# The Panama canal Is 100 Years Old, Has It Caused Any Ecological Disasters? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 4, 2015, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-panama-canal-is-100-years-old-has-it-caused-any-ecological-disasters/729912 "2015-09-04T16:52:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 24
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-panama-canal-is-100-years-old-has-it-caused-any-ecological-disasters/729912/24 "2015-09-06T01:38:36Z")
> [@Dune vs. Islam](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dune-vs-islam/95713/11): > > …So if we can dock the ship, offload it, railroad the containers to the other side, and reload another ship faster than the time to wait + sail the canal, it becomes more efficient overall to do so… You are assuming too close an association between time and efficiency. Changes of transport mode tend to be personnel and equipment expensive. Likely it would be cheaper and more efficient to not change mode and just have the ship wait for some period. In the transport industry there is an oft quoted allegation that it is cheaper to load a ship at Long Beach, sail it around the world and discharge it back at Long Beach than it is to load the ship, leave Port, immediately return, discharge and repeat. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-panama-canal-is-100-years-old-has-it-caused-any-ecological-disasters/729912)._