Christiaan De Beukelaer, Senior Lecturer in Culture & Policy in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne (Australia), joined the Greenhouse environmental humanities book talk to discuss Trade Winds: A Voyage to a Sustainable Future for Shipping (University of Manchester Press, 2023) on Monday, 23 January 2023, at 10am in Norway (Central European time) / 8pm in Melbourne.

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 contributes more carbon emissions than aviation. What started as a three-week stint of fieldwork aboard the ship turned into a five-month journey, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced all borders shut while crossing the ocean, preventing the crew from stepping ashore for months on end.

Trade winds engagingly recounts De Beukelaer’s life-changing personal odyssey and the complex journey the shipping industry is on to cut its carbon emissions. The Avontuur’s mission remains crucial as ever: the shipping industry urgently needs to stop using fossil fuels, starting today. If we can’t swiftly decarbonise shipping, we can’t solve the climate crisis.

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