How 16 ships create as much pollution as all the cars in the world

Published on November 22nd, 2009

Posted by Cherman in Ecology, Scams, international, science

As ships get bigger, the pollution is getting worse. The most staggering statistic of all is that just 16 of the world’s largest ships can produce as much lung-clogging sulphur pollution as all the world’s cars.

Smoke and sulphur are not the only threats from ships’ funnels. Every year they are also belching out almost one billion tons of carbon dioxide. Ships are as big a contributor to global warming as aircraft – but have had much less attention from environmentalists.

Both international shipping and aviation are exempt from the Kyoto Protocol rules on cutting carbon emissions. But green pressure is having its effect on airlines. Ahead of next month’s Copenhagen climate talks, airlines have promised to cut emissions by 50 per cent by 2050.

39 users responded in " How 16 ships create as much pollution as all the cars in the world "

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# 1 Simon Filiatrault said, on November 22nd, 2009 at 5:31 pm

Easy solution.. Do like the big aircraft carriers… Nuclear power.

# 2 Pete said, on November 22nd, 2009 at 5:49 pm

Aircraft carriers, submarines, ice breakers, and a few cargo ships have been nuclear powered. It is an excellent solution.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NS_Savannah

# 3 Bob said, on November 22nd, 2009 at 5:51 pm

#1, good news is that once all the environmentalists have heart attacks from putting more nuclear power on the seas, the problem will fix itself.

# 4 John said, on November 22nd, 2009 at 5:53 pm

As one who works in the marine industry designing emission systems for large ship engines, I have to say that the numbers and statistics in the quoted report are sheer fantasy. The old saw that “there are statistics and damn statistics” comes to mind…

John

# 5 ECA said, on November 22nd, 2009 at 6:10 pm

wHAT ABOUT THE new MODIFIED ships..
With SAILS and solar power that save over 40% of the power needed??

# 6 TheCommodore said, on November 22nd, 2009 at 6:11 pm

Another solution – stop shipping so much stuff. Manufacture locally. Costs a little more in labor possibly, but I’d rather pay a little more and keep my neighbors employed, especially if it could make the air a little cleaner.

# 7 mcpepants said, on November 22nd, 2009 at 6:16 pm

I realy think the future is to have mini nukes. one for every ship, car and neighborhood. but we rather kill our selves with coal and oil!

# 8 sargasso said, on November 22nd, 2009 at 6:17 pm

Ships burn a particularly bad sort of diesel oil, called Bunker. It is non-distillate, what’s left in the bottom of the refinery column sludge pot after all the clean gasoline and light diesel has been refined away. Think of it as toxic industrial waste, that no one in his right mind would use in a car, truck or power plant.
http://bit.ly/7UlEy3

# 9 Brandon said, on November 22nd, 2009 at 6:48 pm

#5,

While I understand and respect your sentiment, the location of raw materials also plays a part.

# 10 Red said, on November 22nd, 2009 at 7:00 pm

Wasn’t there a story on the blog this week about global warming being a hoax. Yeah, sure was.

# 11 chuck said, on November 22nd, 2009 at 8:24 pm

So, to put it another way, even if every car in the world was switched to pure-Green electric or Hydrogen powered – we’d still have global warming. (If it existed.)

# 12 andrewsjp said, on November 22nd, 2009 at 9:16 pm

Worry about sulfur if you want to, but don’t worry about CO2, all that stuff is a giant hoax! See the internal e-mails stolen from the cabal of dendrologists and released on the internet the other day. Wattsupwiththat.com is a good place to start.

Also, where did you get your total pollution numbers. Please post a reference.

# 13 Mac Guy said, on November 22nd, 2009 at 9:24 pm

#1 – Great idea. Until the pirates off Somalia start targeting those ships and sending their nuclear fuel to lovely places such as Iran and North Korea. Easy money right there.

# 14 brm said, on November 22nd, 2009 at 10:04 pm

#5:

“Another solution – stop shipping so much stuff. Manufacture locally.”

Good luck paying for that boutique laptop when the local manufacturer has to cover the huge up front cost of building a chip fab, plus labor costs exceeding minimum wage plus gov’t mandated health insurance.

Sounds great.

# 15 Angry said, on November 22nd, 2009 at 11:35 pm

#5 I guess we should all move to China?

# 16 ECA said, on November 23rd, 2009 at 1:11 am

CAN i ADD A FEW THINGS..
1. OIL LEAKAGE, Dumping, spills…
2. I dont get that others havnt THUNK THIS..
There is only so much AIR on this planet. AS over time we havnt seen AIR PRESSURE rise, that Something is being released to keep the pressure Equal. NOW if you look at all the chemicals in the air, I RATHER LIKE OXYGEN. Forget about Planet warming/cooling for a few minutes, and THINK about cutting down trees and PUTTING TONS of pollutants into the air. I really hope you like breathing CRAP that can kill you in a few minutes, rather then BREATHING FRESH CLEAN AIR..

AS TO #5..
TRUE. and we can do that in a few ways.
1. REQUIRE USA corps to pay EQUAL wages in other countries..PEOPLE will FLOCK to those jobs. They could be RICH in 1 year.
2. FORCE prices up on shipping..TAX IT TO DEATH.
3. NO MORE Locations that can SHIP without TAXES to the USA..
4. LETS do as other countries do with GAS TAX..yes it will piss ALLOT of people off, but rather the USA getting money over the corps..
CHANGE the tax to a %…and MATCH another nations..30-50% TAX like MOST of the other nations..NOT $0.70 per gallon.

# 17 888 said, on November 23rd, 2009 at 1:29 am

#2, Bob

hahaha
WELL PUT!

I hope they all get heart attack faster than that, though…

# 18 brm said, on November 23rd, 2009 at 2:23 am

#15:

“REQUIRE USA corps to pay EQUAL wages in other countries”

and that’s when they move ALL domestic operations overseas. brilliant.

# 19 ECA said, on November 23rd, 2009 at 2:56 am

17,
yep, and I want to see them Over there.
The laws in other countries over being a Monopoly are very severe..
I want them to be making 1,000,000,000,000,000 rupies per day, and SEE what THAT country thinks about it.
The Head of Japanese airlines DROPPED his own wages, BELOW his Flight captains, JUST to keep the business running. THINK they would do that in the USA??
Do you know that FLYING in the USA costs more then ANY other nation?

# 20 FRAGaLOT said, on November 23rd, 2009 at 3:37 am

This goes back to the 70s when it being “environmental” was simply saying that you shouldn’t polite and litter where we live.

Now some how we got to the point where cow farts, and water bottles are going to destroy the planet.

Soon we will talk about how we are harming our solar system and the universe because of our habits and behavior.

Turns out it’s a natural cycle.

# 21 twigster said, on November 23rd, 2009 at 4:04 am

For me, this falls into the “Duh” category. The truth is one volcano emits more Sulfur and CO2 in one day than all the cars in the world do for a year! The emissions of a car is measured in tenths of grams. The emissions of a volcano is measured in tons. Do the research.

# 22 Hates idiot deniers and liars said, on November 23rd, 2009 at 6:00 am

#20, “Duh”,

The emissions of a car is measured in tenths of grams.

Wrong. Car emissions are rated in pounds or Kilograms for a combined 12,000 miles (20,000 killometer). Even a Toyota Prius is estimated to produce almost 2000 Kg (two tons) of CO2 per year, A Dodge Caravan will produce almost 5,000 Kg (5 tons) of CO2 per year.

Now, multiply that by the 30 million vehicles on the road, most of which have no functioning emission control.

# 23 Stinker said, on November 23rd, 2009 at 6:06 am

so go ahead, sell your clunker for a Prius… Make that dent.

# 24 tommus said, on November 23rd, 2009 at 6:15 am

Just because the global warming debate is politicized and based on fraudulent science doesn’t mean that it’s OK to pollute as if there is no tomorrow. The smog over cities and acid rain doesn’t come from volcanoes, does it? Any way you reckon, burning obscene amounts of fossil fuels adds up to a lot of nasty pollution, including the spiritual pollution of having to constantly wage war against an entire subcontinent to gain access to it’s energy reserves.
On a side note, almost every time I visit a comment page dealing with environmental issues, I see comments wishing death and suffering to environmental activists, i.e. heart attacks… Says a lot about a certain mentality, does it not? Could it be some sort of psychosis caused by toxic substances in the air and water?

# 25 Hates idiots and liars said, on November 23rd, 2009 at 6:35 am

Ships use Bunker oil. This is the residue left between asphalt and lighter oils such as lubricating oil. It also often has a lot of contaminants and dirt in it.

Bunker oil is too viscous (thick) to be pumped at normal temperatures so it must be heated first. Marine engines are usually started on lighter fuels, such as diesel, and use that heat to warm the bunker oil. Only in inshore waters do ships use lighter, clean oils.

Because there are so much pollutants in bunker oil, it is so cheap. The cleaner the oil, the more expensive. BUT, refineries dump the oil sludge as bunker oil in order to get rid of it. If not, they would have to dispose of it some other way.

One big problem with the lowest grade of bunker oil is the way it mixes with water. Much more viscous than crude oil, it forms small tar balls. These tar balls can only be removed by high pressure / high temperature steam from rocks and beaches.

Although automotive diesel and the identical home heating oil are bunker type oils*, they are cleaned and contains only minuscule amounts of sulfur.

* home heating oil and farm diesel have special dyes added to make them tax exempt.

# 26 Vox said, on November 23rd, 2009 at 8:18 am

The article also fails to mention how the Communist Chinese ships are destroying every waterway in the world when they dump their ballast tanks. Not only do they release enourmous amounts of raw sewage but invasive species. There’s a failure to blame the Asian carp on the Asians because Political Correctness says that if you blame the perpetrator you’re a racist.

# 27 Cadavre said, on November 23rd, 2009 at 9:01 am

It’s common practice for almost all ships to use two kinds of fuel. While in coastal waters they run the turbines with a more or less refined fuel oils, or so called bunker fuel (No 6 oil to be precise, the same stuff as heating oil). However, once the leave coastal water ways they switch to a less refined crude, and in some cases, depending on “sweetness”, unrefined crude. The off-coastal fuel has the consistency of tar and is so volatile that respirators have to be worn when working with it.

A 1 oF change in temperature will change tar to flowing liquid – oil is an suspension of a tangle of rope like organic molecules. It’s really amazing stuff.

If one were to take a quick “sniff” of a small quantity in a sample jar, one would immediately find one’s self on the floor. The effects of that one little “sniff” will last for days and includes nausea and a warm tingling sensation of the gums (I know – I made the mistake of a quick snort of a sample jar once – it almost knocked me out).

Pure unadulterated benzine and the zillions of other bad things when rotted biomass has fermented for millions of years is a thing to behold. Very dangerous stuff.

Now the argument maybe that China runs unrefined tar in her coastal water ways, big deal – everybody gets dirty once at sea – and it all floats and washes up to the same place. Back in the early 90’s, the waters in the Port of Galvaston TX actually caught fire.

The thing to remember is that all ships run the high VOC (volatile organic compound) and high TOC (total organic compound) fuel when they’re at sea. If one runs a ship labeled dirty by one port authority all they have to do is change it’s port of registry and they’re back in business.

If everyone is guilty – no one is innocent!

# 28 Dallas said, on November 23rd, 2009 at 9:44 am

Wow. That is amazing how much pollution these pigs generate.

Solution:
Make them burn clean energy and pass any costs at the pump.

Under my no nonsense energy plan, polluting the environment is no longer a free byproduct.

# 29 brm said, on November 23rd, 2009 at 10:15 am

#18:

“The laws in other countries over being a Monopoly are very severe..”

Such as. And what monopolies do we have here? Our telecommunications industry sucks, but other than that…

“The Head of Japanese airlines DROPPED his own wages, BELOW his Flight captains, JUST to keep the business running. THINK they would do that in the USA??”

Didn’t Steve Jobs do this at Apple? An American company?

“Do you know that FLYING in the USA costs more then ANY other nation?”

Because there’s more distance to cover? I can still fly to LA or Las Vegas for less than a hundred bucks from where I’m at.

# 30 ECA said, on November 23rd, 2009 at 11:25 am

28,
In china, Indonesia and Japan you can get your head chopped off.. Our telco’s are run as 1 group here, cellphone companies fight but the list is getting short there are only 2-3 left.

Apple, CEO makes how much money?? the CEO of JPL makes < 1/10 the wages. And living in Japan ISNT CHEAP.

How about flying CHEAP from indoneasia/japan/.. to Australia..for <$300. Yes we have a few CHEAP airlines in the USA, but check the rates on UA, DELTA, and the others.

# 31 brm said, on November 23rd, 2009 at 1:12 pm

#29:

You’re nuts. Heads chopped off in Japan? Please.

Steve Jobs makes $1 a year.

And, I fly cross-country a couple times a year for $400 each time, and closer to $200 because I volunteer to get bumped at xmas.

# 32 ECA said, on November 23rd, 2009 at 2:24 pm

Dont ya love SWA??

# 33 Rick Cain said, on November 23rd, 2009 at 8:19 pm

This is the price we pay for free trade and globalist economies.

# 34 deowll said, on November 23rd, 2009 at 9:31 pm

#5 Such ships can be made but what makes money is giant high speed ships.

#28 Everybody could also agree to live in a one room apartment without air conditioning, walk to work, and limit themselves to tv on their netbook computer screens.

# 35 gmknobl said, on November 23rd, 2009 at 9:36 pm

I’m tired of always arguing for the obvious truth (global warming is real and happening right now OR Neocons are jerks that are robbing the U.S. blind for just two) so I’ll stop and just say this:

Whatever happened to the “slow boat to China?” All we get now if the “Big, fast boat from China.”

# 36 Ralph, the Bus Driver said, on November 24th, 2009 at 1:15 am

These ships are not all that fast. The energy it takes to move is exponential to the speed. While their top speed may be 25 knots, they will more likely “cruise” at 18-20 knots and use half the fuel per distance.

Because of the density, this dirty fuel is also more energy concentrated than is gasoline or jet fuel.

# 37 Glenn E. said, on November 24th, 2009 at 5:18 am

“Both international shipping and aviation are exempt from the Kyoto Protocol rules on cutting carbon emissions.”

Why am I not F-ing surprised at this?! Something Al Gore never tells you about. Wonder why? Bet he’s heavily invested in these transport industries. That’s why. Not to mention one of the entities that makes “bunker oil”. So he’s not going to endanger any of his profit making investments, by adding them to the clean up list. Only you should sacrifice more income to save the world.

# 38 Mr. Fusion said, on November 24th, 2009 at 7:57 am

#37, Glenn,

Bet he’s heavily invested in these transport industries. That’s why. Not to mention one of the entities that makes “bunker oil”. So he’s not going to endanger any of his profit making investments, by adding them to the clean up list.

Your projection is amusing. You first surmise that Gore has invested in specific stocks. No proof, just “betting” or playing a hunch. You then take that as a fact and use it to promote your negative view of him.

Typical denier tactic. Invent a fact and run with it.

# 39 sacred guy said, on December 3rd, 2009 at 4:22 am

amazingly maybe the should not use those ship becuz of pollution

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