Ideas Into Code

Axiom Verge feels like a brand new Metroid on PS4.

The global demand for plain old sand is so high that mafias around the world are killing and dying for the stuff.

Though the supply might seem endless, sand is a finite resource like any other. The worldwide construction boom of recent years—all those mushrooming megacities, from Lagos to Beijing—is devouring unprecedented quantities; extracting it is a $70 billion industry. In Dubai enormous land-reclamation projects and breakneck skyscraper-building have exhausted all the nearby sources. Exporters in Australia are literally selling sand to Arabs.