Here in this section, you will find a grounded understanding of the basic 101 issues surrounding goods movement, the science and facts about policy and funding infrastructure and addressing critical climate change and pollution challenges.

One of Communities for Clean Ports graduate student advisors, Eva Mohan, said it best.

The complexity and interrelationships of trade in the world allows nations to prosper by producing and manufacturing a few goods at cheaper rates using economies of scale on which to profit, and ultimately leading to exporting or trading these same goods to other nations. This is how the world works today – you have something I want, I have something you want, lets make a deal. Relationships and alliances are built internationally. And without trading and ports, our consumption cannot be sustained. Unfortunately, our consumption leads to an increase in demand for goods which results in a need to manufacture more goods and thus an increase in cargo ship and traffic, both in the oceans and roads which have numerous negative effects for our health and climate.

The challenge lies in how do we make, move, store, consume, and then dispose of or better yet – re-use – all that we need to survive, thrive, achieve not just our sustenance, but our dreams and imagination? Freedom has its costs. The other side of a capitalistic-based economy is waste, over-indulgence, misuse, manipulated markets, and above else – unintended consequences such as the planet warming up or children contracting asthma at alarming rates. This is not a judgment against profit or capitalism, because without a free economy in which extraordinary dreams can be achieved, we end up in a system where liberty is not guaranteed. As humans, we have both the great responsibility for re-thinking our actions so our communities can be sustained and vibrant. Here we explore all of the above.

At EndOil and Communities for Clean Ports we’re science-based and fact-framed – in other words we start with the premise that consumers who understand the world and the communities in which they live, who have a factual understanding of the systems around them which they rely upon and which they are impacted by, and who need to know about the politics and bureaucracy of the day that can effect our ability to make important human changes – all of us have a right and need to understand our goods and people movement systems and policies and the energy system which drives all of the above.

You can’t change what you don’t understand. Here we help you get a better foot hold on the sometimes complicated world of goods movement, energy, economics that drive our communities, future opportunities and alternative solutions, and every stakeholder’s role in the outcome of a better future.