(since I was at a BBC interview showcasing RESCUE Helicopter, I will be discussing the concepts that I would try to bring up during the seminar)
First topic to bring up, the convoluted route of traveling from point A, to point B to point C back to point A again. In the article, it addressed this point by stating that with the current economy, this current traveling plan is effective. However, this plan is only effective based on the money aspect of the sense Economy. Producing a more localized solution for transportation would seem more cost effective to the environment. This production strategy proves only useful due to the other country (either point B or C in this analogy), has opted to provide them selves with a short stick (as in a short analogy). The money displacement of the production costs have to be less than what it would cost at a more localized solution.
As the article read on, it also stated that our cheap oil solution is coming to a close, as our oil reserves may be put to the test. As our oil run out, we need to find another strategy to fuel our mainly oil based transportation vessels. Our available options are to either, increase the shipping efficiency, change the fuel type, or use a more localized processing. Our shipping efficiency is coming very close to reaching the plateau of efficiency, and changing the main fuel source for the entire shipping industry seems a little unfathomable, and the cost of using localized processing plants is too pricy for the industries liking. Either option will not happen over night.
The option of creating a more efficient oil based transportation is a very fathomable topic, as the shipping industry constantly modifies the designs of their ships to meet bigger expectations. The average age for a ship is nearly 30 years, which gives us no noticeable change until some years pass by. Even with the introduction with new efficient ships, if the efficiency of the ships will take that long to cycle through, we might be efficient enough to slow down the oil usage enough to even make a difference or even make it better.
Making ships with a better fueling structure is no easy task either. But more or less falls apart due to the fact that we actually haven't found a reliable fuel source for transportation ships. Sure we could possibly use nuclear, but it has its own troubles that it has to deal with itself. Besides, how would you feel if some industry got their hands on nuclear material. On that, we also have over 400 shipping accidents a year based on 2004's figures; those accidents with a nuclear generator aboard will deadly results. Sure enough, the sea will turn into Chernobyl! And terrorists will have a greater reason to go after those ships. Besides the nuclear aspect, if we did by chance find a alternative energy solution, if this alternate was not a hybrid using the gas solution, I believe that we could phase it out enough to reduce the cost of travel. But the solution will probably not be out by tomorrow, and on that, the production, testing, and refinement will take longer still. Leading down to a spierling path of delays.
The most reasonable solution is to make shipping more localized, but that is a lot more complicated than just changing shipping routes. Companies need to find a benefit to switch to the localized solution, or an inefficiency to stay with their globalized shipping routes. The way counties have done this in the past was to increase the tax upon intercontinental shipping. This of course cannot be done all at once, or companies will collapse under their contracts that they made prior to the taxation. Instead over the period that would gradually receive the economy from such heavy dependency from other countries. But by taxing the county out of their position also makes that country at a worse political aspect, and more prone to war.
My solution, just like how we nurture plants with soil; we do not have 100% of any one mixture, we have the combination of multiple mediums. However, fining that sweet-spot takes a little bit of practice, and changes with different occasions.
