"Hello, Thank you for visiting SandStories.Org! My name is Kiran Pereira and I created this website with some help from my wonderful family and friends. This project is currently a one-woman labour of love, but my vision is for it to grow into a strong social enterprise that builds bridges between Research, Policy, and Industry. A social enterprise that works to educate society about the urgent need to re-evaluate our relationship with resources in general and sand in particular. I?ve experienced life in an emerging economy as well as a developed one. I grew up in India, but I now live in London, UK. So my world view has been influenced quite a bit by the contrasts and the similarities between both worlds. As for this particular topic, it was the subject of my dissertation at King?s College, London where I did a Masters course in Environment and Development in 2010 - 11. Ever since, I have been researching various aspects of it and I find that we have unwittingly built ourselves a society that is highly dependent on the consumption of sand in order to maintain a high standard of living. As a result, we now also face the potential paradox of a ?scarce? symbol of abundance. There is a great need to break down information barriers and initiate cross-disciplinary cooperation so that we can find solutions. I hope this website can inspire readers to slow down and take a closer look at the most overused and undervalued resource on Earth, after water. The more I learn, the more I realise how little I know. It?s a humbling, yet fascinating journey. Join me in this quest to discover more about how sand is deeply entrenched in our lives. If you?re interested, you can follow some of my earlier work on the subject (in English) here, here, here and (in German) here. If you?d rather watch a quick video, watch this. The best introduction to this subject though, is a film called Sand Wars. If you haven?t already watched it, please do watch this investigative documentary made by the award-winning film maker Denis Delestrac. It was quite an eye-opener for me and I feel very privileged to have worked with Denis."