Drought threatens Panama Canal shipping traffic...

[Anthony William Sloman]

On Thursday, June 8, 2023 at 12:18:41 AM UTC+10, John Larkin wrote:

On Wed, 7 Jun 2023 07:35:20 -0000 (UTC), Jasen Betts <use...@revmaps.no-ip.org> wrote:
On 2023-06-06, Clive Arthur <cl...@nowaytoday.co.uk> wrote:
On 06/06/2023 13:04, Jasen Betts wrote:
On 2023-06-06, Clive Arthur <cl...@nowaytoday.co.uk> wrote:
On 06/06/2023 06:05, Ed Lee wrote:
On Monday, June 5, 2023 at 9:54:24?PM UTC-7, Anthony William Sloman wrote:

<snip>

> And a barge full of saltwater will sink in a freshwater lake, as soon as it passes the locks.

Except that you wouldn\'t let it get that full. A sunken barge is no use to anybody.

> What this group needs is a chemist to remind us of basics like this.

We clearly don\'t need you making a fool of yourself about what constitute \"basics\".

Clive Arthur was clearly setting up the kind of scheme that can extract money from the dimmer kind of venture capitalist, as he made perfectly clear with the comment \"I\'d be grateful if you\'d keep that sort of information to yourself, at least till I secure the funding.\"

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

 

[John Larkin]

On Tue, 6 Jun 2023 05:43:10 -0700 (PDT), Fred Bloggs
<bloggs.fredbloggs.fred@gmail.com> wrote:

On Tuesday, June 6, 2023 at 12:54:24?AM UTC-4, Anthony William Sloman wrote:
On Tuesday, June 6, 2023 at 4:55:34?AM UTC+10, Fred Bloggs wrote:
Another global warming induced problem. Cargo ships must reduce their load to meet the reduced draft requirements of the canal, and that makes shipping more expensive. If and when the canal becomes completely impassable, shipping costs will increase hundreds of percent, significantly worsening inflation in U.S. There are no quick fixes, it takes upwards of a decade to \"improve\" the canal.

https://phys.org/news/2023-04-drought-threatens-panama-canal-shipping.html

Panama Canal water levels are dangerously low because of a massive drought and it could mean bad things for global inflation

https://fortune.com/2023/06/02/panama-canal-water-levels-drought-inflation/

Things get worse with El Nino. One simplified analysis by a PhD candidate somewhere, estimated this one will cost $87 Trillion globally and be felt for the next 50 years or something.
The Panama Canal is close to the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and sea water would work fine in the canal locks. Neither of them is going to run out of water any time soon.

The main problem is the artificial Gatun Lake they finally filled in 1913. The lake itself forms 21 miles of the canal route. It not only serves to supply water for the locks, but is also enables two-way travel without canal trench construction. It\'s actually a very clever idea and expedient, it was the inexhaustible Earth presumption that let them down.

You\'re not going fill that with sea water or any other kind of water. Nature has to do it.

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/panama-canal-climate-change

\"Last week, the canal’s administering authority released analysis
showing that 2019 was the fifth driest year for 70 years for the area,
with rainfall 20 per cent below the historic average.\"


5th driest in 70 years hardly sounds like a sudden Climate Change
Crisis. Nor does 20 per cent below average rainfall.

This does sound like more hysteria.

 

[whit3rd]

On Tuesday, June 6, 2023 at 9:24:43 AM UTC-4, Clive Arthur wrote:

No, get a suitable barge with a large plughole in the bottom. At sea,
pull the plug so it fills with seawater, then navigate to the top of the
canal and pull the plug to release the seawater.

A man, a plan a cat, a canal - Panama.

Not a great plan; the seawater won\'t sink the barge ONLY if you don\'t fully fill that
hull, and raising it to the lake requires freshwater to float it up that high be
drained from the lake. Then, you pump out (not dump, because you have the
barge to raise up, it takes energy to remove the saline stuff into the lake)
salt water, killing the lake\'s fish and flora.

The water-from-above source, that high lake, IS the energy source, the reservoir
of not only water but energy, that makes canal operation across the continental
divide possible.

When Richard Halliburton swam the canal (1928) he was so low in tonnage
that his toll was only 36 cents. He was also a very shallow-draft vessel (no more
than 4 feet of water required in the lake) so wouldn\'t be inconvenienced by a
shallow-waters event, but some of the modern ships are going to... no longer
fit if that depth isn\'t restored.

 

[whit3rd]

On Wednesday, June 7, 2023 at 11:38:51 AM UTC-4, John Larkin wrote:

\"Last week, the canal’s administering authority released analysis
showing that 2019 was the fifth driest year for 70 years for the area,
with rainfall 20 per cent below the historic average.\"


5th driest in 70 years hardly sounds like a sudden Climate Change
Crisis. Nor does 20 per cent below average rainfall.

This does sound like more hysteria.

Dude, get real! Revenues from canal operations are billions annually,
the cash cow milk-abiity is in danger!

When the engine light comes on, you DO want to respond appropriately. Hysteria
not involved.

 

[Anthony William Sloman]

On Thursday, June 8, 2023 at 1:38:51 AM UTC+10, John Larkin wrote:

On Tue, 6 Jun 2023 05:43:10 -0700 (PDT), Fred Bloggs
bloggs.fred...@gmail.com> wrote:
On Tuesday, June 6, 2023 at 12:54:24?AM UTC-4, Anthony William Sloman wrote:
On Tuesday, June 6, 2023 at 4:55:34?AM UTC+10, Fred Bloggs wrote:

\"Last week, the canal’s administering authority released analysis
showing that 2019 was the fifth driest year for 70 years for the area,
with rainfall 20 per cent below the historic average.\"

5th driest in 70 years hardly sounds like a sudden Climate Change Crisis.. Nor does 20 per cent below average rainfall.

This does sound like more hysteria.

Canal adminstration authorities don\'t go in for hysteria. If they haven\'t got enough water in the reservoir to keep on working the locks they\'ve got a real problem. They couldn\'t care less why they haven\'t got enough water, but they care a lot about not being able to move ships through the canal.

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/panama-canal-climate-change

Rainfall has been low for the past four or five years. It\'s a cumulative problem, not a one off.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney

 

[John Larkin]

On Wed, 7 Jun 2023 09:44:30 -0700 (PDT), whit3rd <whit3rd@gmail.com>
wrote:

On Tuesday, June 6, 2023 at 9:24:43?AM UTC-4, Clive Arthur wrote:

No, get a suitable barge with a large plughole in the bottom. At sea,
pull the plug so it fills with seawater, then navigate to the top of the
canal and pull the plug to release the seawater.

A man, a plan a cat, a canal - Panama.

Not a great plan; the seawater won\'t sink the barge ONLY if you don\'t fully fill that
hull, and raising it to the lake requires freshwater to float it up that high be
drained from the lake. Then, you pump out (not dump, because you have the
barge to raise up, it takes energy to remove the saline stuff into the lake)
salt water, killing the lake\'s fish and flora.

The water-from-above source, that high lake, IS the energy source, the reservoir
of not only water but energy, that makes canal operation across the continental
divide possible.

When Richard Halliburton swam the canal (1928) he was so low in tonnage
that his toll was only 36 cents. He was also a very shallow-draft vessel (no more
than 4 feet of water required in the lake) so wouldn\'t be inconvenienced by a
shallow-waters event, but some of the modern ships are going to... no longer
fit if that depth isn\'t restored.

Gatun Lake is an artificial freshwater lake. Gatun Dam dumps the lake
into the caribbean and is an important hydro power plant. All this
looks like bad design more than climate change.

 

[Fred Bloggs]

On Wednesday, June 7, 2023 at 2:07:03 PM UTC-4, John Larkin wrote:

On Wed, 7 Jun 2023 09:44:30 -0700 (PDT), whit3rd <whi...@gmail.com
wrote:
On Tuesday, June 6, 2023 at 9:24:43?AM UTC-4, Clive Arthur wrote:

No, get a suitable barge with a large plughole in the bottom. At sea,
pull the plug so it fills with seawater, then navigate to the top of the
canal and pull the plug to release the seawater.

A man, a plan a cat, a canal - Panama.

Not a great plan; the seawater won\'t sink the barge ONLY if you don\'t fully fill that
hull, and raising it to the lake requires freshwater to float it up that high be
drained from the lake. Then, you pump out (not dump, because you have the
barge to raise up, it takes energy to remove the saline stuff into the lake)
salt water, killing the lake\'s fish and flora.

The water-from-above source, that high lake, IS the energy source, the reservoir
of not only water but energy, that makes canal operation across the continental
divide possible.

When Richard Halliburton swam the canal (1928) he was so low in tonnage
that his toll was only 36 cents. He was also a very shallow-draft vessel (no more
than 4 feet of water required in the lake) so wouldn\'t be inconvenienced by a
shallow-waters event, but some of the modern ships are going to... no longer
fit if that depth isn\'t restored.
Gatun Lake is an artificial freshwater lake. Gatun Dam dumps the lake
into the caribbean and is an important hydro power plant. All this
looks like bad design more than climate change.

They dammed the existing Chagres River which was raging torrent of water coming from high mountain elevations. The dam at Gatun is one of two. There is a second one upstream that forms a second lake, Lake Alajuela, intended to be a buffer for Gatun.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chagres_River

 

[whit3rd]

On Wednesday, June 7, 2023 at 2:07:03 PM UTC-4, John Larkin wrote:

On Wed, 7 Jun 2023 09:44:30 -0700 (PDT), whit3rd <whi...@gmail.com
wrote:

The water-from-above source, that high lake, IS the energy source, the reservoir
of not only water but energy, that makes canal operation across the continental
divide possible.

When Richard Halliburton swam the canal (1928) he was so low in tonnage
that his toll was only 36 cents. He was also a very shallow-draft vessel (no more
than 4 feet of water required in the lake) so wouldn\'t be inconvenienced by a
shallow-waters event, but some of the modern ships are going to... no longer
fit if that depth isn\'t restored.

Gatun Lake is an artificial freshwater lake. Gatun Dam dumps the lake
into the caribbean and is an important hydro power plant. All this
looks like bad design more than climate change.

So, if this is \'bad design\', show me a canal across a continental divide that
has worked better. The inflow of fresh water has changed, that DOES look
like a \'climate change\' element.