I just spent 10 minutes in my idling car at a railroad crossing. Two very long coal trains were passing each other and I was struck by the absurdity of the situation. There were probably a total of 40 automobiles waiting at this busy intersection. How much gasoline was consumed and how much carbon dioxide emitted as a result of this one traffic event? And to think that this kind of thing plays itself out hundreds of times every day across the globe.
I also wondered about the number of tons of coal that was being transported in opposite directions. Think of the energy required to move it. And think of the expense.
Isn't there a more rational way to conduct commerce? Can't we consume commodities like coal much closer to their places of origin? Can't we reconfigure competitive marketplaces so that brokerage systems work more efficiently? The consumers of the coal at my railroad crossing must have thought that they were getting the best deals possible by or they wouldn't have completed the transaction. What if they each would have made their separate deals with their separate suppliers, but then traded the product they purchased with each other so that they each saved money on shipping? That would be a more economically and environmentally sound system.
Sure, I know that all coal isn't exactly the same. There are differences in sulfur content, for example. But think of the needless energy consumption and pollution by-products generated by shipping virtually identical products from one place to another. How many millions of substitutable products pass each other everyday on the seas, highways, railroads, and in the air? If we could invent a more efficient brokerage system, we could live much less expensively in a cleaner, healthier environment.
That's the big picture solution, but as consumers we can each help stop the shipping madness by purchasing locally produced goods whenever possible.
0 comments:
Post a Comment