Freight Transport's Impact On Ecosystem And Economy: An Essay.

Environmental impact of freight transport

Question:

Discuss about the Freight Transport for International Business and Global Economy.

Freight transport is a big problem for the ecosystem, with the rising trade practices in all countries the use of freight transport is also increasing. This increase is also enhancing the amount of use of the fossil fuel available depleting our resources. However the thing that is becoming the biggest concern is the amount of carbon emission by these freight transport which is creating pollution in the ecosystem for example in us the freight transport system has become the leading contributor to pollutant emissions, in particular greenhouse gases and carbon di oxide (CO2). If we take the example of a single car, which turns 6000 liters of oxygen into fumes within one hour. CO2 emissions from the U.S. transportation sector exceed total CO2 emissions of any other economy in the world besides China.

Freight transport is the main component of the business concern; it is a requirement to continue business.  However, it is not good for the environment when the arable land is being transformed into parking lot for freight transport, which is being used for various industries. Transformation of the farming land into parking lot for the freight transport is very common in U.S. and Canada (Brown, Ferguson and Viju 2017). This can be an example of reduction I the rate of arable land in every country due to freight transport. Agricultural products and their production diminish due to the relative change in the availability of arable land.

Initially, Infectious disease could spread as far and as fast as people could walk or move but with the advent of truly global travel as we all know the growing rate of freight transport is expanding continuously by air, sea and land and hence pathogens and their vectors can now move further, faster and in greater numbers than ever before. For example there are three important outcome of global freight transport system, those are infectious disease pandemics, vector invasion events and vector-borne pathogen importation such as global influenza pandemics, the devastating Anopheles Gambiae invasion and recent increase in Plasmodium Falciparum malaria cases.

Nonnative pest the word itself mean that the pest which comes from foreign countries and spread in other countries. Freight transport such as cargo ships, land transport as well as air transport keeps on moving from one country to the other to transport goods (Campbell et al. 2017). With goods at times they carry pests which seeps into the transport at the time of loading and unloading of goods these pests travel from one country to the other using the transport and causing harm to such countries where it is nonnative.  For example the Asian long horn beetle can travel from Asia to other nonnative country with the goods that are carried using freight transport.

Economic and historical significance of freight transport

Freight is the reason behind spread of civilization. In the early stages of civilization man moved from one country to the other because of trade they sold their invention to other countries and bought the inventions done by the other countries as well this raised the use of freight transport. Furthermore freight transport was the reason behind globalization of trade and also resources. The western countries were more civilized than the eastern countries the things like printing press and other commodities without which life seems to be impossible now was spread all over the world by freight transport. This helped the globalization of products new technologies and also new ideas which got spread all over the world and brought a sense of civilization among citizen of different countries.

Relocation of both human as well as goods is a urge of Globalization which was provided by the use of freight transport. It has been learned in the world history that human beings travelled from one end of the worked to the other for trading and this resulted in discovering of many places which was a way forward towards globalization (Rietveld and Bruinsma 2015). Therefore, it can be well justified that freight transport has played a vital role in Globalization as well as up gradation of civilization. For an example, Water transport, including paddled and cruised vessels, goes back to time immemorial, and was the main effective approach to transport huge amounts or over vast separations preceding the Industrial Revolution.

The special attribute that Air transport has over other means of transport like truck maritime or pipeline is speed as well as coverage of maximum portion in the world (Biermann, Teuber and Wedemeier 2015 ). Air transport is a very fast means of freight it helps in reaching out to all parts of the world at very less time as well as a maintainable risk factor.

Truck is a means of transport which is confined to a certain area an attribute that makes truck transport better than other transport as it is a type of intermodal transport which is required for inland transportation of good (Courtonne, Longaretti and Dupré 2017). For an example, For instance, a shipper cooperates with both ground and air transportation to deliver a thing abroad. Multi-purpose cargo transport is utilized to design the course and do the delivery benefit from the maker to the entryway of the beneficiary.

Advantages and disadvantages of air transport

Maritime transport is an important and the earliest means of transport in the history of the world. An attribute that makes it more promising than other means of transport is that it can carry huge amount of material overseas at a time and at reasonable cost (Refining and Martin 2017).  For example import export of vehicles, huge machinery and other heavy materials can only be transferred using maritime freight.

Pipelines are the modern way of transportation of liquid as well as gaseous substances throughout the world. The characteristic that makes pipelines a better means of freight is its risk free transportation of fossil fuel which was very difficult before. It reduces the risk of oil spill as well wastage of resources.

Advantages of the northern sea route which opens up in summers can be briefly discussed in few points. Firstly, separation from Northern Europe to China and the other way around, approx 40% shorter than by means of the Suez Canal or 60% shorter through the Cape of Good Hope. Secondly, significant decreases in transportation time, fuel utilization, ecological outflow and dispenses with theft hazard. Thirdly, it also saves cost and makes it economic by making returning ships from the eastern side. On the forth position it reduced the amount of ice by 40% in the last 25 to 30 years making the season longer. Lastly this route is open for larger variety of cargos at less time (Lanteigne 2015).

When the travelling expenses are reduced due to the reduction of the distance and discovery of a new route which is less costly decreases the landed cost of the products being transported. Similar in the case of the route that opens in the summer season reduces the distance in turn reduces the cost of carriage or freight further directly affecting the landed cost of the products.

The opening of the Northern Sea Route as an elective course to transport cargoes between the Far East and Europe appears to be very adequate by delivery organizations because of the considerable sparing in fuel utilization, fortification cost, working cost, emanations and trip time (Simón,2015). This circumstance won't just influence the sea business movement in the Straits of Malacca yet in addition, the Malaysian economy in alternate points of view when the vessels cruise by means of the Suez Canal and the Indian Ocean are relied upon to diminish.

References

Biermann, F., Teuber, M.O. and Wedemeier, J., 2015. Bremen’s and Hamburg’s port position: Transport infrastructure and hinterland connections within the North Range. International Business and Global Economy, 2015(Tom 34), p.7889.

Brown, M., Ferguson, S.M. and Viju, C., 2017. Agricultural Trade Reform, Reallocation and Technical Change: Evidence from the Canadian Prairies (No. w23857). National Bureau of Economic Research.

Campbell, M.L., Hewitt, C.L. and Miles, J., 2016. Marine pests in paradise: capacity building, awareness raising and preliminary introduced species port survey results in the Republic of Palau.

Courtonne, J.Y., Longaretti, P.Y. and Dupré, D., 2017. Uncertainties of Domestic Road Freight Statistics: Insights for Regional Material Flow Studies. Journal of Industrial Ecology.

Lanteigne, M., 2015. One of Three Roads: The Role of the Northern Sea Route in Evolving Sino-Russian Strategic Relations.

Refining, N.Z. and Martin, A.D., 2017. Crude Shipping Project: Review of Refining NZ Dredging Project Reports on Ecological Effects.

Rietveld, P. and Bruinsma, F., 2015. 15 Transport and urban development. International Handbook on Transport and Development, p.229.

Simón, L., 2015. Europe, the rise of Asia and the future of the transatlantic relationship. International Affairs, 91(5), pp.969-989.