Shipping companies have billions invested in fleets that were built to last decades. Now, the US is calling for zero emissions by 2050, and the EU is raising the cost of fossil fuel use.
A growing source of global emissions is the ships that carry most of the goods we consume. A 21st-century generation of cargo ships propelled by the wind can reverse this unsustainable trend.
A green turtle on Aldabra entangled in abandoned fishing gear.
Rich Baxter
Remote islands in the Indian Ocean are now strewn with plastic waste – the origin of this waste has until now not been established.
Companies are remaking their supply chains to rely less on China and the massive container ships steaming across the oceans.
AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton
Companies around the world are rapidly reshoring factories, investing in new technologies and building their inventories – shifts that all mean higher costs for consumers.
A barge maneuvers its way down the drought-narrowed Mississippi River at Tiptonville, Tenn., Oct. 20, 2022.
AP Photo/Jeff Roberson
Record low water levels on the Mississippi and other major rivers, as seen in 2022, could become more common, threatening transportation of many key goods and raising prices.
Cargo ships anchored in the Marmara Sea await to cross the Bosporus Strait in Istanbul, Turkey. The country is checking all ships’ protection and indemnity insurance coverage before letting them enter its waters, a blow to Russia amid smart new western sanctions.
(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Just like how tax evasion brought down Al Capone, denying Russian ships protection and indemnity insurance could deliver a crushing economic blow to Vladimir Putin.
Shipping emitted the same amount of carbon as Germany in 2018.
petrugusa/Shutterstock
As California goes on regulating air pollution, other states often follow – including the Golden State’s ambitious goals for cleaning up emissions from trucking.
Amazon workers sort packages for delivery on East 14th Street in New York City, July 12, 2022.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
The rise of e-commerce means billions of packages are delivered in the US each year. That creates traffic and pollution, but urban freight researchers are finding better way to get goods to customers.
Ballast water discharge from transoceanic ships introduces invasive species to the Great Lakes.
(Shutterstock)
The St. Lawrence is one of the most difficult rivers in the world to navigate. It has been the site of collisions, groundings and shipwrecks. Several thousand wrecks lie beneath its surface.
The new Baltic Pipe natural gas pipeline connects Norwegian natural gas fields in the North Sea with Denmark and Poland, offering an alternative to Russian gas.
Sean Gallup/Getty Images
The maritime and port industries are integrating climate change into their business models and introducing different adaptive measures.
A container ship moves up through the winter ice in the St. Lawrence River, near the Port of Montréal. Approximately 8,000 merchant vessels travel the St. Lawrence annually. The importance of the river in all aspects of the economy is enormous and is expected to increase in the years to come.
(Shutterstock)
Approximately 8,000 merchant vessels travel the St. Lawrence each year. Its ports have become the catalysts that link trade, development and industrial innovation.
Aerial view of salmon fish farms, Grand Manan Island, N.B.
(Shutterstock)
Zebra and quagga mussels entered the Great Lakes in large ships’ ballast water. Now, local boaters and anglers are spreading them into the southern and western US.
Children participate in a water fight in Lake Ontario in Mississauga, Ontario, during a heat wave on June 5, 2021.
Zou Zheng/Xinhua via Getty Images
Grain and fertilizer shortages, higher shipping costs and a strong dollar are all pushing food prices up and increasing hunger in dozens of vulnerable countries.