PANAMA CANAL DROUGHT 3/3
QUADRUPLE TROUBLE DUE TO INCREASING TRUCKING IN THE U.S.
Is the water crisis in the Panama Canal just the beginning of a tale of a swirling vortex of compounding climate change issues? We will be here to tell it?
No apologies for the drama.
Sit rep: The number of ship passages and cargo weights have been reduced, again, as the water supply is rationed at the critical shipping route. Twenty years of drought have taken their toll in one of the wettestplaces on earth. No relief is in sight.
The series of locks that provide the needed control in the narrow passage between two oceans were built more than a century ago to connect Asia with the east coast of the U.S. At the time, the plan was simply to create a shorter, safer route. But cutting thousands of miles from each journey inadvertently curtailed massive amounts of emissions.
It also increased our appetite for global trade. Economies of scale meant inexpensive goods, not just for consumers, but manufacturers across the U.S. who built price points and profit margins on the back of cheap components.
It all worked. About 90% of trade remains over the waves. That’s a good thing for the air.
According to the International Chamber of Shipping, a container ship, stacked high with up to 24,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit), with nearly 50,000 pounds of dry cargo in each, emits an average of 30 grams of CO2/ton. A heavy goods vehicle, or tractor trailer, emits 140 grams of CO2/ton.
That means that a shipping container’s voyage from China to Europe produces the same emissions as a truck hauling that same container only 200 kilometers.
Startling statistics like that offer a clue of the potential impacts of ships diverting from Panama to unload on the U.S.’s Pacific coast, where containers will travel via diesel-powered truck and rail across the country.
Maybe predictions that the drought in Panama will extend into next year, and possibly beyond, will be wrong. Maybe the now-obvious stresses on our planet will shake more of us awake to the threats. Or we’ll stop aiming at preserving life as we know it, and come up with a better plan. So many maybes, and to be fair, most of us are stuck, looking for guidance from vague government policies.
Some of you are doing amazing stuff on the edge that can move us forward. We see you, and we’re here to give you a voice. You are looking for, and finding, solutions in the right places, and that work within the bigger picture. Climate solutions are taking the shape of small circles. Carbon-negative waste-to-energy reactors built where alternative fuels are used, water used twice within a home, boat fuel produced from seawater while underway.
Companies are making bold moves to tighten up their sourcing radius, hedging against future supply chain issues and diplomatic tensions. In the first half of this year, Chinese imports into the U.S. were down 24% from the same period in 2022, indicating a trend toward producing goods closer to customers.
More small circles.
