3 ms·

Generally, ships are incredibly effective means of transportation. "Green", or not. At least in northern Europe, you are often confronted with this sentiment o

Generally, ships are incredibly effective means of transportation. "Green", or not. At least in northern Europe, you are often confronted with this sentiment of condemning oh-so-bad imported fruits from afar (Checkmate, Avocado!), when really most of the CO2 emissions are due to the first and last few kilometers of travel by fossil-fueled trucks. The thousands of kilometers across the ocean are almost negligible. Eating an apple grown in New Zealand or northern Germany makes almost no difference in regard to CO2. Really, the downside of ships is not the CO2 emissions at all. Sail, or not. We don't use them as much for personal transportation, because they are slow as fuck in comparison to trains, busses/cars and planes. Most people just don't want to spend a week or two looking at the same endless water, when crossing the Atlantic. (If you want to travel the world like this, maybe reach out to a container line!) On land, we need more cheap and frequent high speed trains connecting countries! Night trains and busses with beds and all again, too.

AtlasBarfed 3y ago
Self driving EV semis will do the job of night trains with low zero carbon. Self driving on highways should be very achievable with route specific AI, convergent infrastructure like sensors and more wildlife fences and networked status reporting. Last mile delivery trucks will be the first commercial vehicles to electrify. The real downside of long haul shipping is the race to the bottom arbitrage of loose environment regulations and enforcement.
- jijijijij 3y ago
  > Self driving EV semis will do the job of night trains with low zero carbon. I hope not. Individualistic traffic is still much worse than mass transport trains. Do robotaxis for the last mile instead. > The real downside of long haul shipping is the race to the bottom arbitrage of loose environment regulations and enforcement. Fun fact, tho, dirty exhausts from ships have been substantially cooling the climate before regulation kicking in.

AtlasBarfed 3y ago

Self driving EV semis will do the job of night trains with low zero carbon. Self driving on highways should be very achievable with route specific AI, convergent infrastructure like sensors and more wildlife fences and networked status reporting. Last mile delivery trucks will be the first commercial vehicles to electrify. The real downside of long haul shipping is the race to the bottom arbitrage of loose environment regulations and enforcement.

jijijijij 3y ago
> Self driving EV semis will do the job of night trains with low zero carbon. I hope not. Individualistic traffic is still much worse than mass transport trains. Do robotaxis for the last mile instead. > The real downside of long haul shipping is the race to the bottom arbitrage of loose environment regulations and enforcement. Fun fact, tho, dirty exhausts from ships have been substantially cooling the climate before regulation kicking in.