Your cars pollute far less than before.  And your home furnaces are more efficient.  But the shipping industry is still n the 1950's on emissions controls.  Another example of trade trumping - and corroding - all other interests.

And despite the growing availability of cleaner technologies, the shipping industry has made little progress toward becoming greener, even as traffic grows heavier on existing routes and new routes open up in the Arctic. Indeed, the most recent efforts to tackle the problem have met resistance — less from the shipping industry, however, than from the big oil companies that supply the dirty fuel.

The ships produce "black yogurt."  Yuch.  I've never heard that term.

Shipping is responsible for about twice the emissions of carbon dioxide as aviation — yet airlines have come under greater criticism. Particles emitted by ships burning heavy bunker fuel, described by some seafarers as “black yogurt” for its consistency, also contain soot that researchers say captures heat when it settles on ice and could be accelerating the melting of the polar ice caps. ...

“The sheer volume of pollutants from shipping has grown exponentially along with the growth of our economies and of global trade,” said Achim Steiner, the executive director of the United Nations Environment Program. “Shipping is just less visible than other industries, so for too long it has slipped to the bottom of the agenda.”

 The NY Times Editorial Board loves the environment and loves so-called free trade.  How will they resolve this quandary in their own brains?

Trackbacks (0) TrackBack URI for this entry Comments (0)

Write comment

Name

Title

Comment

Add Comment