37 feet/gallon
Thursday, 10 April 2008
Something to think about when you take your Geo Bush gov’t check aka economic stimulus bux to the store/online to buy consumer electronics made in Asia, as so many are predicting:
Any idea how far the largest container ships can go on a gallon of fuel? Try 37 feet. That adds up to 2 billion barrels of petroleum a year. “If the shipping industry were a country, it would be No. 7 in carbon emissions,” says Michael Hirshfield….
…—From Newsweek dated 5 April on web and 14 April on my dead-tree version….
Wikipedia’s article on container ships says the first container shipping was in 1956, the current containers are 40 feet/12 m long, and the larger container ships carry something like 7500 of them—if my math is right.