Mastodawn

Charlie Stross Jun 4, 2023

Panama Canal’s Continuing Draft Reductions Pose Threat to Trade

Buried lede: it's due to a drought reducing water availability for the locks. Cause is climate change. https://maritime-executive.com/article/panama-canal-s-continuing-draft-reductions-pose-threat-to-trade

Panama Canal’s Continuing Draft Reductions Pose Threat to Trade

Concern is growing that a significant climate event is unfolding at the Panama Canal, with the potential of impacting one of the world’s most importan...

The Maritime Executive

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RegularSizeP Jun 13, 2023

@cstross they could easily fix this by installing desalination plants on both coast and returning salt to the oceans to make denser water and shore up freshwater security. Not enough profit unless they require Pepsi and Coke to bottle water from the sea for use in Central and South America.

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Charlie Stross Jun 13, 2023

@RegularSizeP Two problems. (a) Desalination is extremely energy-intensive, and (b) if you simply pump concentrated saline back into the ocean you kill the local ecosystem, which is adapted to a narrow range of salinity: you'd need to diffuse it over a huge area (more expense and energy-intensivity).

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RegularSizeP

@cstross (Thanks for Halting State.) The alternative is going to destroy those ecosystems anyways. We know the currents are slowing and the oceans are warming. Diffusion could be carried with unmanned spreaders. Energy wise, we are talking about pushing skyscrapers through a canal to avoid going around a continent. We have come a long ways in less than 200 years.