Every so often when it seems the world has motorized the handbasket in which it’s being carried pell mell to hell, a story comes along that gives you a little bit of hope.
Last night the BBC World News (God love ’em) reported on a German cargo ship that is using sails to transport cargo across the Atlantic, for the first time in over 100 years. They called them para-sails, and they are using computer technology to analyze the weather and calculate where and when best to raise them. You can see the story here.
They claimed that 90 percent of the world’s goods are transported by ship, and that the energy savings will be significant. Apparently, cargo ships now dump more carbon into the atmosphere than do all our ground vehicles, so the potential energy savings are significant. While ships will still use their engines, taking advantage of the wind will permit them to cut back on fossil fuel use.
The video has images of the sails going up. The article on the news last night gave no indication on why para-sails might be better than the masted sails on the familiar cargo ships of the past, but I suppose there is a reason.
I have to say, in addition to the huge plus of not using as much fuel out on the open sea, I just like the notion of sailing ships coming back. Everything old is new again …
OmbudsBen 
I like the notion, too. 🙂
Interesting how the past comes back around, in some form or another.
Thanks, R! I don’t often go out of my way to go look at the ships coming into SF Bay. When I’m on the ferry to and from work and someone says “there’s the Queen Mary” I’ll look, too. And after the recent oil spill we all noted the Cosco Busan — the ship that spilt 58K gallons. But I don’t seek them out, as some do. (Sailing ship regattas have made quite a splash here in the past.)
But if a cargo ship came into SF Bay using parasails, I’d like to see that. We need a sense of progress, again.
There are a whole bunch of old sorts of ways to do things that can be made better than the newer ways we do things. But changes to the old ways are really needed for them to be really better than our current ways. I can easily believe any one (or more) of the possibilities that spring to my mind: maybe para-sails allow better control or maybe they are easier to automate or maybe are safer in a storm or maybe there’s a reason that didn’t pop into my mind.
I think another big thing is the way we’ve organized trade. A whole bunch of raw materials are shipped from north America to Asia, processed and shipped back. That’s just bonkers.
Now, why can’t we rig our cars with sails for better gas mileage? What could be cooler than windsurfing to the office (for those of us who still have offices to surf to)!
BGG: It has occurred to me that heavy storms could damage or break the masts of masted ships — if a parasail breaks free the losses are doubtless significantly less. Yet one would think they could make metal masts now; hence sturdier.
Re the shipments of raw materials and finished goods — I agree, the current system is nutty and counter productive. But heaven forbid we question the wisdom of the god Laissez Faire.
Hey David, good to hear from you again! Yeah, it would be great to use the prevailing winds to get in to work. Is there any potential for a very short novel in this?
There’s even a wicked joke in there somewhere about running low on fuel and expecting the winds to blow the right way to get you home from work, only to find contrary chinooks, sirrocos, or santa ana winds (as they call them in Southern California) blowing the wrong way and stranding you at the office …
For the tech stuff, I was thinking specifically about sewage treatment systems. I heard some stuff about old tech sewage treatment systems with new tech monitoring. I know absolutely nothing about it and since I’m online right now, I’m going to have lunch instead of researching it myself.