Vocabulary

Video

Transcript

 
The global effort to get goods to store shelves this holiday season could be slowed by a drought affecting the Panama Canal, one of the world’s key shipping routes. The canal connects the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, allowing ships to avoid sailing around the tip of South America. Forty percent of all US container traffic passes through it.

Senior National and Environmental Correspondent Ben Tracy shows us how a lack of rainfall has created a crisis at the canal.

 
The Panama Canal is one of the world’s most successful shortcuts. About $270 billion of trade each year rides on this ribbon of water, leaving very little room for error.

Panama is the route Boris Moreno, the Canal’s Vice President of Operations, oversees. “I’ve never walked across the Panama Canal,” he says. “Yeah, it’s an experience.” He mentions that two-thirds of canal traffic is either coming from or going to the United States. However, that flow of goods is now at risk.

 
This 50-meter-long system of locks and lakes that connects two oceans is actually above sea level and doesn’t run on ocean water. “No, it’s fresh water from our Lake Gaton,” Moreno explains. “That’s man-made, and so you are reliant on rainfall.”

Generally, in Panama, rainfall happens frequently as it’s one of the wettest countries in the world. But this year has been an unprecedented dry season. Lake levels are close to the minimum, and a severe drought is drying up the lakes that feed the canal.

Water levels have plunged so low that they’ve had to cut the number of vessels passing through from 36 to 24 per day, delaying goods and creating a growing waiting room of ships out at sea. Some vessels are also being forced to carry up to 40% less cargo and slow down to avoid hitting the bottom.

 
Ricarte Vasquez Morales, the Canal’s administrator, shares concerns about the situation. “We now use about two and a half times the amount of water a city the size of New York uses every day,” he says.

Moving a single ship through the locks takes 55 to 125 million gallons of water, depending on its size. Much of that water is flushed into the ocean, but the canal authority is now trying to store and reuse as much of it as possible.

They’re considering diverting water from other rivers and building more reservoirs because the lakes feeding the canal are also the main source of drinking water for nearby Panama City.

 
Journalist: “How concerned are you about the long-term viability of the Panama Canal?”

Ricarte Vasquez Morales, Panama Canal Administrator: “That is my main concern. We are climate dependent, so this issue of climate change to us is real. Climate change is making the tropics hotter, and dry spells longer.”

Antonio Dominguez, a managing director for shipping giant MK, the largest single user of the canal, is worried. He believes Christmas merchandise could be impacted if the drought drags on and shippers are forced to use longer routes. “So the things we buy are going to be more expensive,” he says. “And they will be late.”

Dominguez also acknowledges the role of the shipping industry in climate change. “Everywhere you have climate change impacting global commerce,” he says. “We need to do something about it.”

The international shipping industry is responsible for about 3% of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, roughly equivalent to Japan’s emissions. MK aims to cut its emissions in half by 2030.

“It’s not a time to start wondering what to do,” Dominguez emphasizes. “It’s a time for action. Time for action is now.”

Because in shipping lanes like the Panama Canal, time is also money.

For CBS Mornings, I’m Ben Tracy in Panama.

Questions

 
Panama Canal. The most important function of the Panama Canal Tourism is for tourism. The Panama Canal is vital for tourists on ocean liners. True or false?

Suez Canal (Egypt). Is the Panama Canal a simple water route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, or does it rely on a complex system of locks?

Grand Canal (China). The lock system of the Panama Canal relies on diesel machines. Is this right or wrong?

Erie Canal (US). Does the Panama Canal face problems and challenges? What is the main problem facing the Panama Canal?

Trans-Siberian Railway. What are the direct consequences of lower rainfall, lower volumes of water in the reservoir?

Transcontinental Railroad. Is the shipping industry in a quandary or dilemma?

Hoover Dam. Does the current situation at the Panama Canal have any effect on ordinary people?

Golden Gate Bridge. “It’s not a time to start wondering what to do,” Dominguez emphasizes. “It’s a time for action. Time for action is now.” What does Antonio Dominguez, a managing director for shipping giant MK mean by that?
 
 
 
Interstate Highway. My friends and I have sailed through the Panama Canal. Yes or no? Would you like to travel through the Panama Canal?

Pan American Highway. What great feats of engineering or construction have you see or visited?

Great Wall of China. What great engineering works do you know of?

Terraced Rice Paddies. Should people create more engineering projects? What are some possible projects? What could or should people build or create?

Roman Aqueducts. What might happen in the future?