(C) OpenDemocracy
This story was originally published by OpenDemocracy and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Panama Canal drought: Impact of ecological crisis will continue into 2024 [1]

[]

Date: 2023-09

It’s been another summer of extreme weather and the relentless drumbeat of climate change syncopating with the warm-water Pacific Ocean cycle of El Niño has reverberated across the globe.

Floods in the Balkans and North Africa have killed thousands, wildfires have raged across much of the Mediterranean, India’s rice crop has been hit by drought and Canada’s wheat harvests by floods. Meanwhile, in Central America, the driest weather in decades is menacing one of the most important transport arteries on earth.

A massive 40% of the world’s cargo passes through the Panama Canal, which ties together the two great oceans in the eastern and western hemispheres.

When it opened in 1914, the canal cut the time it took to transport goods from the Pacific to the Atlantic by five months. No longer did ships have to make the lengthy and somewhat treacherous journey around South America to get from one ocean to the other. But the timing was dreadful.

Get our free Daily Email Get one whole story, direct to your inbox every weekday. Sign up now

Opened at the height of pre-First World War globalisation, the canal immediately hit a world trade slump that would last 30 years. Its use was confined to relatively limited regional transport and the US military until the sharp increase in shipping volumes after the Second World War with the reindustrialisation and reintegration of Japan into the Western capitalist economic system and a surge in agricultural trade with South America.

But two great moments of globalisation – the introduction of containerised shipping and the industrialisation of China – have ensured that canal transport volumes have exploded over the past 40 years. Expansion of the canal, completed in 2016, doubled its capacity and allowed the transport of larger ships. More than two-fifths of all the goods traded between Asia and the US today are taken through the canal.

Now, amid a severe regional drought, the canal operators say restrictions on ships using the canal will probably remain in place until next year. According to expert forecasts, El Niño, climate change and rising ocean temperatures will combine into extended dry seasons across Central America well into 2024.

Unlike other globally important shipping lanes and their chokepoints, from the Malacca Straits to the Suez Canal, the Panama Canal depends on freshwater, not saltwater. It takes millions of gallons via a series of reservoirs from the Central American country that gives it its name. Each ship traversing the canal and its locks requires around 50 million gallons of freshwater. But Panama’s four million inhabitants also need freshwater, which they take from the same sources.

For most of the canal’s life, this hasn’t been a problem; Panama is one of the wettest countries on the planet. But the prolonged drought and an unusually hot, dry spell over the summer has seriously reduced the amount of water in the reservoirs. The water level in Lake Gatun, the canal’s primary reservoir, is down almost 10 feet on typical September levels. Shortages also threaten to place international shippers in direct conflict with locals in Panama. It could mirror the pattern of water conflicts emerging around the world, such as those around the French mégabassines projects. These pit local residents and farmers against the demands of multinational agribusinesses.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureconomy/panama-canal-drought-rolling-ecological-crisis-is-raising-prices-everywhere/

Published and (C) by OpenDemocracy
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/opendemocracy/