Is travelling by cargo ship a low-emissions alternative to flying? | 24CA News

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This week:

• Is travelling by cargo ship a low-emissions different to flying?
• A hydrogen-powered prepare hits the rails in Quebec
• Indigenous tourism — which provides sustainability and cultural connection — is booming in Canada

Is travelling by cargo ship a low-emissions different to flying?

If you reside by the ocean, you have in all probability seen large cargo ships hanging out by the harbour, hauling a variety of the products we find yourself consuming.

Peter Easthope, who lives on North Pender Island in B.C., not too long ago contacted the What On Earth radio present with an uncommon query: Could these vessels be an environmentally pleasant different to flying?

According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Climate Portal, aviation’s share of worldwide emissions is at present 5 per cent and rising yearly. Aircraft emissions additionally happen greater within the ambiance, which can lead to an elevated warming impact. The portal says that whereas cargo ships emit carbon (largely by burning heavy gas oil), they carry giant quantities of freight, making them probably the most environment friendly approach to transfer cargo.

Jonn Axsen, director of Simon Fraser University’s Sustainable Transportation Action Research Team (START), agrees and says in idea, including a couple of passengers would not make a lot of a distinction.

“So you want to use [cargo ships] for passenger travel? Sure,” he mentioned. “If it’s a ship that’s already going [to a destination] and all you’re doing is using an extra crew room that you’re in, you haven’t added any energy use to that at all. It’s going to be fine.”

• This week on Cross Country Checkup, our Ask Me Anything visitor is David Suzuki. What questions do you may have for him in regards to the setting and local weather change? Fill out the main points on this manner to get your questions in early.

Of course, cargo ships take much more time to get to their vacation spot. A one-way journey between Halifax and Antwerp, for instance, takes 12 days, in comparison with lower than 24 hours by airplane (there are sometimes stopovers).

So when you needed to hitch a trip on a cargo ship, how would you go about it? 

Aranui is without doubt one of the few cargo ship corporations that may take your name and promote you a ticket. But if you need assist co-ordinating the logistics, some reserving corporations will handle that for you. One of them is Cptn Zeppos, a Belgium-based firm owned by Joris Van Bree. Cptn Zeppos will ebook and ship your tickets, handle the mandatory paperwork and organize transportation to and from the port.

But it’s miles from low cost. Prices fluctuate relying in your route, however Van Bree says a normal cabin in a cargo ship prices about $140 per day. A spherical journey for Halifax-Antwerp with Cptn Zeppos, which incorporates stops in ports alongside the way in which, three meals a day and a normal double cabin, would take 37 days and price greater than $4,000.

Despite the time, price and inconvenience relative to flying, Van Bree says he sees rising demand for such a journey. Aside from environmental causes, he has observed that some folks simply need to get away from their cellphones and connections to their life on land.

“The right people will say, ‘Ah, interesting, I can watch the ocean all day, all night, I can watch the stars,'” mentioned Van Bree. “Most [passengers] take books, but they don’t even read because they’re too busy just looking and enjoying being aboard.”

One one that has tried it’s Tal Oran, 27, who goes by the deal with TheTravelingClatt on YouTube. Because of a worry of flying, the U.S.-based influencer has experimented with different strategies of journey, together with cargo ships.

“The experience was interesting,” Oran mentioned in an interview with What on Earth. “The cabin was phenomenal — it was kind of like a little condo with a nice bathroom, a big bedroom.”

But it wasn’t all clean crusing. On the open seas, there may be at all times the potential of tough climate. “The ship was rocking for four days non-stop,” mentioned Oran. “I couldn’t pee normally, I couldn’t brush my teeth. I didn’t get seasick but … you’re just wobbly and dizzy.”

A couple of What on Earth listeners shared their impressions of cargo ship journey.

“I had a wonderful experience on a freighter in 1964, and yes, we were on the edge of a storm … I was 24 years old and it was an adventure,” mentioned Pauline Ciaffone.

Andrea Lawrence from Logan Lake, B.C., mentioned she and her accomplice started travelling the world in 1970, throughout which period they spent 19 days on a freighter heading throughout the Atlantic to Rotterdam, within the Netherlands. 

“Our room was spacious, and being an Italian freighter, the food was a parade of delicious pizzas, ravioli and lasagna,” mentioned Lawrence. “But yes, in November, the sea was stormy enough to throw us out of our beds…. Definitely an unforgettable adventure for two 20-year-olds!”

Given all this, flying might be too handy and reasonably priced to desert completely. 

Easthope mentioned he would critically take into account cargo ships as a approach to journey. He’s retired, has time on his fingers and says he prefers boats to planes anyway. But when requested why he prefers cargo ships over conventional cruise ships, Easthope is sort of direct.

“Cruise ships are too ostentatious for me. I don’t like getting assailed with food.”

— Rohit Joseph

Old problems with What on Earth? are right here. The 24CA News local weather web page is right here. 

Check out our radio present and podcast. For many, summer season is a time to benefit from the open air. But for others, it comes with worry and nervousness — simply how sizzling will it get? Two years after the warmth dome that scorched B.C., we have a look at why tons of died, and what may be completed to stop this kind of catastrophe sooner or later. What On Earth airs on Sundays at 11 a.m. ET, 11:30 a.m. in Newfoundland and Labrador. Subscribe in your favorite podcast app or hear it on demand at CBC Listen.

Watch the CBC video sequence Planet Wonder that includes our colleague Johanna Wagstaffe right here.

Reader suggestions

We acquired a variety of mail about our article final week on lake geothermal.

Various readers, together with Martin Gratton, questioned in regards to the environmental influence of including warmth from your home to a lake.

Water has a really excessive warmth capability, the temperature of the geothermal loop embedded within the water is not very excessive and comparatively little warmth is definitely discharged from a house. Because of that, consultants we talked to thought such a system would don’t have any actual influence on the water temperature.

“There is no thermal interference with aquatic ecosystems. The pipe is really only exchanging energy with a thin layer of water surrounding the pipe itself,” mentioned Jeff Hunter, president of the Ontario Geothermal Association.

Jacopo Buongiorno, a professor of nuclear science and engineering at MIT in Cambridge, Mass., has written about harnessing the warmth from nuclear energy, a a lot greater warmth supply that’s generally discharged into lakes. 

In an e-mail response, Buongiorno wrote that the influence of warmth pumps on lakes is a “valid hypothetical concern.” He mentioned the impact depends upon the quantity of warmth discharged and the scale of the lake, however “if I were to guess, I’d say it’s probably a negligible impact.”

Reader Francis Bordeleau requested what liquid is within the geothermal loop, and the potential influence of it leaking into the lake.

Hunter mentioned it is sometimes water containing 20 to 25 per cent ethanol. That stage is non-toxic sufficient to drink, however would rapidly be diluted to a lot decrease ranges within the occasion of a leak. Bigger geothermal methods use propylene glycol, Hunter mentioned. 

Studies have discovered it to be “non-toxic to essentially every aquatic and terrestrial animal and plant species tested.”

Judy Osborne wrote:

“Interesting article on using the lake for a geothermal heat source. Could urban areas harness the heat from storm and wastewater?”

Yes, actually, they’ll. One group that has been doing this for a very long time is Vancouver’s False Creek, which is essentially heated with wastewater warmth restoration. Similar infrastructure is deliberate for Halifax and Toronto.

John Rice wrote:

“I live in the country and am on a well/septic tank system for my water/waste disposal. Would it be possible to use the well water as the source instead of a ground installation? My well is 150 feet deep, so the temperature of the water should be pretty constant.” 

Jeff Hunter of the Ontario Geothermal Association says you “absolutely” can use a effectively as a warmth supply for a geothermal system. 

Typically, you’d run that water straight via the warmth pump after which return it to the setting after. That makes it an “open loop” system, not like lake and floor methods, which have closed loops. 

Because of that, Hunter says, rules surrounding effectively and groundwater methods are stricter. Installation requirements additionally require the warmth exchanger be a minimum of three metres from a septic system to stop the freezing temperatures within the warmth exchanger from interfering with septic operation.

Write us at whatonearth@cbc.ca. Have a compelling private story about local weather change you need to share with 24CA News? Pitch a First Person column right here.

Also: With the anniversary of post-tropical storm Fiona quick approaching, CBC P.E.I. is in search of Islanders who need to share their private journey round local weather change and local weather nervousness. Get in contact at whatonearth@cbc.ca.

The Big Picture: Hydrogen trains

The first hydrogen-powered prepare in North America is taking riders on a 2½-hour journey via central Quebec this summer season. It’s an illustration that launched earlier this month to indicate how electrical energy saved as hydrogen can substitute diesel gas on railways the place putting in electrified rails or overhead wires could be difficult.

The vacationer prepare constructed by French firm Alstom runs from Montmorency Falls in Quebec City to Baie-Saint-Paul — partway alongside the Train de Charlevoix route — on Wednesday via Sunday till Sept. 30, carrying as much as 120 folks in two rail vehicles.

The prepare makes use of about 50 kilograms of hydrogen a day, estimates Serge Harnois, CEO of Harnois Énergies, which provides the gas. That replaces about 500 litres of diesel that may be burned in the course of the journey. While fossil fuels could also be peaking, “we are at the beginning of the history of hydrogen,” mentioned Harnois.

The identical mannequin of prepare, often known as the Coradia iLint, has beforehand carried passengers in eight European international locations. Germany bought a model that makes use of Canadian-made gas cells for a hydrogen-only route final yr.

Alstom mentioned this week that the business operation of the prepare will enable it and its companions to see what’s wanted to develop “an ecosystem for hydrogen propulsion technology” in North America. 

— Emily Chung

Read the complete story right here.

Hot and bothered: Provocative concepts from across the net

Indigenous tourism — which provides sustainability and cultural connection — is booming in Canada

On a sunny afternoon, a gaggle of cyclists excursions via Banff National Park, stopping halfway to hike via the park’s Sundance Canyon. 

During a break, information Heather Black leads the group via a smudge ceremony, adopted by a snack of Alberta-made pemmican strips.

The journey was a trial run for a brand new sort of tour provided via Black’s guided climbing business, Buffalo Stone Woman Iinisskimmaakii.

Demand for that aspect of her business is already sturdy, however after connecting with a Banff-based bike tour operator, the 2 joined forces to take Black’s tour out on two wheels.

Black, an avid hiker, was impressed to begin her business after listening to from others out on the path who had been focused on studying about how Indigenous folks hook up with the land. She mentioned demand is excessive for Indigenous tourism within the Rocky Mountains, a development that is additionally unfolding throughout the nation.

“I feel that I connect with many people that come on tour with us,” mentioned Black, a member of the Kainai Nation, about 200 kilometres south of Calgary. “When we have that cross-cultural experience, I think it binds us.”

Before the pandemic hit, the sector was on a steep development trajectory, and at its peak in 2019, contributed $1.9 billion to the nation’s GDP, in line with the Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada.

Although hit exhausting by the pandemic, the business has rebounded quicker than anticipated, mentioned Keith Henry, the group’s president and CEO. This yr, it is anticipated to usher in $1.5 billion, and will see revenues triple by 2030 if demand from home and worldwide travellers continues to rise on the identical tempo, he mentioned. 

“I don’t think we’ve ever seen as much interest and demand for Indigenous tourism as we do today.” 

Henry credit that to an unprecedented curiosity amongst vacationers in sustainability, Indigenous tradition and historical past.

Tim Patterson, owner-operator of Zuc’min Guiding, launched his Calgary-based business proper round when the pandemic hit. Luckily, the business survived, and he says that these days, it has been “flat-out.” 

Patterson makes a speciality of guided hikes of the Alberta and B.C. mountains, his hottest being a guided tour of the Athabasca Glacier, about 100 km from Jasper National Park.

His shoppers are an excellent cut up of Canadian and worldwide guests. They’re sometimes people who find themselves drawn to the mountains however are searching for an expertise exterior the same old hotspots, he mentioned.

“People want an authentic experience and want something a little different than what they normally get,” mentioned Patterson, who’s a member of the Lower Nicola Indian Band in B.C.

Many operators say Americans have turn out to be a key a part of their buyer base. They have absorbed headlines from throughout the border about Indigenous historical past and Canada’s residential college system, Henry mentioned, resulting in curiosity amongst vacationers to expertise Canada another way. 

“It’s not something I think we should shy away from,” he mentioned. “We want to help people understand the true history and story in a healthy and a good way.”

Increasingly, the business is making an attempt to find out how a lot of a menace excessive climate — wildfires particularly — will probably be. The summer season of 2023 is already shaping as much as be one of many worst wildfire seasons in years, which poses a significant threat to companies as smoke blankets the nation.

“When there’s smoke in the air, people don’t want to go into an area and they cancel plans,” mentioned Henry, who famous that companies in northern communities have been particularly hard-hit. 

“We obviously don’t have the resources to solve all that, but it is having an impact and we’re monitoring it closely.”

Despite the challenges, there’s loads of optimism about the way forward for Indigenous tourism in Canada. 

Travel Alberta, as an example, not too long ago gave $6 million to Indigenous Tourism Alberta to assist the business’s improvement.

The crown company’s chief business officer, Jon Mamela, says curiosity in Indigenous tourism “has never been higher.” He hopes the funding will allow Indigenous-owned companies to turn out to be a better a part of the province’s general sector. 

Black has targets past simply increasing her personal business. As a information, and in her different job as a business coach, she hopes to encourage others. 

“There’s a high need for Indigenous tourism, as we’re the original storytellers of this land, and we connect to this land in a different way than many other people out there.”

— Paula Duhatschek

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Editor: Andre Mayer | Logo design: Sködt McNalty