The Race to Save the Panama Canal
Can the world's most important canal be saved before it runs dry?
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Research sources:
www.bbc.com/future/article/20...
www.cnbc.com/2023/06/24/us-tr...
www.businessinsider.com/panam...
splash247.com/panama-canal-qu...
www.inboundlogistics.com/arti...
transportgeography.org/conten...
phys.org/news/2015-08-panama-...
www.cnbc.com/2023/11/03/panam...
archive.is/hV9px
phys.org/news/2015-08-panama-...
splash247.com/panama-canal-qu...
fortune.com/2023/11/08/panama...
archive.is/hV9px#selection-96...
wpeus2sat01.blob.core.windows...
www.riotimesonline.com/panama...
www-prensa-com.translate.goog...
eng.belta.by/politics/view/ni...
www.tradewindsnews.com/contai...
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Opened KZhead hoping to have a B1M video that could watch while having a lunch break! Video published 2min ago. Perfect timing! thank you for creating such good content!
Because it would ruin the drinking water for all Panamanians. They get their drinking water from the lake and pumping seawater into their only freshwater source is…no bueno
I’m sorry for you 10min lunch break 😅
@@StarlordStavanger Each to their own, but I'd argue that our host has a more relaxed _modus operandi_ than the ever effervescent Mr. Scott. One might also say, easier to digest.
Which video 🤔
@@PlanXV Both could be said to be all you can eat buffets.
It seems to be forgotten that as Panama Canal was refurbised 2015, it became wider and deeper, which means it also consumes more water as ships go by. So it's not only change in rains but also consume that dries up the canal.
No, we have to always blame "man-made climate change". How dare you! 😂😂😂
@@JoaoSantos-lj3jp Sorry, I am an engineer... not a true believer... 🤣🙂
If the canal was the same as it was in the past there would be no water issue but it seems the expansion just greatly exaggerated the problem. Water has always been a problem for canals, this isn't really new just more dramatic i guess.
@@JoaoSantos-lj3jpyou live in cold areas?
Actually, the newer canal is bigger and wider but uses less water than the old, as some of the water in the last lock is pumped back into retaining ponds. The problem is that they also kept the old one, that worked solely on gravity (which means it dumps something like 27 million liters of fresh water into the sea every time the last lock is open), so while the new one is more efficient, it still wastes fresh water. Add to that the fact that we are in the midst of the El Nino phenomenon, which reduces rainfall, and the ever-growing needs of nearby population for fresh water, and the water level of the Gatun Lake has dropped a lot. It's cyclical. It'll come back once it rains.
Something most people won't care about: the Gatun locks were made with over 2 million cubic yards of concrete, all from Atlas Cement in a little town called Northampton, Pennsylvania, my hometown. In all, 8 million barrels of concrete were used, with not one batch failing multiple inspections. To this day, that concrete is still used in the original 6 Gatun locks. In 2016 when bigger locks were built, they ran into multiple issues delaying construction, some of which were issues with bad concrete. Though I do not know where that concrete was from, I do know it was not from the same region in PA
Sure don't make em like they used to
@monketok141 No, they don't. I'm sure part of the problem would be that they shopped for the lowest bidder in 2016 (my guess). In 1909, though, Atlas would have been one of the only companies in the world to be able to produce that much cement
i dont know but if it wasn't for the canal we wouldn't have countess luann
We care! That's fascinating
The people making the 2016 concrete: 1. Concrete. 2. ??????? 3. Profit.
Good presentation! One thing, though: It was not the U.S. who "came up" with the idea of a lock-and-dam network for Panama. That credit goes to French Engineer Gaudin DeLepenet [I likely butchered the spelling - sorry] who presented this information way back at Ferdinand DeLesseps' pitch meeting in Paris, but his idea was dismissed as "needlessly complicated." 20,000 deaths later, the French company gave-up trying to dig to sea level.
And there is a famous 17th-century engineering antecedent : the Canal du midi
isn't that Scotts first that proposed connection from Atlantic to pacific by building colony there which fail spectacularly making them extremely broke
Yes the lake and lock method was also proposed by the 1st American who tried and failed with the sea level route then resigned,later replaced by a US Army engineer (who couldn't resign!) for the third attempt.
I believe Fred has covered this in past videos.
@@raisofahri5797 The Darien scheme (also called New Caledonia - not the tropical paradise of today though!) was supposed to establish a Scottish colony in the area to set up overland trade. They realised pretty quickly that the whole area is far too mountainous and full of tropical diseases for that, and the massive funds spent on the failing colony contributed to Scotland's willingness to unify the crowns in 1707.
When you get down to it, having multiple options for getting across the Isthmus would be hugely beneficial to trade. This will inevitably lower shipping costs, thereby increasing volume.
Yes, but I suspect that before any other plan gets started panama suddenly decides that new reservoirs are totally worthwhile. Canal fees are a huge portion of their budget and people usually care about the environment up until the point they'd have to shell out money for it.
@@petergerdes1094 I don't think I'd put such a cynical spin on it. Especially in Central and Latin America, $100 could easily make the difference between a family starving or not. I think it's a bit unreasonable for us to expect people to be happy about starving to death for something as abstract as "the environment".
@@hughmungusbungusfungus4618 I didn't mean to make a moral judgement about it. I think it's a totally reasonable choice -- environmental goods need to be balanced against other concerns and, as you point out, this is an important one. It's just a factual observation.
@@petergerdes1094 Apologies for the misunderstanding then.
@@hughmungusbungusfungus4618 No worries, rereading my comment I agree it gave that impression and I appreciate the chance to correct it.
The biggest reason why the canal was never built through Nicaragua was because of the volcano that sits close to where the route would be. Its highly volatile and active.
And because the Chinese investor/firm that was going to build it went bankrupt.
I should mention that’s the largest fresh water lake in the reign and supplies water to every Central American country
It's such a beautiful place. I hope they never ruin it.
@@unifiedhorizons2663 And of course, you would be laughably wrong as Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala receive no water from that lake.
@@ItzMiKeKirbYYea that's the only reason lol
In case anyone is interested, Panama's new metro line 3 will be the first tunnel ever to pass under the canal and is currently under construction.
@@zonian1966 the tunnel alignment is parallel to the new 4th bridge, about 100m away from it. The TBM launch shaft is in farfan and there are underground stations at balboa and albrook.
😮
Ooooo, that's pretty neat!
@@TrebleSketch@@@@@@@@
I still think they should've done the french idea of going sea level. They could make a ship tunnel or something like that. There are a couple of them in Norway i think
Water has always been a major problem for canals. I live in New York and the struggle to find water was a major driver of expansion of the Erie Canal system with a number of large reservoirs and lakes being constructed to keep up with the need for water.
Facts, with NYC continuing to have the cleanest drinking water in America. I’ve tested 100+ locations with a Total Dissolved Solids meter finding TDS 8-40 Parts Per Million with a 18 PPM average. Manhattan’s world best pizza secret :)
@Fred would love to see a video by you on NYC’s drinking water quality & how degraded tap water is becoming across the globe 😌
Liberals, they love over occupying cities and talk about there's a water shortage.
It will forever be a reoccurring problem since you're constructing something that is 110% dependent on a shifting hydrologic cycle.
i'm starting to think Dumping most of the Reservoir's water into the ocean instead of back into the lake might have been a design flaw
Right? It seems like they should be pumping most of that water back up the hill.
Back in 1914, they didn't much of it, especially since the reservoir gets filled up fast in a country where it rains like 7 months a year. They couldn't foresee the amount of traffic, and the new, wider canal being built a 100 years later, all while keeping the old one. They only dump water from the last lock, not most of the water from the reservoir. But yeah, it's not ideal, hence why the newer locks pump some of the water back in adjacent ponds.
@@AllTheUrbanLegends It's not impossible, but it would require a lot of energy. Might not be worth the cost.
@@fnorgen yeah, pumping water is expensive and especially tough to retrofit a whole canal. But If they did I'd hope that they'd be capturing some of that energy on the way down. But it really looks like they didn't think about all that extra water when they made the canal bigger.
The design concept was to allow gravity to do the work rather than building power stations to run pumps.
It's worth noting there's a railroad that runs alongside the canal, and is used to carry containers as well as passengers from one coast to the other. The Panama Railroad first opened in 1855, rebuilt in 1912, two years before the opening of the canal. Following WW2 it fell into disrepair until 1998, reopening as the Panama Canal Railway in 2001 to carry intermodal traffic. Since 1998 it's been jointly owned by Kansas City Southern, now Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC), and Mi-Jack Products, and leased to the Panama government. Ships offload their containers on one coast, and the railroad transports them to the other coast where they're loaded onto an awaiting ship to continue their journey. Currently 10 trains operate during a 24-hour period, with potential capacity of up to 32 trains. While it doesn't solve the canal's problem, it does help provide some relief.
The RR continued to operate while I was growing up in the Canal Zone all through the 1950's and 1960's. We used it regularly and could go coast to coast in about 1hr 20min. I do know that at some point it did fall into disrepair as the U.S. began turning over areas of the Canal Zone, as well as the RR to Panama, before Panama took over the operation of the canal in 2000.
Why can’t the Americans build a railway on their land to do this? Has to be easier then sailing a few thousand miles, unloading onto a train and back onto a boat for another few thousand miles?
@@user-fm3pw4jk2x- Actually thousands of containers are landed every year at the ports of LA - Long Beach and distributed throughout the USA through the Class 1 railroad systems. It’s a matter of time and money. As the Panama Canal is further restricted, more and more containers will be diverted through the rail network.
@@user-fm3pw4jk2x Container ships are incredibly efficient and have a much higher capacity than a cross-continent rail network could support. Also the cost to build new rail lines that could provide that capacity would be immense.
The railroads are already there but need extensive upgrades and overhauls that are long overdue. plus there is an ongoing labor shortage since the rail companies don't want to part with money to entice new workers. We almost had the whole thing shut down to a massive strike because of the mismanagement. That's only part of the problem, the Navy uses to canal to transfer fleet assets quickly. The longer routes take almost 3 additional weeks of transport time. For military planning that's an eternity especially once war with china inevitably breaks out.
Running dry was predicted to occur before the date of handover to Panama, due to deforrestation. They have passed that date by 23 years now
@@zonian1966 I mean, if they predictions were that the canal would have ran dry 23 years ago then I'd say their management has been exceptionally good.
@@zonian1966 Great? Remember, Panama has been working with an expanded canal under a progressively harsher climate.
It's all just climate propaganda
Deforestation causes More runoff! There would be more water, not less!
That's the main reason why the first engineer wanted so hard to build it at sea-level, to mitigate this problem : If it's built at sea level, you don't need waterlocks to allow ships through and you limit the loss of water through evaporation. Unfortunately it didn't go as planned for him >
I always enjoy learning about all these cool projects from around the world! It's very interesting stuff. Thanks.
Instead of releasing water from the two lowest locks into the sea, why not pump it back up to the lake? Expensive, but needed.
It may be due to the need to keep as much salt water out of the lake as possible. I see your logic but the lake has fish and drinking water inside. It can't become to salty. Maybe desalination and refill the lake instead?
Not that simple, I live 2Km from the Canal on the Pacific side
Exactly like @trepan4944 said. This lake is also used by the locals for other purposes than just canal refilling.
America is talking about making one from gulf to pacific... totally possible 😅
Why not level the canal ..and leave the fresh water man made lake seperate ...huge undertaking but worth it Besides RO the water (reverse osmosis)
This video, the graphics, and the many insightful reader comments are “chef’s kiss”!
It's always a bit creepy when two or more KZheadrs I subscribe to come out with the same topic videos a day after each other
It's been in the news, and it's an going to be a problem for a while, so an explainer video or three from trusted sources is welcome.
Important current affairs. You don't read newspapers?
@@swapshots4427 No. Who does?
@@Wolky324 Bad analogy. Point stands.
@@Wolky324 Ha!
Panama is going to have to build more dams. Gatun Lake is the biggest drinking water reservoir in the country, so they can't just pump sea water into the lake.
no need to pump into lake, pump into lock or some feeding storage (similar to basins on new locks, these big pools aside of main lock body). It does not completely substitute fresh water from Gatun but significantly reduce its consumption. And what is between locks, in canal itself, fresh or salt water, does not matter at all.
@@antontsauis the salinity change on the reservoir going to be an issue with this method?
They don't pump sea water in the lake.
@@hugolafhugolaf when you raise the lock, you would need to pump water right? If this water is pumped from the ocean, it will mix with the reservoir when the gates open. As of now, the water comes from the reservoir, going down to the ocean. This is the most efficient way, no need for any pump, just gravity. The downside for this method is consuming water from the reservoir. Relying on rain to fill it back up.
@@bltzcstrnx Exactly. Right now, they gravity-feed the locks with water from the Gatun Lake only.
Very interesting I'll be going through the panama canal in 2 days thanks for the timely information now I'll have some stories to tell to my crew .
Y como estuvo su paso por el Canal?
We visited Panama and the Canal earlier this month. It's an astonishing wonder, and must be cared for.
I was not aware a vessel could skip the queue if they paid enough money lol. That’s crazy because I’ve read the regular usage toll is already high as it is
Capitalism exploits everyone.
Supply and demand means the canal oper get to make more money if they have 1 slot a day to bypass the queue.
Another belter & we take these important ship routes for granted. The Panama Canal is on e of the unsung hero’s of the shipping industry!
Excellent research and presentation, as always!
I am shitting while I read your comment , ah
1:43 NGL I paused & did the math on container ship evolution from 1956 to now 24 containers on the first vessel, wild evolution. TY B1M for the A+ reporting, always.
Here is what keeps me thinking at night, we just recently took a return cruise to the canal , we only went through the new locks and literally turned around and went right through them a few hours later. Yes bucket list and spent many months worried it would be cancelled, but here is my doubt/concern, we were not on a repositioning cruise, it was literally pleasure, but to me all those cargo ships have more priority and needed. So why were we not cancelled and that position given to a higher priority?
Huh
"So why were we not cancelled and that position given to a higher priority?" Money. The cruise company most probably paid for a priority passage spot.
That's because you pay more for the cruise ticket than the goods being shipped in containers. They can afford to pay higher premium for the priority pass.
Does that really keep you awake at night?
First a companion video with Practical Engineering and now one with Real Life Lore? Or is this one a coincidence? I enjoy the content and seeing each side's perspective!
It's a coincidence. This story is newsworthy at the moment, so of course multiple creators will cover it.
That's what I love about b1m, concise and straight to the point.
B1M has easily become one of my favorite channels.
Can you make a video on Mexicos 'The Tehuantepec Interoceanic Corridor' railway? Seems like they are trying to capitalize on this issue in the Panama through railway and port investments.
Idk why people forget in Panama we also have an interoceanic Railway, that actually goes beside the Panama Canal all along.
@@astefanlopez the biggest advantage of the Panama canal was that you didn’t have to spend time off unloading and loading to cross to the other side but now with the drought, if conditions “force” you to cross via train instead then most companies would rather do it further north in Mexico because it’ll leave you inside the Gulf of Mexico with much quicker/shorter access to the port of Houston and Georgia Ports compared to crossing the Panama Canal by train leaving you a lot further away. I think that’s the main advantage the Mexicos Interoceanic Corridor has.
@@javier452 we actually have two othr ways of inteoceanic transportation as alternative to the panama canal. I already mentioned the Panama Canal Railway, but we also have the Trans Isthmian Highway which hundreds of trucks carry containers everyday to the ports. The Panama Canal Railway is a 70 minute long path from port to port.
@@astefanlopez I understand that but the biggest issue here is the unloading and reloading of the cargo containers onto trains and/or trucks and the severals days it takes to do that. There's a reason why the great majority of shipping cargo companies prefer to cross the Panama Canal even though travel time through the canal takes 8-10 hours rather than offload all their cargo and then load it back onto the Panama Railway and take the 2 hour ride across to the other port. The reason they don't do the second option is because of off-loading and on-loading times being a much bigger factor. That "2 hour" long trip on railway ends up taking several days with the unloading/loading time included. United States was the origin or destination for 72.5 percent of the total incoming and outgoing cargo passing through the Panama Canal. If a shipping company has to unload their cargo onto trains, it seems like Mexicos interoceanic railway would be the better fit compared to Panamas railway simply because at the other end Mexico's Interoceanic railway would leave you closer to your destination, United States, inside the Gulf of Mexico and directly to Houston and Georgia Ports. Hopefully the government of Panama can figure out a way to fix the Panama Canal drought issue through engineering because it's very obvious that if they just leave it up to Mother Nature they'll end up loosing a lot. Plus traveling through the Canal/water will always be faster than unloading and loading stuff onto trains.
I was lucky enough to go through the canal (in the 70s) when there was no problem with the water supply. A very enjoyable passage. Weather systems are always changing so the rains may yet return. In the meantime, perhaps pumped seawater in the lower locks may reduce the freshwater consumption?
In the future, I believe more ships will be using the Northwest Passage as an alternative to the Panama Canal and the Drake Passage as arctic ice continues to melt and allow ships to traverse the region. This would be very beneficial to Canada and by extension the US as it’s not only cheaper and faster but also more secure since the US navy can patrol those waters
There is a KZhead about that idea, it is very interest. The video suggests that Canada will be able to make a fortune of it.
Ya problem is you will pay a big price for icebreakers
At that point of the story nobody makes any 'profits' bread and water is fare more interesting then@@dennis2376
@@dano1234v And more chunks of icebergs bobbing around farther north or south than usual depending on what hemisphere you sail in.
The idea of a canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans also passes through the borders of Nicaragua. Lake Nicaragua can connect two oceans with canals. And even better, ports can be established around this lake. A canal can also be built between Lake Nicaragua and Lake Managua. Another canal can be opened to the west of Lake Managua. In other words, all oceans and lakes will be united with 4 canals. This positively impacts Nicaragua and the region economically. Also, I think that with a small border change, a part of the southern part of Lake Nicaragua can be given to Costa Rica. Thus, both countries will benefit from the ports to be built in the south and north of Lake Nicaragua. This is a project that will improve regional cooperation. In addition, Guatemala and Mexico can build canals to connect the Oceans in their regions.
Suppose The Mexican Option is adopted and they shuttle those containers coast to coast in 30 minutes. You would still have work to get all those containers onto another huge vessel. So, once get them off and on the other side you stack them on again! Not sure you'd save much expense or time!
Better than going all around South America
Oy would still be better than going around south america
Container unload / load can be highly automated nowadays, and you might even be saving time as Tehuantepec is a tad closer to say, Shanghai and New York, shaving a few days of navigation.
@@ignaciocampos8435 The Mexican Option! ONLY the Mexican Option... TUBE SHUTTLE. On the Pacific side = off the large ship stack them, then into the tube. Arrives on the Atlantic side, stack them and onto the container ship. How would that be faster? And don't lecture me on distance and automation! I know how that works.
It's just not simply crossing Mexico, it's thought as a giant assembly conveyor belt where parts go in and finished products go out.
US engineers did not "come up with the ingenious idea" of building the canal above sea level. This was already done by French engineers in the 17th century at the famous Canal du Midi connecting the Atlantic ocean and the Mediterranean sea.
Somebody is butt hurt
They come up with the idea of using it tho… He never claimed they were the first. Also ewww Ftench people🤮🤮🤮
On a scale of one to 10 how upset are you? 12?
So they came up with the idea and their own countrymen didn’t use it lmao…
@@Live2ride2live54321 0. Just adding to the knowledge. It's not a pissing contest
A video with the new “option” to the Panama Canal would be interesting: the Interoceanic Corridor that Mexico is building. 👍🏻
i always thought Mexico should dig a sea level canal there with all the modern machinery we have. Think those huge bucket excavators germany uses for open pit coal extraction. Cemex can supply all the concrete for lining the canal. Be a huge money maker for Mexico. Transferring to railroad off of ships adds a significant price to transit. Transport by ship is unbelievable cheaper than rail transport.
Mexico is also incredibly mountainous. The amount of earth that would need to be moved is astronomical.
Im in the maritime shipping business moving cargo from Asia to the Caribbeans, so it’s really nice to see a relatable video😊
It would be interesting to explore other engineering alternatives to locks such as ship lifts.
Ship trains: massive rail tracks that allow to pull along a ship over land and back into the ocean on the other side
@@Prokonover Or maybe just a funicular that could raise one ship up to the level of the lake while lowering another down to the level of the sea.
Great episode, thanks!
I don't see how a rail network is going to work. Seems like a lot of work to unload an entire ship and then reload a ship on the other side
It won't, they built the canal for a reason. Some rail capacity is useful as a side asset but by no means can replace the waterway's efficiency. They just need to fix the damn canal.
@Knight_Kin No water, no fix
It's been working pretty well in the United States. We've had an intermodal land bridge for decades.
@@Bob-Fields You fix the canal by saving the water. Reducing capacity back down to what it was a decade ago would be a good start. The expansion was greedy and shortsighted, blaming climate change is a cop out. It's not like nobody saw it coming, Panama were warned about water levels repeatedly about expansion and they did it anyway. Second is to recycle water by introducing pumps. Right now the canal is just gravity fed wasting thousands of tonnes of water per transit. That's it take responsibility instead of blaming the climate and take actions to address your fuck up.
I learned about the 3 locks on each side and the 26m elevation difference ! thanks!
Things I learned today very well presented thank you
Having several options sounds best to me.
It will be easier for the us military to accuse panama for holding weapons of mass destruction and just destroy the country so that the trade routes are secured.
Why does RLL release a video on a particular topic, only for other KZheadrs to release videos on the same topic a day later?
This is not "top secret knowledge" it's global news. So multiple channels reporting on it is normal.
a video with this production isn't made in a single day. stupid comment
Current affairs
Scripted videos like this take a long time to make, it is just a matter of coincidence and current events. Panama canal is under increased scrutiny now due to drought and suez canal problem (due to houthi attacks), so it is reasonable that people will notice that and want to make videos
Not sure but I'm glad b1m did, the real life lore video had terrible sound, they've gotten lazy and rushed it
Why the fuck would you use a maglev tunnel to send cargo...sounds like a pr stunt not a serious plan.
Sometimes ideas are just that, ideas, but not necessarily good ideas. Why not just fix the canal? Lol.
Seriously, embarrassing to even mention it as a legitimate proposal.
There is a feasibility study to build a 180 km elevated cargo train through the Darien jungle in Colombia. It’s a populist proposal of our leftist president Gustavo Petro. The country will spend a fortune on studies and nothing will be built.
The only thing that is maybe more amazing than the technical achievement and benefit of the canal, is that most people have no idea how amazing it is and how much their quality of life depends on it.
If trains are going to be used, then it makes more sense to use the intercontinental railways of USA and Canada than shipping cargo to Mexico to reload it twice
It's just not simply crossing Mexico, it's thought as a giant assembly conveyor belt where parts go in and finished products go out.
@@pottertheavenger1363 That sounds like a better plan, but I still feel like the corridor wouldn't be competing with the scale of finished, and bulk goods moving through the Panama canal
Having seen RealLifeLore's video on this same topic two days ago, I find it fascinating how you covered it in a third of the time, at half the speed of talking 😆
I've noticed that in every RealLifeLore video I've seen. Dangling participles and other extraneous words. RLL really need to up their script editing skills.
Good place to install a small modular reactor to pump water for reuse in the locks. The other project that can help shipping is a new canal across Honduras. No locks needed. I've been through the canal three times.
I've actually been thinking about this for a bit I've been in Panama for two and a half years and seen the water levels dropping but sometimes we question how much water is actually going through to the locks if they're actually dumping but for a solution I may have it may not all be full of air but they have an interesting system some of the water is recycled back through but the lower docks and the saltwater side has to be lit go back into the sea. Now we could capture that water in big underwater bags and pump it back up through to the top dock after a ship gets through the fresh water lake and continue to recycle that water not using so much of the fresh water. So is it better to have one lock than three reducing the amount of water that's needed. Or displace the water that is required to lift a ship. And talk about lifting ships what do we use to launch a ship or lift the ship up over land we use air. So the most immediate cheapest and possibly speed up shipment through the canal would be floating the ships across on airbags. Overtime I'm sure that they will expand and dig deeper the canal for bigger ships again but for now we couldn't possibly just float them across with less water or no water on the water. I think I should finally go and talk to the canal authorities give them the solution to the problem that they're facing.
Great video!
I'm a 2nd navigation officer. I've unfortunately never been so lucky as to be signed on a vessel which has the Americas as part of the voyage. But I can tell you from experience of having to to wait on anchor outside of a harbour can be excruciating boring and the worst is you are signing off once you get alongside but until the ship actually docs you are still at work your relief will only come once the vessel is alongside
I wonder if it is feasible to revisit the sea level path with modern technology and equipment.
Australia is also affected by El Nino / La Nina cycles. For last few years it has been La Nina which means "wet" in Australia, and I thought dry in central America. I understood El Nino was the reverse, ie dry in Oz and wet in Americas.
B1M thanks 🙏
Very enjoyable as always 👍
I always had this weird idea: cover lake Gatun with a square kilometre of photovoltaics and use the enormous amount of electricity to desalinate pacific water to top up the lake. I know it’s not the fastest or most efficient fix but I still find it really neat.
There is an a railroad that runs along side the Panama canal. It was rebuilt for shipping intermodal containers. Now might be the time of expand it.
Now can't they dig upto sea level with modern technology ?
The technology has been there since the original construction. But it still doesn't make economic sense.
I imagine you'd have to close the whole canal for years if you wanted to do that, and you'd probably have to disconnect it from Lake Gatún. It would solve the issue, but it'd be very disruptive.
Will it reduce time taken for ships to pass when at sea level Because lifting and lowering is required and also pumping of water
@@_GMP_ The Panama Canal doesn't have pumps, but it does take considerable time to fill and empty the locks.
@@Nighthunter006 Rather than closing the canal, you could parallel the Cumbres Cut and create a ship tunnel like they are building in Sweden to pass under the Chagres River. Just a thought experiment! Not serious.
Didn't you already release this exact video?
I suspect you're thinking of RealLifeLore
@@onelyone6976 I unsubscribed from RLL because I felt his videos were just getting silly
@@DragonsAndDragons777yeah and way too long. I don't have 40 mins!
@@onelyone6976 jfc, I thought this was a reupload too.. yeah it was RLL. Dang that was crap, like everything was repeated 3x etc.
My cat, who is a genius, is engineering a tunnel through the center of the earth for freight transport. The plans are simply amazing. He will be looking for backers very soon, so get out your money because he only takes cash. Smart kitty🙀😺
Seems like there might be a possibility of building a railroad alongside the canal simply to carry containers while the ship transits-reduce displacement, but just when transiting the lock
@@zonian1966 cool I mean something with the infrastructure and systems and expertise built up to actually reduce displacement without slowing the ships down overmuch. The actual tracks are less relevant
It's running out of water? Dammit...
In 2014 the canal accounted for around 5.4% of Panama’s GDP, it’s now still a sizeable 2.2%. The country has a 37.8% government debt and 22% of its population is below the poverty line. You would think building a new damn/ lake to maintain the canal and create employment would be in their national interest. Very strange to see protests against it. Edit: it’s also in other countries national interest. Delays to shipping increase costs of goods, makes manufacturing nations less competitive, creates inflation which makes consumers poorer. Just look at the impact of the stranded ship in the Suez Canal. It’s the kind of thing that needs international pressure and support.
I have no idea why he put that in the video. The protests were for a mining company, not the canal. Also the protests ended months ago. He just said it may cause protests but that's no true as far as I know.
@@AlexYurian thanks. Good to know.
You'd think Panama would be doing everything in it's national power to continue working on the canal. I thought the expansion was suppose to address these problems, only to find out it just made it worse? Does the US really need to get more involved again?
Fun fact trees make rain, stop clearing trees from the land
I went through the panama canal on a tiny 30ft sail boat, what an experience and let me tell you some of those cargo ships you would NOT believe the size of.
Definitely like the idea of having a crossing in Panama, Nicaragua, and Mexico to increase competition (and possibly warfare!) and lower shipping costs.
It makes a lot more sense, the rail option is good as well if the ship isn't full, it can drop off and continue on another route to another drop off, the ship picking up being much smaller and cheaper to run.
Too much context and hardly any detailed construction and engineering information.
Interesting. If you want to learn more about the Panama Canal I highly recommend the book THE PATH BETWEEN THE SEAS. Cheers!
Great read! I highly recommend it!
Apparently cruise ships are getting through with no problem.
LMAO of COURSE the US company with a tech startup-type name wants to build a "maglev tunnel across Colombia", rather than something more sensible like normal railroads.
They already have normal railroads which have existed since before the Canal. I think the problem is topography meaning the railroad routes are inefficient. Sure it could be changed but that's a massive investment also. They should just fix the damn canal from a poorly engineered design choice of not recapturing the water in the locks.
They could build desalination plants and install large pumps (on both coasts) the would pump desailnated water into the Gatun lake (or straight into the locks) through pipelines. It would be a massive undertaking but it could prolong the canal's existence and operation.
@@meiko_kaji california has like 17 desalination plants
Lots of canals do this too, the technology and engineering is well understood. It's a matter of funding i guess? Or just simple "will to get it done"?
@@meiko_kajiThey're having a catch-22 problem in California. They need more fresh water but they're also tight on power growth, they don't want to build more power plants to power the desalination plants. What they need is more nuclear power but they won't do it. So thus they won't build more desalination. It's 100% a management issue.
@@Knight_Kin No idea. I'm neither an engineer nor a specialist in any related field. I live on the other side of the globe and I amnot privy to internal politics of Panama but allocatiion of those funds would benefit the country further down the road and it would clearly be better than letting the canal dry up and losing 6% of their GDP.
Honduras is also building a shipping corridor from the east coast to the west coast.
Out of curiosity, would having the cargo of these ships unload on either coast of the US, and then have train haul the freight across the country be a feasible option? A resurgence of freight trains perhaps?
Transferring containers from ship to rail and back to ship is time consuming and expensive. The preferred route will always be Panama.
more alternatives great for everyone
Does the Gatun Lake loose a lot of water due to perspiration? There might be technical ways to diminish it
What we need are ground effect lifters designed to lift cargo ships across a new wider canal near the Panama Canal regions. That would be more of a hybrid lifter with the wings being lower to generate ground efftect and the center being higher up to accomodate the cargo ship. Maybe stick some chinook style rotors on top for the max amount of lift. Even just being able to move smaller vessels could be a good thing
Why dont they build the water saving basins they built with the new locks at the old locks? They make it so you can essentially reuse the water multiple times. Seems like the most reasonable solution.
That does seem like a reasonable concept given the opposition to other reservoir. It seems like it could be accomplished faster than the major project, and cost a fraction. It would be challenging given the restricted amount of land available near the old locks, but still doable.
@@richdobbs6595 Lots of people started blaming climate change which is hilarious given the canal is an artificial waterway. It's not like the climate "built" the damn thing people are so easily fooled by that. It's just a matter of engineering and nothing more (well money too).
@@Knight_Kin Money has always been a part of engineering - really the difference between engineering and science. So I'd say it is just a matter of engineering, finance, and politics!
It all starts with water recycling. Dig out small reservoirs near the exits, and divert the pipes emptying into the ocean, to empty back into those small reservoirs. Then use a small wind turbine/solar pumping station to bring it back until a mechanical alternative can be found. That would be a good start, unless they like dumping millions of liters into the ocean for every single ship that travels by...
Yes agreed! This is precisely what needs to be done. The technology exists and is well understood. Other canals have been doing this for a long time now, it's time Panama step up and fix their canal. They wanted it so badly from the USA, it's up to them to fix it. Makes everyone question whether they are worthy of maintaining the canal on their own if they can't get their act together.
What about using airbags to displace some of the water alongside or under the ships. Deflate as the locks go down, inflate as the locks go up.
This was posted the day before I sailed through! And the ship I sailed through on was briefly pictured!
It is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World by the American Society of Civil Engineers and a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. It is also a symbol of Panamanian national pride and identity
Odd thing to tie your national identity to. It’s an American achievement.
@@corndorn The USA peeled the land that became Panama away from Columbia. The USA helped create Panama for the control of the Canal Zone with a land buffer. Their national identity is entirely linked to the Canal. Without the USA and the canal there would be no Panama as we know it today.
Good ole climate change aye. Blame it for no rain and rising sea levels.
Okay, here is my solution and it is expensive (initially). Build a large container port pacific side and corresponding port on the Atlantic side connected by inter-modal railway. Keep the canal open, but utilize the new ports to load smaller ships sailing under the US flag, which would also allow these ships to access the interior of the US under the Jones Act. This would create a far more robust an efficient system than relying on the bottlenecks on either coast with cargo brought in my foreign-flagged vessels.
Good video as usual, am surprised you didn't mention the near future of the North-West Passage. Global trade will continue to increase and the more options in the system the better it is for all of us.
So many KZheadrs copying each other 😂
They call it a “job” . . .
Thought sea levels are rising?
They are. That's not the problem. Unless sea levels rise 26 metres, there is going to be an unnavigable stretch of land in the middle of what used to be the canal.
By millimeters per year.
It's hilarious when simpletons think out loud.
you should do a video on Dublin airport’s expansion and everything with it!!!
The short-sightedness of using fresh water from a source also used for drinking water to fill the locks is astounding.
Why can't they just use sea water?
If you replace a lake’s water with saltwater, expect a local environmental collapse.
@@LarsTheOctopus, OK. But why can’t the locks use seawater from the sea? And not freshwater from the lakes.
@@johnmorsley If you are going to pump 200 million liters of water from every passage then expect the record 4 million bid for passage the new normal instead of 400k. Canals primarily use gravity instead of pumps for their locks because gravity is free, pumps are on the other hand more expensive in the long run than just making new reservoirs. The issue with pumping isn't technical difficulties but the cost of the extremely energy intensive process of lifting water. There wouldn't be any point to a system that costs the ships more than just sailing the longer route around South America as that is exactly what they would do instead of paying.
you arent the sharpest knife in the drawer are ya lol
@@PakaBubi, thanks for your lovely reply, aren’t you a kind hearted soul.
The reduction in freshwater in the lagoon is not because of supposed climate change. Panama recently doubled the canal in some sections and modernized the locks, to more than double ship traffic. The locks use water from the lake, which before modernization was already limited and has now become much worse.
The idea of a high speed maglev tunnel for shipping containers is hilariously absurd
Cargo doesnt need to be fast
Okay, how about this? Pump some of the water from the old locks to the new intermediate basins and back again. Since you are not pumping over long distance or uphill, the head requirements wouldn't be too much. You wouldn't necessarily be expanding the basins, so that wouldn't face land use opposition. When the basins were full, you wouldn't bother to pump. This plan would result in somewhat decreased water efficiency in the new locks, but better efficiency overall. It could be incrementally implemented, building and installing pumps and electrical infrastructure as equipment arrived. No salt water issues, since the water is still following downhill.
And if you had spare electricity and it made sense, you could configure this as a pumped hydro approach by moving water uphill between basins.
To make the pumped hydro feasible, it might be necessary to install additional small basins to get the head requirements to match up. Or some fancy valve configurations, to get all of the pumps to switch between being in parallel and being in series.
Notification squad! Also the Panama canal doesn't seem that bad, I only hear of ships getting stuck in the Seuz
Over dramatized narration
Building additional methods of transporting freight across Central America is the best option. Not only will it take the Monopoly away from Panama so shipping can become cheaper, but multiple methods increases redundancy, lessening the risk to the global economy if one fails.
Thank you for the video snippets to accompany the brief history and current drought problem of Panama Canal. Global shipping faces serious challenges by this and by tensions around Yemen.
The canal could afford a desalination plant, probably 2. Problem solved. Got to spend money to make money.
Genius, a solution so expensive per passage the ships will just sail around South America instead. Technical difficulty isn't the problem with finding a solution, cost per passage for the new solution is.
@@freedomfighter22222 No shit! Thats why I said spend money to make money.
@@AsylumSaint ah yes, spend 5 bucks and get 3 back, you're a genius, best investment advice I have seen! Your genius idea is the most expensive option, you're not suggesting they spend money to make money, you're suggesting they bankrupt themselves for fun.
@@freedomfighter22222 If its more expensive than sailing around South America than so be it and shut up. I dont own a shipping company, I'm not an expert.
@@AsylumSaint It doesn't take an expert to understand your solution is sub-optimal. Maybe you should have taken your own advice, and not bothered to make a foolish comment!
"Climate Change" is not a modern problem. The UN's IPCC has said in its Scientific Reports that there is no significant change in precipitation over the last decades. It has also stated that there is no change going on that is beyond normal variation. This channel must be receiving money for mentioning climate change since it is almost always mentioned and without necessary connection to the topic
It's actually rather pathetic given the canal's problems are 100% an engineering issue. It's cute and a bit dastardly of people to mention "CLIMATE CHANGE" as the reason an ARTIFICAL waterway is having a problem given there is no scientific basis or data point to back up this claim. Climate change may be response for other issues, but certainly not this one.
It is a modern problem actually
i know it would cost a few bucks, but you would have to think in the long run a sea level canal across Mexico or Nicaragua would be worth it. first it would be drought proof. second you could dig it out wide enough for a large volume of ships to pass through under their own power (or tugs) reducing the labor force required by the current lock system in Panama. third, maybe they could start making even larger ships to move more product with less trips. i don't know at what limit, the ships size can be to be both safe and maximize its profits/productivity. also, with more options and competition, prices to use the canals would come down possibly. with world trade going up year after year and no end in sight, it would only seem reasonable to have several options.
When they were first constructing the canal they were literally building it with hand shovels with the intention to have a sea level one,
yes, i know this. but with today's machinery it would be a much easier and quicker job, and the biggest problem they had back when the canal was first being constructed was the mosquitos and disease killing off the manual workforce. @@professorsip7242
@@professorsip7242but that's the thing, technology has advanced so much that something like that it's possible now. They could make a sea level tunnel Big enough for 2 ships at once. Again, the technology exists and the concept has been used already in other parts of the world. There are ship tunnels across land already.
IF the Mexican Railroad can be a alternative and cheaper to the canal, which i have been thru, by the way- then it could be a going concern. It looks like the RailRoad is more concerned with building factories around its INterior track route, so good produced , can get to the mainline and out to the east or west ports. It is a Brilliant Idea if it works.
Everywhere has a once in a hundred year event. Like the 1987 hurricane in the south of England. Now these events are classed as climate change. 100 year events have been happening way before humans walked the Earth.
The problem is that what were 100 year events are becoming 50 year events and 25 year events.
....."Climate Change" is not a modern problem. The UN's IPCC has said in its Scientific Reports that there is no significant change in precipitation over the last decades. It has also stated that there is no change going on that is beyond normal variation. This channel must be receiving money for mentioning climate change since it is almost always mentioned and without necessary connection to the topic.....@@JonMartinYXD