The main thing that I think will hit globalization in the long run is that societies just can't stay stable in the long run with the kind of disparities that you see in China now. So when they close the income gap and you combine that with increasing transportation expenses the article has a point.

And why don't we already have a double-tracked Pan-American Railroad? It's not because of the howling by environmentalists and other activists. It is much more responsibly out of concern by the ag industry of introduction of serious animal and plant diseases from South America. But more importantly, there aren't products there already that justify the railroad (not even raw materials, much less industrial and other higher-level products). We'd have been importing them from South (and Central) America already if it were possible. What were our imports back then?