Several years ago my phone rung at 4:30 in the morning. Half asleep I picked it up to hear my father’s voice on the other side. He was calling to share with me his excitement on having just finished reading a book called “A Path Between the Seas” which eloquently describes the history of the building of the Panama Canal. Next morning he sent me the book for me to read.

In operation since 1914, control over the Canal was returned to Panama in 1999. Since then Panama has dramatically increased its operational efficiency. Several months ago after a national referendum, the government of Panama announced the Panama Canal Authority would go forward with a $5 Billion dollar expansion plan of the Panama Canal, in order to accommodate the new generation of larger ships in the world.

Costa Rica is now borrowing $80 million from the World Bank, to build a new port-city in Limón, on the Atlantic coast, supposed to benefit in part from increased transit through the neighboring Canal.

Did anybody think how Climate Change could impact these long-term investments?

Vidyavathy Renganathan and Henriette Skourup are both PHD candidates. Vidya is from Chennai, India, and Henriette from Denmark. While Vidya is at the University of Calgary, Henriette is at the Danish National Space Center. Here, they are both working on measuring the thickness of the arctic ice cap by checking satellite measurements with on-the-ground GPS measurements, accurate to 2cm. It is strenuous, hard work. Their study confirms the ice cap is getting thinner. Last year, the Northwestern Passage, which had always been ice-looked, opened up after the summer for the first time in our history, making navigation through it possible.

Look at the picture below which is taken looking down from the North Pole…

London -Tokyo through the Northwestern Passage = 14,600 km.
London - Toyko through the Panamá Canal = 23,300 km.

Ships transporting goods from Asia to Europe, and back, would cut their journey in half by sailing through the Northwestern Passage, instead of using the Panama Canal!

Two months ago I was invited by an international bank to participate with a small group of people to discuss business implications of Climate Change. One of the persons there was the CEO of a major global shipping company. He mentioned how in his company’s future strategy they are taking into account that Asian-European shipping lanes will be shortened by 14 days per month. It may be good news for his company, but what does it spell out for the future of the expansion of the Panama Canal? Did anybody think about that?

Climate Change is by far the largest and most significant challenge humanity has ever changed. Addressing it is crucial to our survival. In so doing, we will have to rethink everything, because the future will no longer be a continuation of the past!

Esta entrada fue escrita el Miércoles, 5 de Marzo de 2008 a las 18:28 y archivada en General. Puedes seguir cualquier respuesta a esta entrada a través del feed RSS 2.0. Las respuesta no está permitidas por ahora, pero puedes hacer trackback desde tu propio sitio web.