Skip to: Content
Skip to: Site Navigation
Skip to: Search
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2009
| Subscribe to Newser's RSS feeds RSS | Follow Newser on Twitter Twitter


0

Shipping Tops Flying as Polluter

New figures prove that shipping produces more emissions than aviation

Share

(Newser) – For armchair environmentalists, aviation seems the ultimate evil, but research from climatologists finds the shipping industry a "far more damaging" polluter. Maritime transportation emits twice the greenhouses gases of airplanes, the Independent writes, and the sector is growing so fast that earlier research underestimated its damage by at least 50%.

Environmental agencies are pushing for regulations for what has been an "invisible industry,"  estimated to produce a billion tons of emissions a year, compared to the  650 million tons emitted by aviation. Most commercial vessels are powered by "bunker" fuel, produced from the runoff of the refinement process to produce higher-grade gasoline; one insider calls it "the crap that comes out the other end that's half way to being asphalt."

Tugboats guide a container ship owned by China Shipping Line to the Port of Newark, N.J. on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2007. The economy grew at its strongest pace in more than a year during the spring as solid improvements in international trade and business investment helped offset weakness in...
Tugboats guide a container ship owned by China Shipping Line to the Port of Newark, N.J. on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2007. The economy grew at its strongest pace in more than a year during the spring as solid...   (Associated Press)
A tugboat steers a barge loaded with shipping containers from the port of Newark, N.J. through the Kill Van Kull to New York Harbor on Friday, June 1, 2007. The trade deficit dropped sharply in April even though the politically sensitive imbalance with China increased to the highest level...
A tugboat steers a barge loaded with shipping containers from the port of Newark, N.J. through the Kill Van Kull to New York Harbor on Friday, June 1, 2007. The trade deficit dropped sharply in April...   (Associated Press)
Special ships, rear, work on the Rhine river near Cologne, Germany, on Tuesday, March 27, 2007, as they try to recover the containers that a ship lost by an accident last Sunday. The German ship Excelsior, foreground, lost 31 of its 103 containers, weighing up to 40 tons apiece, on...
Special ships, rear, work on the Rhine river near Cologne, Germany, on Tuesday, March 27, 2007, as they try to recover the containers that a ship lost by an accident last Sunday. The German ship Excelsior,...   (Associated Press)
Waves break around a 271-foot freight barge, owned by Portland, Ore.-based Zidell Marine Corp. is grounded on rocks on the north east side of Summer's Bay near Unalaska, Alaska, Friday, Oct. 5, 2007. Coast Guard officials say it grounded on rocks on the northeast side of Summer's Bay early...
Waves break around a 271-foot freight barge, owned by Portland, Ore.-based Zidell Marine Corp. is grounded on rocks on the north east side of Summer's Bay near Unalaska, Alaska, Friday, Oct. 5, 2007....   (Associated Press)
Shipping containers are stacked on a cargo ship as it makes its way to the Port of Newark on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2007 in New Jersey. The U.S. trade deficit declined slightly in July as record exports of farm goods, autos and other products offset a big jump in...
Shipping containers are stacked on a cargo ship as it makes its way to the Port of Newark on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2007 in New Jersey. The U.S. trade deficit declined slightly in July as record exports...   (Associated Press)
Trucks pick up shipping containers that were unloaded from container ships at the Port of Newark on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2007 in New Jersey. The U.S. trade deficit declined slightly in July as record exports of farm goods, autos and other products offset a big jump in foreign oil...
Trucks pick up shipping containers that were unloaded from container ships at the Port of Newark on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2007 in New Jersey. The U.S. trade deficit declined slightly in July as record exports...   (Associated Press)
Shipping containers are stacked on a wharf in Bayonne, N.J. on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2007. The U.S. trade deficit declined slightly in July as record exports of farm goods, autos and other products offset a big jump in foreign oil prices. The deficit with China hit the second-highest...
Shipping containers are stacked on a wharf in Bayonne, N.J. on Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2007. The U.S. trade deficit declined slightly in July as record exports of farm goods, autos and other products offset...   (Associated Press)
« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow
OFF THE GRID
11.24.09
Murdoch and Microsoft: The Mice Are Trying to Roar
11.23.09
Books Are Bad for You
0 comments
VIEWING:
 
LEAVE A
COMMENT Comment Policy
Facebook ConnectPost this comment to Facebook?

After connecting you will have the option to post your comment on your Facebook profile.

 

Related Newser Stories

837 Stories

updated

Obama Headed 
to Copenhagen 
for Climate Talks

He'll propose 17% cut in US emissions of greenhouse gases

Nov 25, 09 10:28 AM CST
(Newser) - Barack Obama will head to Copenhagen on Dec. 9—the day before his Nobel Prize ceremony in Oslo—to advocate for a comprehensive global climate accord. The White House had vacillated on whether Obama should go, since no one expects a legally binding treaty, insiders tell Politico . But Obama decided... More »

MORE ABOUT:
China • climate change • Barack Obama • India • Oslo • Copenhagen • Nobel Peace Prize • Copenhagen climate change conference

SAYS POLL OF AMERICANS

 Doubt Rising on Global Warming 

But majority still believes in it, wants action

Nov 25, 09 9:50 AM CST
(Newser) - An overwhelming majority of Americans believe in global warming, but that majority has grown a bit smaller. According to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, 72% of the country believes global warming is happening, down from 80% last year. A smaller majority, 55%, believe the US should act to curb... More »

MORE ABOUT:
climate change • global warming • poll numbers

 Poor Nations 
 Stiffed on 
 Climate 
 Pledges 

Billions in promised cash unaccounted for

Nov 25, 09 4:28 AM CST
(Newser) - Huge sums of money promised by EU countries to help poor nations cope with climate change have melted away faster than Arctic ice. The EU and five other industrialized nations promised developing countries $410 million a year in the 2001 Bonn declaration, but the UN funds set up to deal... More »

MORE ABOUT:
climate change • United Nations • global warming • European Union • developing countries • Ban Ki-Moon

837 Stories


The UN's regulatory office for shipping
IMO


Science & Health  •  Technology  •  World 
TwitterFollow @NewserScience on Twitter

 
climate change • United Nations

from our news partners