The whole world has been opened up by the expansion of transport networks including ports and shipping, railways and modern highways, so that it is now commonplace for produce from one part of the world to make its way to a market on the other side of the globe. The widespread use of containers for shipping goods has allowed for the development of a huge intermodal freight transport network that we have all come to rely on. While this has increased the variety of goods available to everyone it has also significantly added to transport costs and the amount of energy that it now takes to bring goods to the consumer who wants to buy them. The American transport networks are the busiest in the world and US railways alone carry more cargo than all of Western Europe’s network combined. In fact two-thirds of all of the oil that is used in the US is consumed within the transport sector while container and bulk cargo ships make up almost 3% of the world’s entire carbon footprint. With rising operational costs, dwindling fuel reserves and the introduction of carbon taxes in many countries, transport companies have been developing more sustainable operational…
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The Gulf Coast of the United States constitutes one of the richest fisheries in the world. Over a billion dollars annually in shrimp, shellfish, and other marine species are harvested in the coastal waters of this region. Unfortunately, both the wetlands and offshore waters of this zone face multiple environmental threats. A large dead zone covering millions of acres is located off the mouth of the Mississippi River as chemical fertilizers wash downstream from farms. The nutrients in the fertilizers spawn algae blooms, whose decay depletes oxygen, rendering a vast area void of life. Millions of acres of marshlands have disappeared into the ocean due to erosion. Channels have been dredged through the wetlands for oil and gas drilling, and other sorts of developments, such as marinas. This causes large areas of land to wash away, and the sediment needed to replenish them is to a large extent being flushed out to sea by the Mississippi because of a levee system designed for river transportation and flood control. Recognition of these problems and the need for action has been stimulated in recent years by the destruction wrought on New Orleans and surrounding regions by Hurricane Katrina, and the more recent…
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When it comes to fuel efficiency of vehicles, bicycles come in first. Given the number of calories it takes to operate them, bicycles are by far the best means of transport, but the modern world has a need to transport so much material that bicycles can only carry a small portion. The rest must be carried by motorized vehicles, which are most often powered by an oil based fuel. Given the rising costs of oil and the growing awareness of its limited availability, increasing attention is being paid to lowering consumption rates in transportation vehicles. Trucks are increasingly relying on composite materials that are lighter in weight than the traditional steel alloys that have been used in their construction. Less weight means better mileage. In addition, truck motors are being refashioned to take advantage of new methods for injecting fuel into cylinders. Pressurized injection and preheating of fuel allows for faster and more complete combustion, boosting power while also lowering emissions. Natural gas can be used where it is plentiful to power trucks. This provides a cleaner-burning alternative to oil based diesel. While ships continue to grow larger in capacity and fuel consumption, the actual amount of fuel expended per…
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The rapid expansion in global trade has led to a mushrooming of truck traffic at many ports around the world. This has made truck congestion a choke point for continued growth in these places. Too often this choking threatens to become literal, as thousands of idling trucks add an enormous volume of pollutants to the air. Nearby residents and port workers risk respiratory damage from all the diesel particulates they breathe in. Cities such as Los Angeles that have made huge efforts to reduce emissions from automobiles and stationary sources find that their efforts are being thwarted by growing levels of exhausts from waiting trucks. To ease congestion, some ports are switching to round the clock operations. Currently, most ports only operate during a day shift. The hours are usually from 7 a.m. To 5 p.m. While keeping terminals and other facilities open for operation 24 hours a day may cut down on congestion, it may also act as an irritant to local residents who may not appreciate the noise generated by trucks rolling along through the night. Truck drivers are generally supportive of expanded hours, since they often line up to wait for hours for the port to open…
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Since railroads offer the cheapest method for transporting goods over land and ships are the most economical form of transit by sea, it is only natural for the two systems to become increasingly intertwined within the ongoing expansion of global trade. A similar connection is to be found between rail transport and truck transport. Both developments key to advances in communications assisted by computers, cell phones, and other mobile devices. All work together to make for a smooth transition flow that allows goods to more readily reach their destinations. While ships may move at slow speeds over long distance, the fact that much of their cargo now moves by container means that goods can be moved around the world in the same relative amount of time that they were moved nationwide, in the case of the United States just a few decades ago. It isn’t so much that the ships have sped up, though they are moving about twenty percent faster than they used to, but because merchandise no longer sits around a warehouse so long waiting to be sorted out before moving out to market. Containers have markedly decreased the time goods spend being warehoused, both in transit by…
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