[anotherbrownguy]

Oh so Africa is building long lasting concrete buildings and making life easier for everyone... something that most of the western world and a huge part of the developing world has already been using for a long time in the same way? No, let us tell you something much more important: how the freaking rivers are "dying".

Environmentalism is anti-humanism.

[hobs]

Did you read the article?

They are discussing offshoring this sand to other countries that can afford it, not to build useful African structures. An argument from "The world has already been using this for a long time" could be used for any number of grotesque and terrible acts (and has) so I will ignore that part.

The main complaint about the "rivers dying" is that it has a outsized impact on the poor who use those rivers for food and water (which is no longer available and which is no longer captured, respectively.)

While some people truly believe in the preservation of nature over humans, most of us "Environmentalists" want to save the environment because of the direct and indirect human suffering inappropriate exploitation of our shared resources cause.

[Spooky23]

Theres a lot of domestic construction going on in African countries. That growth is all using modern methods, which means lots and lots of pumped concrete.

[lukeschlather]

Anti-environmentalism leads to concrete human and industrial harm. The classic example is having forested buffers between farmland. This is industrially necessary to avoid desertification. The USA learned this the hard way in the 30's. Some countries in Africa have also learned this lesson the hard way, others are still learning it.

This is a similar problem. When you dredge up some sand and a river disappears, you've made a mistake that has human consequences and it probably was not worth whatever you did with the sand.

[anotherbrownguy]

>The classic example is having forested buffers between farmland. This is industrially necessary to avoid desertification.

I see. That must be the reason why Americans are starving and Africans are so fat because of too much they grow on their undesertified fertile farmlands.

[dang]

Could you please stop posting flamebait comments on divisive topics? Those are the opposite of what we're trying for here. Please see https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

Let's assume your points are 100% correct. If you make them by ranting, like you've been doing in these threads, you not only break the site rules, but discredit the truth. That's not in anybody's interest.

[PhasmaFelis]

Did you reply to the wrong comment? That doesn't make any sense.

[7952]

It is possible for two facts to be correct at the same time. Yes it is good that Africa has access to modern building materials. It is also bad that extraction is causing problems for rural communities. These two facts are not inconsistent.

All you have really proven is how much you dislike environmentalists. A debate that is quite colloquial to a few cossated western countries. In a lot places people actually live within touching distance of the environment. The pros and cons are just obvious to everyone. Young local men get paid to move sand, which is good. But farmers need water for crops and erosion is a problem. It becomes news outside because no one has a good solution. Just another intractable social problem.