago
After having a little patience to digest the stuffy academic language I realized something: This is one of the craziest articles I have ever read. It is like the premise of a sci-fi novel where future states slowly creep along by dredging and filling in land. But it's actually really happening at a scale beyond novelties like Dubai and non-contentious (at least internationally) expansions like Battery Park City. The fact that sand-smuggling is a thing...
- Someone 12y ago
  It doesn't have to be slowly. China is building islands at over 1000 km of its mainland in the Spratley islands: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/2014/newsspec_8701/index.html http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/2014/newsspec_8701/index.h...
rajacombinator 12y ago
Stopped reading at "lebensraum." The author should be ashamed.
dagurp 12y ago
I recommend the documentary Sand Wars http://www.sand-wars.com/ http://www.sand-wars.com/ if you want to know more about the sand trade
vacri 12y ago
Milton notes that .6 miles of new ground requires 37.5 million cubic meters of fill .6 miles is 1 kilometer. Why would you convert to imperial for one measure, but leave the second as metric?
- jacques_chester 12y ago
  I'm going to guess that they didn't know how to do the volumetric conversion.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]

96 points by hboon 12y ago

>>Singapore, in keeping with its policy of transparency...<< Wow, straight face and all. Let's discuss freedom of speech, politics or any other human rights and see how transparent things remain.

slyall 12y ago
The writer was being sarcastic
- jessaustin 12y ago
  Yeah it seems so, since earlier was this line: A number of importers, including Singapore, consider the details of their sourcing to be confidential and a matter of national security. As in, they won't even admit from where the sand is being imported.

bretthopper 12y ago

Artificial shore/land expansion is really interesting so I loved this article. This article mentions illegal sand trade but doesn't go into much detail about sand theft. In 2008 someone stole 500 truck loads of sand from a Jamaican beach. There's some details on that one and another in Hungary [1]. One question I wish this article addressed is what Singapore does with the land excavated from all its building developments. In Toronto for example, our waterfront has been expanded for over 50 years with land excavated from digging down for building foundations. I believe it extends a kilometre more than the natural shoreline [2]. They even created a 5km long "spit" [3] to act as a breakwater. And I'm sure this is common in a lot of bigger waterfront cities as well. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beach_theft http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beach_theft [2] http://www.blogto.com/city/2011/07/that_time_toronto_filled_in_the_harbour/ http://www.blogto.com/city/2011/07/that_time_toronto_filled_... [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Street_Spit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Street_Spit

damon_c 12y ago
Also, see Battery Park City in NYC. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battery_Park_City http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battery_Park_City

Punoxysm 12y ago

After having a little patience to digest the stuffy academic language I realized something: This is one of the craziest articles I have ever read. It is like the premise of a sci-fi novel where future states slowly creep along by dredging and filling in land. But it's actually really happening at a scale beyond novelties like Dubai and non-contentious (at least internationally) expansions like Battery Park City. The fact that sand-smuggling is a thing...

Someone 12y ago
It doesn't have to be slowly. China is building islands at over 1000 km of its mainland in the Spratley islands: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/2014/newsspec_8701/index.html http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/2014/newsspec_8701/index.h...

rajacombinator 12y ago

Stopped reading at "lebensraum." The author should be ashamed.

dagurp 12y ago

I recommend the documentary Sand Wars http://www.sand-wars.com/ http://www.sand-wars.com/ if you want to know more about the sand trade

vacri 12y ago

Milton notes that .6 miles of new ground requires 37.5 million cubic meters of fill .6 miles is 1 kilometer. Why would you convert to imperial for one measure, but leave the second as metric?

jacques_chester 12y ago
I'm going to guess that they didn't know how to do the volumetric conversion.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]