Could this be true? 16 ships pollute more than all world's cars?
Mark Thorson
than all of the cars in the world. I find this
difficult to believe.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1229857
If shipping is really such an enormous polluter,
efforts to make automobiles cleaner seem misplaced.
Forget about cars. Their contribution is down
in the noise. Go after the ships!
Frank
Article makes sense but I always cringe at deaths attributed to
pollution as I doubt you would ever see this as the cause on a death
certificate.
It's an international problem and I believe most ships are registered
in countries like Nigeria which are not environmentally conscious.
Martin Brown
> This article claims that 16 ships pollute more
> than all of the cars in the world. I find this
> difficult to believe.
>
> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1229857
True but misleading like most of their populist half truths.
>
> If shipping is really such an enormous polluter,
> efforts to make automobiles cleaner seem misplaced.
The ships running on marine heavy fuel do burn a lot of dirty sulphur
laden fuel and so leave a trail of sulphur dioxide. But out at sea it
washes out in the rain and it is not supposed to be used inshore.
Someone has to burn the dregs of the refining process.
Cars use very low sulphur city fuel either petrol or low sulphur diesel
and so when you compare them you can make this sort of claim.
> Forget about cars. Their contribution is down
> in the noise. Go after the ships!
The cars tend to be concentrated in large urban areas. Time was when you
could smell LA from 50 miles downwind for its ozone and NOx output.
The ships leave a trail which is in the middle of an ocean and quickly
mixed up and washed into the sea.
Regards,
Martin Brown