Big corporations use all the fuel they want, as long as it makes them a profit....

submitted by In-the-clouds from midi.moe

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[–]makesyoudownvote 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Well yeah.

Firstly corporations by design exist solely to earn profit. Don't blame them, blame the system that allows greater profit from this than the alternative. It's like blaming a river for flowing.

Secondly yeah it's cheaper to ship around the world twice than it is to produce in most single countries right now. It's a mindfuck, but keep in mind shipping is actually fairly fuel efficient compared to how much cargo they can carry. Cargo ships have gotten INSANELY huge, and they really don't need to consume that much fuel when they are on a reasonably straight path. The only real hangups are when they are not moving.

That said, ships are beginning to use sails again and solar powered motors to help cut down on some of the fuel costs. This is definitely a good thing.

Now if only we could get them to stop burning crude oil. THAT would be helpful.

[–][deleted]  (1 child)

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    [–]makesyoudownvote 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

    I agree there, but it definitely can change around them. We just have to be smarter about it. More carrot and less stick for example.

    Again think of it like a river. If you try to prohibit, the torrent will either overpower or go around/over it. If you instead dig out a path for it, then let it flow that way, you THEN can actually divert it.

    That's kinda what happened with the green movement. When companies realized they could use less plastic and stores could turn off half their lights and be able to win points for being green by doing so, they won big time. We should use this example to work smarter not harder.

    Off the top of my head, I would say create a priority system for ships that use solar or wind power at major ports like San Pedro. Maybe a special crane that unloads quickly. Government subsidize the transition to renewable proportion. Flesh out the details as needed, but this would at least start harnessing that power towards something productive.

    Trade is good though, so as much as we may want to produce more local and that would be good, I think we may want to be careful about anything that would discourage global trade like that. It does a wonder for diplomatic relations. Some mild encouragement or perhaps some increasing on tariffs might help.

    I also feel like we should earmark earnings for certain tariffs directly to their antithesis. For example the tariffs on shipping and fines for using crude oil should go towards building and subsidizing these express lanes or whatever other incentive we can create.

    Also these policies should be simple and easy to understand, but numerous so that we can try one see how it does and remove it if it backfires without having to remove other policies with the same goal. Never put all your eggs in one basket. Diversify!