technocrit40% of global ship traffic is simply moving fossil fuels around! Reduction and renewables could make much of this traffic obsolete
I don’t doubt that it’s a lot, but can anyone provide a source for the 40% of global ship traffic? I couldn’t find any statistics sadly
The data is from UNCTAD
Small clarification. My understanding is that it’s 40% by weight of goods carried, not 40% of ships. So still massive chunk, but not quite the same metric. Also some of those ships would still presumably be messed to move batteries and solar panels, At least for a while until we have enough for a closed loop recycling system (we can recycle like 99% of the lithium from lithium batteries, no idea how emerging sodium batteries will affect things)
You need to move batteries and panels ONCE per installation, not every time you need energy.
Recycling systems will become absolutely necessary, preferably before the battery boom happens.
You have to show the math for an absolute statement like that.
Once per installation per x years. While battery and solar replacement seem like a long time, the massive scale needed for a global buildout will require a continuous stream of shipping. It’s not free and will never be locally produced everywhere. Obviously a couple orders of magnitude less shipping, but energy related shipping is not disappearing entirely.
Actually I’d like to see someone do that math, out of curiosity. In a world with all renewables, does energy related shipping drop from 40% to 1%? 0.1%?
Obviously a couple orders of magnitude less shipping
So, for estimation purposes, that’s essentially no shipping compared to the present fossil-fuel situation.