Bad News is: Our planet is going to die in 12 years due to climate change. Good News is: we will now have plenty of sand for our beaches! Yeh!

The production of cement is one of the largest CO2 producing industries in the world. So, let's use sand from glaciers that are melting due to human caused climate change related to CO2 in the atmosphere to make more CO2. That sounds a like a really great idea. I am surprised given your seeming commitment to exposing climate change for what it is that the NYT would publish this article.

Was I the only one appalled by the "meeting the world's demand for sand" line?

Talk about putting a positive spin on disaster: We may all die, but at least we'll have plenty of sand.

Brilliant--burn more oil to transport the sand, and heat the earth more, and make more sand, and transport more sand and make more heat--it's a winning solution!

Concrete requires cement as well as sand. Cement is produced by heating limestone. Heating limestone produces carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide will produce more warming in Greenland, which will produce even more sand. The gift that keeps on giving.

I shall continue to pile on. When i first read this piece i thought it was a spoof. Really? Sand from Greenland for distant beaches? Just finished the very sobering "The Uninhabitable Earth by David-Wallace-Wells (New Yorker). Very sobering. Recommended. In this tome there is a note about the Concrete industry. If it were a country it would be the third largest emitter of Carbon in the world. China, in the last three years has produced more concrete than the US did in the entire 20th Century. Shipping sand from Greenland to feed the belly of this beast sounds like an dubious undertaking.

Just read "Drawdown." Since the manufacture of cement is thought to contribute to 5-6% of greenhouse gases, making more of it will certainly feed a continuous loop that ensures Greenland will continue to melt.

Much of California may become a sandy desert before long so I'm not sure shipping sand from Greenland will really be necessary. On the Atlantic side I've heard there's quite a bit of sand in the Sahara...I hope Greenland can use it all - maybe they could focus on beaches and offer tropical vacations as the temperatures rise.

One additional consideration in the appropriate concern already expressed; at least ship transport of sand could have less CO2 impact than typical truck transport. Especially with new IMO 2020 emissions regulations on cargo ships worldwide, as soon as trucks have to transport sand very far ships could have less impact (they are about 10 times more efficient). That will never justify where sand is not far away, but direct to large cities in Europe or the NE of North America with existing shortages might make sense. All that said, as others have commented,cement and certain metals are terribly CO2 impactful building materials and we should instead be trying to use wood from sustainable sources whenever possible.

I’ve heard some cockamamie I’ve heard some cockamamie ideas before, but shipping sand from Greenland really takes the cake. The LAST Thing we need in 2019 is to use that amount of energy to ship building materials around the world, in order to support more growth. At this point, GROWTH is the enemy. We don’t need more people, we need less. Resources are already strained on a planet with too many people. If half the energy we spend on exploiting what little remains of our resources was spent on conservation, education, and population control, we would be able to have a sustainable and habitable planet. The way we are going? We have about thirty years until global catastrophe, if not sooner. You can’t eat money.

Oh, so we get more sand? That is what I have trying to tell people who walk around the city, choking in the heat and asking for a nice beach. "There will be sand," I'll say to them. "Nature takes at away and gives back much more". Sand. At last, there might be enough for everyone. I'm so happy!

So, how much would a ton of sand shipped from Greenland to San Diego really cost? Carbon dioxide emissions and climate change The cement industry is one of the two largest producers of carbon dioxide (CO2), creating up to 5% of worldwide man-made emissions of this gas, of which 50% is from the chemical process and 40% from burning fuel.[1] The CO 2 produced for the manufacture of structural concrete (using ~14% cement) is estimated at 410 kg/m3 (~180 kg/tonne @ density of 2.3 g/cm3) (reduced to 290 kg/m3 with 30% fly ash replacement of cement).[4] The CO2 emission from the concrete production is directly proportional to the cement content used in the concrete mix; 900 kg of CO2 are emitted for the fabrication of every ton of cement, accounting for 88% of the emissions associated with the average concrete mix.[5][6] Cement manufacture contributes greenhouse gases both directly through the production of carbon dioxide when calcium carbonate is thermally decomposed, producing lime and carbon dioxide,[7] and also through the use of energy, particularly from the combustion of fossil fuels. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_concrete#Carbon_dioxide_emissions_and_climate_change

Silver lining to a dark cloud right? I'm sure they'll appreciate being able to afford better seats to watch the end of civilization as we know it.

So now we see the end, the final whimper as it will; most likely play out. Fifty years ago Conservatives laughed people out of jobs, careers, lives of academic and scientific work for suggesting climate change might even be a thing. Now, we watch Greenland, Iceland melt into the sea and we write about it like old news. All this sand is available for exploitation because so much of Greenland is already gone. Not worth a mention. Just "OK, how do we get the most money out of this, now?" Whimper.

Is this supposed to be the "sandy" lining of the glaciers melting?

Is that enough sand for the entire GOP, and climate change deniers, to stick their heads in?

"That supply might help meet a growing worldwide demand for sand." For what?? More concrete? More construction? More use of fossil-fuel-burning vehicles, equipment; manufacturing processes? Gosh; what an amazing "opportunity" for "value providers" to "engage in business creativity".

Down here in Texas, the fracking capitol of the world, sand is one of the essential materials used in fracking. But there are shortages in the supply of sand that is required. It would be ironic if sand from Greenland's melting glaciers was used to supply the fracking needs in Texas so that more petroleum could be extracted and burned, more carbon dioxide injected into our atmosphere, and more of Greenland's glaciers can be melted to supply more sand for fracking. That would be a classic (or tragic) definition of a vicious cycle!

Great. A little extra sand while the majority of the planet suffers record from heat waves, desertification, hurricanes on steroids, and torrential rain storms that flood and wreak massive property devastation. What a bargain.

It is truly amazing to me to see the Times buying into the idea of sand for continued expansion and development in a world that is under grave threat of global extinction (including us, by the way). Have we not noticed how devastating the global climate crisis actually is? Do we really think the business as usual model is going to keep working when cities with millions of people are running out of water, or are too hot to inhabit, or have been wiped off the map by super-storms? Making concrete is a major contributor to global atmospheric carbon dioxide rise, and the loss of Greenland's glaciers is an occasion to mourn, not a reason to rub our hands together dreaming of another pyrrhic business opportunity.