📈 Last week's most popular stories

Welcome to the weekly roundup.

Last week, the two most popular Shades of the Day stories were:

• 🇰🇷 Cash incentives for having kids? (opened by 3.5k subscribers)

• 🏗️ Worldwide sand shortage (opened by 3.3k subscribers)

You can read both stories below. As always, please reach out at [email protected] if you have any thoughts or feedback.

🇰🇷 Cash incentives for having kids?

Companies in South Korea are giving their workers cash to have kids. Is it a reasonable solution to the country’s low birth rate?

🇰🇷 South Korea faces a severe demographic challenge with one of the world's lowest fertility rates. CNN questions whether cash incentives from companies can really turn the tide on South Korea's population decline.

🇰🇷 But Al Jazeera thinks that cash incentives alone won't solve South Korea's baby bust. SK needs to improve its work culture — workers just don't have time for raising children right now.

🇰🇷 Asia Society says that the “cash for kids” program is too focused on the short term. There should be long-term cash benefits, too. Additionally, the policy will fall short without cultural change.

🇰🇷 NPR agrees: Cash for kids won't solve South Korea's deep-rooted fertility issues. Gender inequality and high cost of living are the big culprits.

🏗️ Worldwide sand shortage

As construction booms, sand is running out.

🏗️ As the world faces a high quality sand shortage due to high demand for construction, The Week argues that we must reduce extraction and recycle materials to prevent a crisis.

🏗️ The UN Environmental Programme agrees: We need a circular economy to tackle the sand crisis, otherwise we'll completely run out.

🏗️ But Stanford News suggests regulations for existing sand reserves. They would've prevented a shortage in the first place.

🏗️ OpenMind thinks a societal shift is key to tackling the sand crisis. Less material-intensive lifestyles are essential — supply is low, so let's decrease the demand to match it.

🏗️ Meanwhile, BBC highlights an innovative solution: Plastic waste could be a game-changing alternative in tackling the sand shortage crisis. Turning plastic trash into a sand substitute for concrete is on the rise.