--- title: The Climate Impact of Avoiding the Panama and Suez Canals | TIME description: For a preview of what a hotter, more geopolitically unstable future might look like, you don’t have to go much further than the world’s shipping lanes—the daily commute for most of our consumer goods. canonical: https://time.com/video/R4oVqryi/ og:title: The Climate Impact of Avoiding the Panama and Suez Canals og:description: For a preview of what a hotter, more geopolitically unstable future might look like, you don’t have to go much further than the world’s shipping lanes—the daily commute for most of our consumer goods. og:url: https://time.com/video/R4oVqryi/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/R4oVqryi/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Climate Impact of Avoiding the Panama and Suez Canals twitter:description: For a preview of what a hotter, more geopolitically unstable future might look like, you don’t have to go much further than the world’s shipping lanes—the daily commute for most of our consumer goods. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/R4oVqryi/poster.jpg?width=720 --- * Science # The Climate Impact of Avoiding the Panama and Suez Canals > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: The Climate Impact of Avoiding the Panama and Suez Canals [Watch (HLS stream): The Climate Impact of Avoiding the Panama and Suez Canals](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/R4oVqryi.m3u8) (4:14)  _Published 2024-01-19. For a preview of what a hotter, more geopolitically unstable future might look like, you don’t have to go much further than the world’s shipping lanes—the daily commute for most of our consumer goods._ --- Mar 12, 2024 1:10 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Hegseth Says China Threatens the Panama Canal, Drawing Fiery Response From Beijing](/video/gKsEFW0o/) ### Hegseth Says China Threatens the Panama Canal, Drawing Fiery Response From Beijing [The Cargo Ship Blocking the Suez Canal Is Now Partly Afloat, in the First Step to Clearing the Vital Waterway](/video/p11HY0Ol/) ### The Cargo Ship Blocking the Suez Canal Is Now Partly Afloat, in the First Step to Clearing the Vital Waterway [Why Plant-Eating Dinos Might Have Avoided The Equator](/video/IxMjFM9L/) ### Why Plant-Eating Dinos Might Have Avoided The Equator --- ## Transcript A preview of what a change climate and more geopolitical a unstable future might look like take a look at the world shipping lanes the daily commute for most of our consumer goods. Drought exacerbated by global warming has reduced traffic to the Panama Canal by 40% and shipping to the Suez Canal linking Europe to Asia has also come to a near standstill as iranian-backed houthi militants me a man s play attacks on Red Sea cargo ships and what they say is a protest against Israel's military campaign in Gaza. Of course, there are alternative strategies for transporting goods around the world. For example shippers with New York bound good from the Chinese Port of Los Angeles and trucks are where is across the United States instead of waiting to get through the Panama Canal and cargo ships flying to Europe. Asia route to the Suez Canal said take the long way around Africa. Those alternatives are often slower adding up to 15 days on some europe-asia routes and more expensive for the shipping companies, but the bigger long-term cost comes in the form of increased Planet warming carbon emissions. this is terrible transport advocacy organization transport and environment calculate the extra emissions produced by a cargo ship currently taking the long route from the European Port of Rotterdam China the alternative Journey resulted in an increase of 2519 metric tons of CO2, which is the equivalent of burning almost 14 rail cars worth of considering that on average 68 ships Transit the Suez Canal per day and they're approximately 95% of the traffic is currently being rerouted that could come to an extra 162727 tons of emissions for every day that the conflict continues none the last the weeks-long diversion around Africa for a couple of hundred more likely to have a marginal climate impact compared to other major sources of the missions, but still every time of Planet warming gases count Unlike the Suez Canal which links two bodies of water at similar elevations Transit through the Panama Canal locks that use water but several seasons of little to no rainfall has lower the water levels and as a result of boats passing through the canal have had to reduce their cargo loads by 40% in order to reduce drag that translates into diversion delays and additional carbon emissions, especially if she said to Diesel powertrains and trucks to transport Goods Overland and the amount of emissions from the shipping industry depend on another important factor speed shipping companies avoid traveling at Full Throttle to conserve fuel costs. But if Global demand for goods increases, so too will transportation fees and cargo ships will be more likely to lay on the gas increasing emissions exponentially. Conversely if ships slowed down they produce significantly fewer greenhouse gases, according to transport and environment of shipping companies reduce their speed by 10% total commission for the global Shipping sector would be reduced by 30%. The significant Improvement for an industry responsible for 2% of global emissions. If anything the bottlenecks in the two canals prove that the industry is resilient. Shipping fees have gone up but economies of scale mean that prices on the transport of goods themselves have not so long a journey may not mean much for end consumers still. What's the Suez Canal opened up again ships could slow down three more fuel-efficient with a much better impact on a missions and the climate. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Climate Impact of Avoiding the Panama and Suez Canals","description":"For a preview of what a hotter, more geopolitically unstable future might look like, you don’t have to go much further than the world’s shipping lanes—the daily commute for most of our consumer goods.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/R4oVqryi/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2024-01-19T20:42:53.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/R4oVqryi.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/R4oVqryi/","duration":"PT4M14S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/R4oVqryi/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```