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Tuesday, January 31, 2006 12:00 AM

The peak oil vs. globalization smackdown

High oil prices equals higher shipping costs equals no more "free" trade.

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  • Tuesday, January 31, 2006 05:01 PM

    New Manufacturing Sites or New Forms of Transport?

    While one logical response would be to move manufacturing back closer to the point of sale, another would be to develop shipping methods that are less reliant or don't rely on oil. Maybe that means even bigger superfreighters in order to consolidate shipping and use less oil (though I can't tell you if that is actually more efficient; this article suggests that it might be: http://www.manbw.com/files/news/filesof4672/P9028.pdf). However, higher oil prices might lead to a search for cheaper ways of propulsion. Hydrogen fuel cells should presumably work just as well on ships as in cars (and would not have the same space or weight constraints), and very efficient solar cells might not be bad. Another interesting idea is going back to where it all started: wind power. Sails are generally unpopular for a variety of reasons, including the deck space they take that would otherwise have been devoted to containers, but huge kites seem like an interesting technology. I believe I also read a science magazine in the US making a brief mention of it sometime within the last year, but unable to find the article, a quick Google search turned up these two sites:

    http://www.dcss.org/speedsl/Trans_Sailcraft.html

    http://www.archi-me-des.de/archimedes_architecture_media_design/archimedes_work/hands_on/archimedes_kites/index.html

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