Non-binary choices create solutions

Too often environmental decisions are pitched and framed within a binary construct – an either / or. What if that framing was disingenuous or a simple error in trying too hard to simplify things that are not simple.

Take ocean-going big ships. They are essential to move goods and commodities around the world from where they originate to where they are consumed. Now, a VERY big question can be asked about why that structure is in place, and why don’t we consume those things that are close to us, but … another day.

With those ocean ships the decision gets framed into fossil fuel or non-fossil fuel, e.g., wind. But what if that’s a broken set up and it’s not binary at all?

A shipping vessel left China for Brazil while sporting some new improvements last August—a pair of 123-feet-tall, solid “wings” retrofitted atop its deck to harness wind power for propulsion assistance. But after its six-week maiden voyage testing the green energy tech, the Pyxis Ocean MC Shipping Kamsarmax vessel apparently had many more trips ahead of it. Six months later, its owners at the shipping company, Cargill, shared the results of those journeys this week—and it sounds like the vertical WindWing sails could offer a promising way to reduce existing vessels’ emissions.

Using the wind force captured by its two giant, controllable sails to boost its speed, Pyxis Oceanreportedly saved an average of 3.3 tons of fuel each day. And in optimal weather conditions, its trips through portions of the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans reduced fuel consumption by over 12 tons a day. According to Cargill’s math, that’s an average of 14 percent less greenhouse gas emissions from the ship. On its best days, Pyxis Ocean could cut that down by 37 percent. In all, the WindWing’s average performance fell within 10 percent ts designers’ computational fluid dynamics simulation predictions.

https://www.popsci.com/technology/windwing-ship-sails/

While probably not a perfect solution, a combination of wind / fossil fuel seems to have made an improvement, an innovation from a very old technology. The company behind this work is not that environmentally friendly (at all), and their press release contained a video.

What other choices are we being forced to make in binary fashion that lead to poorer outcomes?