
Cargo ships are emitting boatloads of carbon, and nobody wants to take the blame - lr
https://phys.org/news/2018-12-cargo-ships-emitting-boatloads-carbon.html
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i_am_proteus
If only there were a way to power a cargo ship with a renewable such as
wind... /s

In all seriousness, I don't think the market would bear how slowly cargo moves
under sail.

There is an extant design, a decade old now, to add a kite to merchant ships
to reduce fuel consumption when steaming downwind. It reportedly works, but
hasn't been adopted much past the prototype, MS Beluga Skysails.[0]

[0]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Beluga_Skysails](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Beluga_Skysails)

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chewz
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotor_ship](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotor_ship)

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A2017U1
Perhaps closer to OP's vision:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkySails](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkySails)

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m463
Or maybe:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_marine_propulsion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_marine_propulsion)

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macmac
Not that it should not be addressed, but it is still by far the most CO2
efficient mode of transport.

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steve_adams_86
I think what might be worth addressing is why the ships need to transport
things in the first place. We're always going to need them, but I think we
need to be more selective about what we're transporting. It's just too much
stuff.

How we do that, I have no idea. Everyone is very entitled to their consumption
habits in the west.

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makerofspoons
A carbon tax is how we do it. Calculate the carbon involved in producing the
item and shipping it to you, then tax it. People will decrease their
consumption of high-carbon goods.

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misterprime
My first glimpse of how a carbon tax is in alignment with the interests of
protectionist trade policy.

"Make it too expensive to produce outside of our borders."

Who knew?!

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charleslmunger
Well except that it's probably more carbon-expensive to move a container of
widgets by truck from the East coast to California than it is to truck them
from Mexico or by container ship from Asia.

A carbon tax designed to fairly internalize externalities will not really
please protectionists.

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fuzzfactor
You should smell it when they're loading hundreds of tonnes of butyl acrylate.

Or as I have said on occasion, brutal acrylate.

