Posts by Christiaan De Beukelaer
Trade Winds: A Voyage to a Sustainable Future for Shipping (2023, Manchester University Press)
In 2020, Christiaan De Beukelaer spent 150 days covering 14,000 nautical miles aboard the schooner Avontuur, a hundred-year-old sailing vessel that transports cargo across the Atlantic Ocean. Embarking in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, he wanted to understand the realities of a little-known alternative to the shipping industry on which our global economy relies, and which…
Read MoreTack to the Future: Is Wind Propulsion an Ecomodernist or Degrowth Way to Decarbonise Maritime Cargo Transport?
This article explores the political economy of the re-uptake of wind propulsion for maritime cargo transport so as to shift this sector onto a decarbonization pathway.
Read MoreThe COVID-19 seafarer crisis
The COVID-19 pandemic has left hundreds of thousands of seafarers stranded on board ships, leading to a ‘crew change crisis’ that needs urgent action
Read MoreCOVID-19 Border Closures Cause Humanitarian Crew Change Crisis at Sea
COVID-19 Border Closures Cause Humanitarian Crew Change Crisis at Sea The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many countries to close their borders to travellers, in an attempt to contain the spread of the virus. Given the initially indiscriminate travel restrictions adopted in March 2020, many seafarers have been stranded on their ships, well beyond their initial…
Read MoreFriction in the Creative City
Friction in the Creative City The Indonesian city of Bandung presents itself as an “emerging creative city.” This raises the question of how an “emerging” creative city can attain realisation: when and where is the creative city accomplished? The formalisation of the creative city creates friction – to borrow the term from Tsing. This friction manifests in…
Read MoreEmergent Film Production in the Pacific: Oceanic Strategies of Connection and Exchange
Emergent Film Production in the Pacific: Oceanic Strategies of Connection and Exchange Cultural policies that promote film production and exchange in small island states face numerous challenges (including training, funding, and infrastructure). Yet, in the Pacific, Indigenous film-making is a key strategy for redressing reductive framing of the region during the colonial period (which continues…
Read MoreCOVID-19 At Sea: ‘The World As You Know It No Longer Exists’
Seafarers may be invisible; they are also indispensable. Despite the changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is thanks to seafarers that the life as we know it still mostly exists.
Read MoreStranded at Sea: The Humanitarian Crisis That’s Left 400,000 Seafarers Stuck on Cargo Ships
In early 2020, stranded cruise ships became a stark symbol of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Now it’s seafarers stranded on cargo ships.
Read MoreShips Moved More Than 11 Billion Tonnes Our Stuff Around the Globe Last Year, and It’s Killing the Climate. This Week is a Chance to Change
It’s high time the international shipping industry radically curbed its emissions. The industry must set a net-zero target and adopt a realistic plan to meet it.
Read MoreSail Cargo: Charting a New Path for Emission-Free Shipping?
If wind-propelled cargo vessels should be successful at helping to decarbonise shipping, a shift is needed in the way the industry works.
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