We just need to run railroad tracks over the oceans.
The unsustainable growth of the container ship industry
31–40 of 61 posts
Re: The unsustainable growth of the container ship industry
#32I wonder if this will create some opportunities for solutions to shipping to inland ports along the Columbia and Mississippi. There is a company developing boats to handle more containers on rivers.
Re: The unsustainable growth of the container ship industry
#33> No upstart carrier could possibly compete with the alliances; they couldn’t afford the massive startup costs to build or lease their own mega-ship. This is such a common pattern with optimization. Something starts small-ish, but gets optimized and optimized to the point that newcomers aren’t viable and everything gets locked in. It happens all over the economy, and the unprecedented scale of everything only makes t…
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Re: The unsustainable growth of the container ship industry
#34Copy writer was genius for using Containerization in the title; gonna get a lot of views from people like me who assume it's about computer software container and not a physical shipping container.
Re: The unsustainable growth of the container ship industry
#35Copy writer was genius for using Containerization in the title; gonna get a lot of views from people like me who assume it's about computer software container and not a physical shipping container.
This is definitely not the case. This publication has multiple posts about the supply chain and port affairs. Software/tech people sometimes forget that we live in a very specific world with very limited scope, and sometimes forget to take our blinders off when interacting with the “real” world.
Re: The unsustainable growth of the container ship industry
#36Containerization has a specific meaning in the context of computers so maybe the title should be changed to "The Hidden Costs of [Shipping Containers]" to reduce confusion for people clicking the link thinking it is going to be an article about the drawbacks of docker
Unfortunately, "shipping containers" (where "shipping" is a verb, not an adjective) also has a computing meaning, so your proposed title would be just as misleading.
Re: The unsustainable growth of the container ship industry
#37Containerization has a specific meaning in the context of computers so maybe the title should be changed to "The Hidden Costs of [Shipping Containers]" to reduce confusion for people clicking the link thinking it is going to be an article about the drawbacks of docker
Unfortunately, "shipping containers" (where "shipping" is a verb, not an adjective) also has a computing meaning, so your proposed title would be just as misleading.
I went down this entire train of thought after opening the article and decided on "The Hidden Costs of [Shipment] Containerization." This I think clarified overload on "shipping", "ship", "containers" and "containization." At least until next week when Docker decides to offer a new deployment option/format/interface it calls a "Shipment" or some nonsense.
I'm sure the people knowledgable of physical shipping containers and infrastructure really weren't that concerned or perhaps even aware how overloaded the term is in tech, nor did they know they'd land on the front page of a highly trafficked tech site. I don't know the policy on editorialized headlines here but I know people seem to get up in arms about it, which I understand, but here's a case where a nice insert makes sense.
Re: The unsustainable growth of the container ship industry
#38When I first opened the site, I wondered if it was a more technical/wonkish dive, or whether it was a political take. Looking at the root site prospect.org made it clear it's the latter. Don't get me wrong, their thesis can still be right, but this is like reading about "is free trade good" in the Economist.
Re: The unsustainable growth of the container ship industry
#39monopoly power, except effectively extranational so no antitrust Faaaantastic. Of course the entire "make 5000 miles away, ship it over the pacific" was enabled by the lack of a proper carbon tax. If monopolies perform the same "service" then more power to them.
>Of course the entire "make 5000 miles away, ship it over the pacific" was enabled by the lack of a proper carbon tax. I think this pretty much sums it up: >Shippers earned $25 billion in 2020; research consultant Drewry predicted $300 billion for 2021 and 2022.[...] A study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that pollution from cargo ships has led to 60,000 deaths per year and costs up to $…
How many people's lives are saved from increased access to trans-oceanic trade? I don't have an answer to that, but isn't it possible that the counterfactual world where no container ships exist involves worse health and mortality outcomes?
Re: The unsustainable growth of the container ship industry
#40> No upstart carrier could possibly compete with the alliances; they couldn’t afford the massive startup costs to build or lease their own mega-ship. This is such a common pattern with optimization. Something starts small-ish, but gets optimized and optimized to the point that newcomers aren’t viable and everything gets locked in. It happens all over the economy, and the unprecedented scale of everything only makes t…
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