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VK2AAB > TRADE 18.03.08 08:00l 52 Lines 2108 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 10274_VK2WI
Read: GUEST
Subj: Book Review Containers
Path: IZ3LSV<IW2OHX<OE6XPE<DB0RES<IK2XDE<I0TVL<VK2TGB<VK2IO<VK2WI
Sent: 080318/2127Z @:VK2WI.#SYD.NSW.AUS.OC #:10274 [Sydney] $:10274_VK2WI
From: VK2AAB@VK2WI.#SYD.NSW.AUS.OC
To : TRADE@WW
This a book review courtesy The Energy Bulletin
It does present some thoughts for the future.
73 Barry VK2 AAB
-----------------------------
How shipping containers shortened the life span of petro-
civilization
Alice Friedemann, Culture Change
Book Review:
Mark Levinson: The Box. How the Shipping Container Made the World
Smaller and the World Economy Bigger. Princeton University Press,
2006.
Mark Levinson has written a book that shows how containers made
global trade possible. In the preface of the paperback edition,
he notes other aspects of containerization he became aware of
later, such as the potential for containers to harbor atomic
weapons, how they've become homes, and so on.
To me, what Levinson leaves out is how this global distribution
system will make it very difficult to go back to local production
as energy declines. He doesn't mention that containerization was
the fastest way yet for capitalism to loot the planet and strip
Mother Earth down to her hard dry skin.
In 2005, roughly 18 million containers worldwide made over 200
million trips (wikipedia). Containers come in many sizes, an
average one is 40 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 8 feet high, the
size of three 10 by 10 foot bedrooms. There are 1,300 foot-long
ships now that can carry 7,250 of them.
It's mind boggling to think about how different the world is now.
My grandparents ate what was in season, an orange was a precious
Christmas gift. Today, the Japanese are eating Wyoming beef and
we're driving Japanese cars.
Before containers were used to move cargo, port cities had long
piers where boxes and bales were moved by sweat and muscle onto
ships. Longshoremen lived within two miles of the docks in cheap
housing. Now the piers are gone and the only sweat comes from
yuppies on treadmills in luxury apartments.
The cost of moving products by any means, whether truck, train,
or ship, was often so high most goods were made locally.
Factories were often located near ports to shorten the distance
of getting products to ships.
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