Ash cloud’s economic fallout reverberates throughout globe
Four hundred tons of flowers sat rotting in the cold room of an airport in Kenya over the weekend, waiting to be shipped to Europe. These flowers are among the first collateral damage of the Icelandic ash cloud which has turned most of Europe’s airspace into a no-fly zone and delayed travel for some 6.8 million people.
As the high altitude ash plume from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano halts air travel around Europe and beyond, we look at another impact the global grounding has made: on commodity trades. Economist Marc Levinson, author of “The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger,” unpacks what this rare event reveals about our dependency on shipping and air travel in a globally interconnected economy.
We also talk to Doug Cameron, Dow Jones Chicago Bureau Chief. He oversees manufacturing and transportation coverage for the newswire service.
The story you just read is available to read for free because thousands of listeners and readers like you generously support our nonprofit newsroom. Every day, the reporters and producers at The World are hard at work bringing you human-centered news from across the globe. But we can’t do it without you: We need your support to ensure we can continue this work for another year.
When you make a gift of $10 or more a month, we’ll invite you to a virtual behind-the-scenes tour of our newsroom to thank you for being with The World.