What would happen if terrorists blew up the Panama Canal?
Quote: Wizard
By the way, I was just in the Canal Zone a month ago, as many of you know. Despite having given it back 11 years ago, it still stands apart nicely from the rest of the Panama City, with big American-style houses with big grass lawns. It looks like kind of like America in the fifties. Also, I have some Canal Zone license plates in my collection.
You mind posting a pic of one of the plates if you get a chance?
Quote: AZDuffmanYou mind posting a pic of one of the plates if you get a chance?
Ask and ye shall receive.
The green on white plate is obviously not the CZ, but US forces in Germany.
Quote: WizardThe green on white plate is obviously not the CZ, but US forces in Germany.
"Funnel"? That's the best phrase they could come up with to describe the place?
I'm curious, by the way--is there a lot of security there now? It seems like such an obvious terrorist target.
Quote: mkl654321I'm curious, by the way--is there a lot of security there now? It seems like such an obvious terrorist target.
Nah. Any bomb would probably be on a ship anyway, and it wouldn't be practical to check all of them. Besides, who has a beef against Panama?
Quote: WizardAsk and ye shall receive.
Funnel for world commerce? That has to be the worst slogan on a plate I've ever seen. 'My country is a funnel'? LOL!
Quote: WizardNah. Any bomb would probably be on a ship anyway, and it wouldn't be practical to check all of them. Besides, who has a beef against Panama?
The even temporary blockage of the Canal would hurt the US quite a bit. Panama would, of course, lose the tolls for whatever time it took to clear the Canal, but my guess would be that the losses to the US would be in the hundreds of millions/day.
Quote: WizardNah. Any bomb would probably be on a ship anyway, and it wouldn't be practical to check all of them. Besides, who has a beef against Panama?
Well there is the possibility of the greatest act of terrorism of all time. If a hydrogen bomb re-opened the passageway between the oceans, then the North Atlantic would lose it's high salinity. Then you would diminish the gulf stream and freeze Europe and make Eastern America much colder.
An act of terrorism that could almost destroy the developed world and kill possibly billions.
Quote: pacomartin
Was beachfront FL property a bargain 5 million years ago?"It's not called gambling if the math is on your side."
Quote: mkl654321The even temporary blockage of the Canal would hurt the US quite a bit. Panama would, of course, lose the tolls for whatever time it took to clear the Canal, but my guess would be that the losses to the US would be in the hundreds of millions/day.
Not as much as it would have decades ago. There is a whole new class of ships that can carry many times as much as the ones the Panamax . These larger ships go via the Suez canal where the greater efficiency makes up for the longer voyage.
Plus there are ports in Mexico (like Manzanillo) where the ships can stop now, and carry things by train straight into Texas. From Mazatlan they go up to Arizona and Colorado. The US provided Mexico with free equipment to check the cargo holds for contraband to aid in getting freight to Texas.
Quote: EvenBobWas beachfront FL property a bargain 5 million years ago?
It's hard to say. If an ancient civilization existed, then they might have not been worried about going to Florida, since most of the planet was much warmer than it is today. After Panama got sealed off, the world cycled through several ages when things got hotter, then much colder (and the ice age), and then to present temperatures.
In any case, Panama keeps the North Atlantic salty, which keeps the Ocean Conveyor working, which governs the world climate. If you blew a whole in Panama the oceans would mix, the salinity would even out fairly quickly, and you would discharge the giant battery that provides the energy to drive the conveyer.
When Lesseps began work on the Panama Canal, he thought he could build a sea level canal without locks. A canal is not very wide, but there would have been 130 years of the Pacific equalizing the salinity with the Atlantic. Who knows what that would have done.
It is unlikely that there was any creatures 5 million years ago capable of civilization. Of course, we built our civilization from roughly a million people in the last 12,000 years since the end of the last ice age. If we were gone tomorrow, there would be almost nothing left in another 12,000 years.
It is possible that there was a civilization before the Toba Catastrophe wiped out nearly all of humankind, and most of the related species 70,000 years ago. The only similar species to survive were homo sapiens and Neanderthals. The Neanderthals were wiped out relatively recently.
Quote: pacomartinNot as much as it would have decades ago. There is a whole new class of ships that can carry many times as much as the ones the Panamax . These larger ships go via the Suez canal where the greater efficiency makes up for the longer voyage.
The US provided Mexico with free equipment to check the cargo holds for contraband to aid in getting freight to Texas.
Are they checking to make sure there are or are not plenty of drugs aboard?
Guatemala. It is for transshipments from the new multibillion-dollar Japanese-built port at La Union, similar to the KC Railroad operation that parallels the canal.
Quote: dmAre they checking to make sure there are or are not plenty of drugs aboard?
They prefer to ship raw materials as opposed to electronics.
Quote: Enlarged Panama Canal To Face Tough Competition
Created by HButler on 3/11/2011 4:36:27 PM
Container volumes moving through the Panama Canal will certainly increase when the canal is enlarged in 2014, but that does not necessarily mean West Coast ports will lose market share simply because larger vessels from Asia will be able to call at East and Gulf Coast ports. The all-water container trade from Asia to the East Coast is already one of the largest generators of cargo volume for the Panama Canal, according to Onesimo Sanchez, leader of economic research and intelligence at the canal authority. Sanchez told a meeting Thursday of the Transportation Research Forum in Long Beach that enlarging the canal so it can accommodate vessels of up to 12,000 20-foot equivalent units capacity is necessary to promote growth because by 2014 post-Panamax vessels will comprise 48 percent of the global container fleet. The enlarged canal will also result in shorter vessel queues, improved service and more reliable routing of cargo for all-water services from Asia. Despite offering this value proposition, the canal is not the only player in this game. Cargo interests, shipping lines, ports and railroads will all be part of the process of deciding how U.S. trade with Asia will evolve beginning in 2014.
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http://www.jocsailings.com/tabid/74/ArticleId/10708/Enlarged-Panama-Canal-To-Face-Tough-Competition.aspx
