Soon, Jamal’s voice will no longer ring out over the mountain slopes he’s roamed for years with his herd in northern Cyprus. To feed the concrete demands of hotels, holiday homes and road-building, quarries are eating away at the mountains where his goats graze. Between 40 billion and 50 billion tonnes a year of sand and gravel are extracted around the world from mountains, rivers, coastlines and marine environments, the majority for construction, according to UN environment agency figures.
