4 ms·

Shoo posted some hard figures, but I'd like to add that intercontinental product transport by boat is incredibly efficient.

• icebraining 9y ago
  Efficient in what terms? AFAIK, not in ecological terms, due to the use of low-grade ship bunker fuel: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/apr/09/shipping-pollution https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/apr/09/shipping...
  • TeMPOraL 9y ago
    That's something I could never reconcile. On the one hand, I hear that container ships are the most energy-efficient way we have of moving cargo across long distances. On the other hand, we have those issues with crappy fuel. I wonder: - What's the total ecological impact of container ships vs. alternative forms of transport using better fuel? - Would container ships be a Good Thing if we could somehow make them use clean energy? (I just imagined a dream future of fully autonomous, nuclear-powered container ships.) - If so, why are they still using that shit fuel?
    • emn13 9y ago
      It's probably simply a question of the "lawless" open seas permitting absurdly excessive tragedy of the commons-style tradeoffs. You don't need to go all the way to nuke-carriers; plain old combustion can be much, much cleaner than some ships at negligible (but non-zero) cost - witness similar engines/powerplants on land. But in an extremely competitive market, what sane operator would do that?
    • kuschku 9y ago
      > I just imagined a dream future of fully autonomous, nuclear-powered container ships. You might want to read about these then: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Hahn_(ship) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Hahn_(ship) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutsu_(nuclear_ship) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutsu_(nuclear_ship) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NS_Savannah https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NS_Savannah https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sevmorput https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sevmorput