Pictured above: the Ever Given container ship stuck in Suez Canal. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
By Abby Wester ‘22
Staff Writer
On March 23, the 1,312-foot-long container ship Ever Given ran aground in the Suez Canal. The Suez Canal is a human-made waterway in Egypt connecting the Mediterranean and Red seas, providing the shortest maritime route from Asia to Europe. The Ever Given blocked the canal for six days, leaving more than 400 ships stranded. An average of 50 ships pass through the Suez Canal daily, moving about $9.6 billion worth of goods. This blockage’s impact is expected to continue reverberating throughout supply chains, affecting prices and delaying the arrival of products. Along with its effects on the global economy, this crisis has also had an impact on the environment.
With the passageway blocked for nearly a week, some ships anchored in the surrounding waters while waiting for the Ever Given to be freed. Others opted to shift trade routes to sail around the southern coast of Africa. The BBC estimated that the usual shipping route from Rotterdam in the Netherlands to Kaohsiung, Taiwan, would take about 25.5 days using the Suez Canal. The route around the southern coast of Africa takes 34 days. The shipping industry emits 1 billion tons of greenhouse gases each year, and the longer shipping route will result in higher emissions, adding to environmental harm.
Investigations into why the Ever Given became stuck in the Suez Canal are ongoing, but early theories suggested that strong winds were a contributing factor to the ship’s grounding. According to Business Insider, Egypt is currently at the beginning of the 50-day season called the khamsin, which results in powerful dust storms blowing in from the Sahara. While investigations have not concluded that winds were the cause of the Ever Given running aground, writers at the Maritime Executive state: “The historical frequency of powerful crosswinds blowing across the canal needs to be examined and evaluation needs to establish whether climate change would increase the future frequency of such winds.”
Global shipping networks and the health of the environment are highly interdependent. As humans produce, demand and ship more goods, the environment and global economic supply chain become more strained. The grounding of the Ever Given is a reminder of our increasing globalization and reliance on the natural world.