Watching those enormous container vessels making their way across the sea is an impressive sight. They move like glaciers with their brightly colored cargo of blue, red, orange and green containers stacked up to impossible heights in the huge ship. A ship such as this is carrying someone’s luxury foreign vehicle across the sea to its destination at a far away port. It will be unloaded by an equally impressive assortment of huge brightly colored cranes. Whoever is awaiting shipment of their shiny, new, expensive car is well-satisfied with the efficiency and cost-savings allowed by the shipping industry.

Unfortunately, there is a downside to all this colorful efficiency. There are environmental concerns associated with the shipment of both domestic and international diesel-fueled cargo. As a new and burgeoning industry, the shipping industry is also responsible for new and growing environmental problems, with no viable solutions implemented as yet. The IMO (International Maritime Organization) met on the subject of greenhouse gas emissions from ships, particularly cargo vessels as late as 2008.

Ballast water discharged from these huge ships is equivalent to a whole other sea. Ballast water is taken in on unloading the cargo or when prior loads of the water are discharged. With these enormous carriers, the problem lies in their international course of travel. Water is pumped into the ship in one coastal area and pumped out down the sea lane in a completely different coastal zone.

Our friend anxiously awaiting the unloading of his foreign-born masterpiece of auto engineering does not give this a thought. He should and so should the rest of us inhabitants of this planet. The world demand for foreign made goods is causing upheaval and the deterioration of our environment. Into that ballast water go plants, animals, bacteria and viruses. They are pumped into the ship’s tanks either alive or not in their native habitat. They will be discharged from the tanks either dead, alive, mutated, or increased in number because of procreation en route. All of them will be totally out of their element in their new home, becoming litter, vermin or invasive species. This results in utter chaos and destruction of the marine ecosystems.

Car transportation by land can be said to be in fact more economic in terms of gasoline. Driven separately, a dozen personal vehicles use at least twice as much gas as a single carrier truck which delivers the cars to their approximate destinations in one huge haul. This, however, helps mostly to save money, rather than the environment. The customer saves and the company earns money: this is good economy, not ecology. Everybody wins and resources circulate, but the environment is increasingly depleted.

If fewer people drove their personal vehicle those same long distances, the auto transportation industry would still continue to thrive because of the car manufacturing and car handling industry. The automotive industry is undergoing increasing expansion and growth because of newly developing third world countries. So more cars are in demand, which means more transportation by land, sea and air and more contribution to environmental disasters.

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