Cargo ships are impressive to watch. They are enormous. They move like glaciers across the placid surface of a bay. They carry a load of bright red, blue, orange containers stacked so high they sometimes appear as tall as the ship that carries them. On a ship just like this, in a similar mosaic-colored pyramid, in a container of its own is your dream car coming from overseas. Enormous brightly-colored harbor cranes will unload it at the dock. Plus, you are happy with the efficiency of the shipping business and the trouble and money it saves you.

But the shipping industry is not all promise and bright colors. Several environmental issues are closely related to the shipment of national and international diesel-powered dreams. The auto shipping industry is a new and growing industry and so are the problems, effective solutions to which are yet to be implemented. It was only in June 2008 that the IMO, the International Maritime Organization, organized a meeting on the subject of greenhouse gas emission from ships in general, and cargo ships in particular.

Ballast water is discharged by all ships. The bigger the ship, the more the ballast water, in some cases, a small ocean is discharged by these huge vessels. This ballast water is of most concern to international shipping as the water is taken in at one coastal area during unloading and discharged into a completely alien environmental coastal zone at the port of destination.

Our friend anxiously awaiting the unloading of his foreign-born masterpiece of auto engineering does not give this a thought. He should and so should the rest of us inhabitants of this planet. The world demand for foreign made goods is causing upheaval and the deterioration of our environment. Into that ballast water go plants, animals, bacteria and viruses. They are pumped into the ship's tanks either alive or not in their native habitat. They will be discharged from the tanks either dead, alive, mutated, or increased in number because of procreation en route. All of them will be totally out of their element in their new home, becoming litter, vermin or invasive species. This results in utter chaos and destruction of the marine ecosystems.

Gasoline used for car transportation over land should be an environmental advantage because the huge carriers carrying many autos in a single load do cut down on the gasoline that would have been consumed by each of those vehicles being driven separately across a vast expanse of land. Unfortunately, this saves only money not the environment. This is good for the company, they earn money, and good for the customer, they save money. Resources are happily circulated and the environment becomes ever more depleted.

If fewer people drove their personal vehicle those same long distances, the auto transportation industry would still continue to thrive because of the car manufacturing and car handling industry. The automotive industry is undergoing increasing expansion and growth because of newly developing third world countries. So more cars are in demand, which means more transportation by land, sea and air and more contribution to environmental disasters.