71–80 of 146 posts
ESA is now sending rocket subassemblies across the Atlantic (to their launch site in French Guyana) in a hybrid ship equipped with both sails and diesel; the linked article claims the sails reduce fuel consumption by 30%.
https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Transportation/Ar...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is where carbon tax helps. Having to pay the true cost of goods helps everyone make better decisions. Maybe, hopefully, it also pushes the needle towards higher quality, more essential items and hence less waste. Yet, "make everything more expensive" is a challenging position to make progress on.
Doesn’t this just drive up the cost for the people who are already struggling to afford these goods?
For example, a plane ticket might be cheaper than a train one for the same trip but it costs more to the community in the long term because of global warming.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is where carbon tax helps. Having to pay the true cost of goods helps everyone make better decisions. Maybe, hopefully, it also pushes the needle towards higher quality, more essential items and hence less waste. Yet, "make everything more expensive" is a challenging position to make progress on.
Doesn’t this just drive up the cost for the people who are already struggling to afford these goods?
This could work for luxury goods if the products and the associated marketing reflects it. It has to be on the label - “brought you by a sailboat across the Atlantic”. I could imagine someone paying a large markup for it just like they pay for fancy wine or jewelry. As long as everyone involved in the business understands it and doesn’t drink their own kool-aid, which often happens.
This is not a method by which carbon emissions can be significantly reduced. It is essentially a marketing ploy to provide an option for virtue signaling consumers to show that they get their luxury chocolates and wine by sailboat. I was going to start out this comment by saying "I don't mean to dump on well-intentioned entrepreneurs", but in all honesty I think I might. That is, at this point, anything that doesn't…
The rich are responsible for a disproportionate amount of emissions. They fly more (often ridiculously more with their private jets), buy more, live in houses that take more energy than whole suburbs. If it becomes taboo for them to spend their fortunes on things that have high emissions and they're pressured to use this sort of innovative solution because of that, it may actually make a big difference. Also, what's…
I was very clear in my alternative - I even posted a link to one such example real alternative in my post.
We should be very clear headed about the types of technologies that can actually reduce worldwide global emissions. Anything else should be completely ignored. Reducing carbon emissions isn't like cleaning up litter. If you clean up litter in your little town, you're left with a sparkling clean town, which is great, even if other towns don't do anything and look like a dump. With carbon reduction, if you find a way to reduce .00001% of emissions, it literally does nothing to affect overall climate and temperature. In fact, I think it can do more harm than good, as it is basically a way for people to pay off their conscience without doing anything that makes a difference.
Everyone is always concerned about scale. But I sometimes wonder if we need to scale down. Are cargo ships full of essential goods or disposable items that will more likely than not enter a landfill without seeing any use at all? We’re really good at over producing items and goods that we don’t need or use. It’s interesting to see businesses try things like this. It might not be efficient or affordable now. But someo…
Also, there are lots of disposable goods that are essential like food and toilet paper. Lots of food is shipped by container. What is the difference between a mango and an apple? Clothing is frequently shipped by container. How are you going to decide what clothing is frivolous fast fashion and what is essential?
Everyone is always concerned about scale. But I sometimes wonder if we need to scale down. Are cargo ships full of essential goods or disposable items that will more likely than not enter a landfill without seeing any use at all? We’re really good at over producing items and goods that we don’t need or use. It’s interesting to see businesses try things like this. It might not be efficient or affordable now. But someo…
But all that aside, sailing cargo ships are nothing more than a curiosity. Their capacity is tiny, they are very slow, are limited in their routes, etc. And as far as I can tell Grain de Sail's business is NOT shipping. It's some sort of luxury wine & chocolates with an eco theme. I suspect the boat is just a way for the owner to have the company pay for his yachts (the boats only make 2 cargo trips a year) .
I was a little sad to see that this is more eco-friendly performative than a serious attempt to disrupt the shipping industry. With advances in material science, meteorology, and automation, I’m hopeful cargo sailboats can make a comeback.
Its not actually more eco friendly than placing the cargo on a container ship. The fuel cost for moving one container over the Atlantic on a big container ship is about 30$. A container takes 30 tons. So 12 containers could move that cargo for a fuel cost of 360$, the scale is unbeatable; both economically and environmentally. Things like this can only ever be a type of artistic thing rather than used for real shippi…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
all in all it's gotta be cheaper to ship time-insensitive things via a vehicle that consumes no fuel. I'm curious if they can turn around and monetize their lack of emissions thru some kind of carbon markets or whatnot
The crew consumes fuel. A large sailing vessel and a large container ship probably require a similar number of crew. Labor cost per ton will be huge.