In the distance, a light fixed to the arm of an industrial crane blinks to the tune of a chirping insect. The faint hum of cars that creep over the bridge into Morehead City intermingles with the rustling of reeds and the hush of the wind along the seawall. From afar, the peak of a domed storage facility is barely visible along the horizon- nearly imperceptible, a faint black silhouette amongst the shadows of the night.
Now turn on the lights. Industrial elevators and conveyor belts, which only hours before were enveloped by blackness, now shoot visibly upwards to form a supersized jungle gym. Three monolithic domes housing pre-fertilizer phosphates emerge from the tangle of metal support rods like enormous bald heads. Narrow cranes built of crisscrossing metal scrape the bottom of clouds like the tongs of forks. Exposed- the Port of Morehead City is abrasive and unharmonious, a vertical triumph against gravity. It is the antithesis of natural beauty: the mottling of manmade grays and stark beiges is rough and ugly in the midst of the glistening Newport River.
But as the covering of darkness belies the port’s vastness, the callous outline of machinery conceals a newfound conservationist undercurrent to make the facility “green.” Since 2007, the North Carolina Port Authority has been committed to becoming environmentally friendly, reducing the shipping hub’s dependence on oil and installing high-efficiency light fixtures. Tractors power to life on ultra low sulfur diesel, coughing bio-product, not petroleum, into the air. And, with the switch to biodegradable lubricants, spills are no longer toxic to the environment. The state is even looking to finance solar panel roofing on one of the 17,000 ft2 storage warehouses, which would reduce the facility’s electricity guzzling 100-fold. In all of its activities, from packaging to processing to loading, the shipping center is striving for ecological awareness.
The industrial complex is well on its way to becoming environmentally conscious, but can the Port of Morehead City ever really fit in? The waste products may become cleaner, the emissions lower, the lighting cheaper- but the harsh, uneven landscape of intercepting metal will continue to break against the horizon as a sharp reminder of human manufacturing. Cranes will still trespass against the sky. And the whitewashed concrete and bare, weather-stained storage domes will persist in evoking thoughts of mankind’s offenses against the natural world. In short, regardless of how environmentally friendly our technological masterpiece may be, a misshapen eyesore it will remain. What can we do to find harmony with the gentle hues of Nature? Well for one thing, I suggest green paint.
