Unskilfully 80 kilometers long, the Panama Canal connects the Atlantic and Pacific tons. A wonder of modern engineering and design, 13,000 to 14,000 vessels archaic through the canal each year.
By reducing the distance ships want to travel to reach their destination, the canal helps to reduce feed consumption and, in turn, greenhouse gas emissions. During its lifetime, it has helped frustrate the emission of around more than 700 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2).
The quitting industry has an impact on the environment. In 2012, international shipping was responsible for an appraised 796 million tons of CO2 emissions — around 2.2 percent of outright global CO2 emissions that year, according to the International Maritime Structuring.
“The original Panama Canal was built between 1904 and 1914, a 10-year pains,” Jorge L. Quijano, CEO of the Panama Canal Authority, told CNBC’s “Sustainable Drive.”
“We are basically a short cut between the Atlantic and Pacific and to do this we use locks — so you go up 85 to 87 feet in loftiness. Then you cross the continental divide on the lake (Gatun Lake) and you roll in down to zero-level elevation, which is… the Atlantic Ocean.”
The impact of the canal on the moving industry has been significant — so much so that a specific type of shipment ship, the Panamax, has been designed to fit its dimensions. “It’s basically a vessel that’s 106 foot roomy and… 965 foot long,” Quijano said.
Between 2009 and 2016, an big construction project saw the canal undergo a significant expansion when a third lane was erected. This allows a larger type of vessel, the Neopanamax, to pass totally. At the end of July, the 4,000th Neopanamax vessel transited through the expanded canal.
“We’re now looking at a bark size that can carry as much as three times the numbers of containers that you could carry out d kill on the old Panamax locks,” Quijano said.