Farce and Tragedy: Civilization, Climate Change, and Canals

Photo by Rikin Katyal on Unsplash

Karl Marx once wrote something along the lines of “history repeats itself: first as tragedy, second as farce”. Sometimes, however, this sequence finds itself reversed. We can in fact point to such an occasion today. Let’s begin with the farce.

In March 2021 a container ship called the Ever Given got stuck in the Suez Canal, causing one of the world’s most important trade routes to grind to a halt. While the captain of the ship might disagree, the whole situation was somewhat farcical. That dozens of cargo ships carrying billions of dollar’s worth of goods were forced to wait nearly a week to use the canal due to a gigantic ship essentially getting stuck in the mud was undoubtedly funny. A stupid and avoidable accident had serious financial consequences for some very rich people. People found this humorous, and I can see why.

Less entertaining is the current blockage at the Panama Canal — the western hemisphere counterpart to the Suez Canal. As of yesterday (21st August), about 200 ships were queuing to traverse the canal, some of which had been waiting to do so for weeks. While receiving far less attention than the blockage at the Suez Canal, the implications of the current fiasco are potentially far more serious and long lasting.