Last week I was listening to a programme on Radio Four about the decline in the world's second most important resource.

Water is obviously the world's main resource closely, followed by sand.

Yes, I was surprised too.

Sand is, as one would expect, used extensively in construction. It's also used in just about every product we buy, from bottles, mobile phones through to car tyres and more.

One has to asks, where does all the sand come from?

From what I can find out, it's quarried with gravel, some extracted from river beds and some from beaches.

The solution as I see it would be to extract all sand from the ocean floor or from sandbanks. This would also help with global warming. We are constantly being told sea levels are rising. By extracting sand it would increase the volume to contain water thus reducing sea levels.

It would also reduce the need for quarries.