Question: what will you do if the things you like to work with run out?

Daniel Parsons answered on 10 Nov 2014:

I don’t think the things I work with will ever run out – I work with sand and mud on rivers, coasts and seas…..so I don’t have to worry too much about any of them running out across the world somewhere at least.

However, what is most important is if things change with climate, is where the water is moved to…. for example in Cambodia, where I have recently been working, in the past the monsoon rains have failed and the predictions are that this will happen more often as the world warms. This is not good news if you grow rice there, which many farmers do!

In the past this has been linked to entire civilisations collapsing. About 1000 years ago the largest most advanced city on Earth, with over half a million people, was the city of Angkor in Cambodia. About 500 years ago this civilisation collapsed and the thinking is that this was due to changes in the SE Asian Monsoon rains. Evidence for this vast city is now in the middle of a jungle – its a must visit when you are older – its a world heritage site: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/668