The interactive shipping map
Pirates, power plays and boatloads of carbon emissions: a new interactive map of global shipping routes offers a fascinating glimpse of Australia's reliance on shipping for imports and exports and the political ties forged through trade.
Created by digital journalism studio Kiln and University College London's Energy Institute, the online map charts the transportation of everything from flat-screen television sets and clothing to coal and cars over the course of 2012. 
It tells a story about global reliance on shipping, geopolitical flashpoints, and the economic benefits and environmental pitfalls of global trade.
How the map works
The map allows users to break down ships based on cargo - containers (yellow), dry bulk such as coal, ore and grains (blue), oil and fuel (red), gas (green) and vehicles (purple) - by using the drop-down menu.
"The map ... illustrates the movements of tankers which ship oil from massive terminals in the Middle East or from offshore rigs in West Africa and elsewhere, dry bulk carriers moving ... ore and coal from mines and quarries, many of which are found in Australia and Latin America," the UCL Energy Institute said.
What it tells us about Australia
The University of NSW's Tim Harcourt, author and former chief economist at Austrade, said: "Planes are glamorous ... but shipping [still transports] over three-quarters of all our exports. Airplanes are important for people and services but goods still go by ship. For an island continent, it still matters."
Mr Harcourt said "the tyranny of distance for Australia is being replaced by the power of proximity as all our shipping routes are now going through north-east Asia, particularly China.
"In some ways all that opening up of our economy that [former prime ministers] Bob Hawke and Paul Keating did [in the 1980s and '90s] has paid off. Economically we're at the right place at the right time in terms of Asia's growth and that's shown in the shipping news."
Shipping routes mapped around Australia. Photo: www.shipmap.org
Geopolitical tensions
Tim Stephens, an expert in the law of the sea at the University of Sydney, said the map highlighted Australia's reliance "in particular on vessels that are navigating through some pretty tricky waters such as the South China Sea and the Strait of Malacca and elsewhere".
"There has been a bit of a spike in piracy in the Strait of Malacca near Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia, so that's of concern," Professor Stephens said of the major shipping route and choke point.
"On a brighter note, piracy has really dropped off near Somalia. Piracy has always been a problem for shipping in south-east Asia. Most of those pirate attacks are pretty low key compared with what happens in Somalia but it's still pretty nasty. I think the bigger question actually is what's going to happen in the South China Sea because, if that really becomes a flashpoint, you could conceivably get shipping moved around regions and that would add to shipping expense. You might even get areas where shipping is blocked and that could hurt Australia because so much of our shipping is to and from southern China and that goes right through the South China Sea."
China had laid claim to almost all of the South China Sea and there are growing international tensions over the disputed waters.
Mr Harcourt said "our number one trading partner is China but our number one defence partner is the US, so we do have to be sensitive to where our goods go and where we spend on defence".
But our trading routes were helping to forge useful economic and political ties.
"Fortunately the nations to which we ship and with whom we trade now are some of the fastest-growing nations on earth. In a way it's a good dependence compared with [reliance] on poorer countries ...100 years ago, even 50 years ago," Mr Harcourt said.
A complete map of global shipping routes. Photo: www.shipmap.org
Environmental risks
Shipping accounts for an estimated 3 to 4 per cent of carbon emissions - an "extraordinary" figure that was "rising almost exponentially", Professor Stephens said.
Emissions from international shipping for 2012 "were estimated to be 796 million tonnes ... which is more than the whole of the UK, Canada or Brazil emit in a year", the UCL Energy Institute said.
Professor Stephens said "the International Maritime Organisation, which looks after shipping, was trying to bring that under control by implementing shipping emissions standards.
"There's not really any precedent [for this] - we don't have any emissions standards for aircraft, for instance, but we now do for ships. The big issue is [whether] that is going to be quick enough."
Professor Stephens said that, for Australia, "most of the environmental risks are local ones [such as] shipping coal through the Barrier Reef".
Australia had a good track record with shipping safety and the Maritime Safety Authority had devised strategies such as carefully charted shipping routes to minimise environmental risks, he said.
But "with the Great Barrier Reef the concern always is that if coal and other commodities are exported in greater volumes you'll need more ships and more ships mean more risk and you can only control the risk so far".
But Mr Harcourt said that reducing our dependence on shipping was not necessarily the answer to reducing environmental risks. It was likely that other modes of transport would "leave a bigger carbon footprint", he said.