EDITORIAL
April was a remarkable month. On April 22nd 2010 more than 500 million people in 180 countries celebrated Earth Day, a project that was conceived forty years ago, when in 1970 a group of twenty-year-olds initiated an academic project to arouse awareness about the then-polluted rivers and air. Their efforts sparked a movement. Nowadays, not only environmentalists, but also political decision-makers and the business community in many countries have turned this day into a celebration of the Earth and a moment to remember the environmental challenges still before us.
In fact, also in April the environmental challenges and the vulnerability of our planet were acutely brought home when the Icelandic Eyjafjallajoekull volcano steadily spewed a cloud of ash into the atmosphere. According to European aviation officials, the April 15th eruption closed 80% of Europe’s airspace for as long as six days, disrupting travel within, and to and from, Europe, causing the cancellation of more than 100,000 flights, disturbing the travel plans for some 10 million passengers and costing the airline industry an estimated 2 billion euros. Other economic sectors felt the pinch as well. Vegetable and flower farmers in Zambia and Kenya, as well as US seafood exporters depend on the speed of air travel to get their goods to market whilst they are fresh. So at first glance, the steaming volcano looked as though it could cause disruption of the delivery of food and other perishables. What was under-reported is that, in fact, 40% of the EU’s internal trade and almost 90% of its external trade travels by sea, via inland waterways, rivers and/or ocean-going freighters. With some rerouting, food commodities and other perishables from Africa were transported to Spain by air and then overland and oversea to the UK and elsewhere. Why was this possible? Because the maritime infrastructure in Europe is well developed. Thanks in great part to the advancements of the international dredging industry, inland-water transport on European rivers and waterways are well utilised, and harbours such as Felixstowe, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Le Havre, Antwerp and others are state of the art.
Now in May air traffic in Europe is again threatened with disruptions as volcanic eruptions continue. Hopefully, with these experiences, more people may notice that waterborne transportation is the most environmentally friendly form of commercial transportation. When the talk turns to sustainability and low carbon emissions, the maritime industry is in the forefront. Perhaps this will give continuing impetus to improving and maintaining rivers for inland water transport as well as port and harbour development globally. Perhaps it will help re-establish ferry services between the European continent and the UK and elsewhere. Imagine if more cruise ship harbours were built to accommodate an increase in cruise ship vacations to replace the crush and rush of air travel.
For the dredging industry, Earth Day has a literal meaning, because literally that is what dredgers do – move earth from the seabed and place it onshore to extend land areas, build airports, extend ports and harbours, deepen shallow access channels and defend vulnerable coastlines and coastal communities threatened by rising ocean temperatures.
Environment and sustainability are always on the minds of the dredging community: Be it the efforts to reduce CO2 emissions, as described in the Terra article on marine mining versus quarrying for sand or the article on the safe disposal of dredged materials in sensitive environments. In fact, as the first Terra article points out, the basis of all reasonable dredging endeavours and contracts is the careful analysis of the physical conditions through an accurate soil investigation report. Efficient, cost-effective and environmentally sound maritime construction and dredging are always the goals of the international dredging companies – on Earth Day and everyday.
Koos van Oord
President, IADC |
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