Question

Discussion:

When we start to put all the pieces together in our transportation system, we must not forget about the impacts to the environment.  We need trade, to support our economy. That means we have to haul goods from point of manufacture to point of distribution, BUT how we configure our transportation system has an impact on the enviornment.

TASK:

1. What kind of impacts could our transportation system have (three impacts). define and give me examples of what your talking about.

2. List the Environmental dimensions, and from those, which dimensions are impacted by our marine transportation system, five me some examples.

3. Sustainable Development and Sustainable transportation, What does that mean and how would you apply the concept in our maritime logistic chain?

OBJECTIVE: Sometimes it may not be all about profit.

Answer 1

A. The impact that the transportation system could have are as below:

1. Transportation infrastructure has an enormous impact on sustainable development. The transportation infrastructure represents the motivator of economic growth and social welfare through improving production performances and investment performances for the private sectors.

2.The construction of transportation infrastructure could reduce the travel cost, attract foreign investment and expand trade of shared resources.

3. Excessive infrastructure construction could put huge pressure on the natural and ecological environment when meeting the need for economic development and social improvement.

4. Transportation system causes health hazards, land expropriation and wildlife damage problems.

-Examples of the impact may include:

1. Carbondioxide emission generated via domestic and global production networks.

2. Ecological destruction because of the biological habitat fragmentation

3. Change of water flow and declining water quality due to transportation activities.

B. Environmental dimensions-  Commercial human activity and especially activity that involves significant numbers of people almost invariably has an adversarial relationship to the natural environment. Thus, the outputs that are evaluated in the environmental dimension principally consist of negative externalities.

The Environmental dimensions are atmosphere, water and land.

-Marine transportation causes damages to these environmental dimensions including air pollution; greenhouse gas emissions; releases of ballast water containing aquatic invasive species; historical use of antifoulants; oil and chemical spills; dry bulk cargo releases; garbage; underwater noise pollution; ship-strikes on marine megafauna; risk of ship grounding or sinkings; and widespread sediment contamination of ports during trans-shipment or ship breaking activities

C. Sustainable transport refers to the broad subject of transport that is sustainable in the senses of social, environmental and climate impacts and the ability to, in the global scope, supply the source energy indefinitely. Components for evaluating sustainability include the particular vehicles used for road, water or air transport; the source of energy; and the infrastructure used to accommodate the transport .

-Sustainable Development- Sustainable development is the organizing principle for meeting human development goals while at the same time sustaining the ability of natural systems to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services upon which the economy and society depend.

- Sustainable Development and Sustainable transportation can be applied in maritime logistics by reducing the emissions from transport units used in logistic,

-Reduce emissions of CO2 in the atmosphere, fighting against global warming.

- Reduce the dependence on oil and gas.