Articles by Clark Williams-Derry

How do we reduce long-distance shipping?

Random factoid from a recent New Yorker article (not online, unfortunately) on, among other topics, the international shipping business:

For a pair of shoes made in China and sold in this country for fifty dollars, only about seventy-five cents of the retail cost derives from transportation. And the main costs in international shipping come from friction in the pipeline, particularly at the points of ship loading and unloading. [Emphasis added.]

Wow: shipping shoes all the way across the Pacific accounts for well under 2 percent of their retail price. And most of the transportation costs cover things other than fuel: labor, capital, financing, etc.

So for finished goods shipped over long distances, the fuel costs of transportation are probably not much more than a rounding error.

Vancouver family does it up right.

Six kids, to be exact.

The Vancouver Courier profiles the Spino family -- 2 parents and 6 kids who live in a 3-bedroom condo in downtown Vancouver. It's an interesting read, as well as a good reminder that, for some families, downtown living makes a lot of sense. Says the pater familias:

"I don't see the need for having rooms in houses that you don't use. I don't see why you have two spare bedrooms for visitors that you just use to store boxes. I don't think that's efficient. I don't think that's a responsible way to live...You don't need that space. You don't need skis in the garage or a snowmobile somewhere and stuff in the attic-all that consumerism collecting. I don't think we're occupying a lot of space here. This high-density living is good for the city. It's good for the environment. It's good for the children-it's a fantastic way to live."

Good stuff.

Fly in the ointment

When U.S. air traffic was grounded for three days after September 11th, meterologists got a bit of a surprise. Apparently, the lack of airplane contrails -- the high altitude trails of condensed water that form around tiny particles from engine exhaust -- had a measurable effect on the climate. (More in this document.) Apparently, contrails reflect sunlight during the day, but also trap heat at night. On net, researchers believe that contrails can have two to three times as much climate-warming power as the CO2 emitted in airplane exhaust.

Now, the L.A. Times is reporting on a study by a British research team that found that the biggest contrail impacts come from nighttime flights (when contrails reflect solar radiation back to the earth's surface) and during winter months.

"We get one-half of the climate effect from one-quarter of the year, from less than one-quarter of the air traffic," said meteorologist Nicola Stuber, who led the English research team. "If you get rid of the night flights, you can reduce the climate warming effect of the contrails."

The quick fix: a few schedule changes. A bit inconvenient, perhaps, but hardly inconceivable.

PAYD in full

Right now, most of us -- at least those of us with cars -- pay for our car insurance in big lump sums, just a few times a year. And how much we pay for our coverage has very little to do with how much we drive.

Sure, many insurance companies offer lower rates for low-mileage drivers. But the discounts are piddling. According to this article, for example, if you drive 5,000 miles a year or less, you might be able to cut your premiums by a paltry 10 percent -- that is, you drive one third as much as a typical policyholder, but still pay 90 percent of the insurance premiums. People who drive a lot pay less than they should, while people who drive only a little subsidize the policies of high-mileage drivers.

As my daughter would say, "No fair."