Friday, October 19, 2007

Planes are bad for Mother Nature, but Ships might Kill her


"Global emissions of carbon dioxide from shipping are twice the level of aviation" Intertanko
The last six years have been hard. The world is suffering from the 'war Of terror', but another victim goes unheard. That victim is Mother Nature. In a new report issued by Intertanko, the last six years has seen unprecedented growth in CO2 emissions from the world's largest tanker operators. In fact, those emissions are DOUBLE that of airplanes.
Intertanko says its figures are the most realistic estimation of the current levels of CO2 from ships
It says that growth in global trade coupled with ships burning more fuel to deliver freight faster has contributed significantly to the increase.
Dragos Routa, the technical director of Intertanko, told the BBC the figures were a work in progress but the levels of emissions had risen sharply
While there are few accurate measures and even fewer restrictions on the amounts of carbon dioxide that ships can emit at present, governments in many parts of the world are considering a clampdown as part of their efforts to tackle global warming. bbc
From Intertanko, the effects could be remedied, but the industry must take long term steps...
A switch from residual fuel to marine diesel oil (MDO) means a comprehensive and practical strategy for an efficient and long-term reduction of air pollution from ships
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It deals with the cause of this pollution rather than the effect – i.e. rather than limiting the rulemaking development to cleaning up the pollution itself
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INTERTANKO believes that Governments wish to see a significant reduction in overall air pollution from ships as required under MARPOL Annex VI. Therefore, they should not ignore that out of all the options on the table
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This way, all ships would reduce their total air pollution on a global basis, while at the same time allowing new engines to become even more efficient, less polluting and with lower CO2 emissions.
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The added bonus to ship operators is that running a ship on distillates makes the technical operation of that ship cheaper, more efficient and straightforward. Intertanko
I wonder whose 'table' they are looking at? It can't be the same 'table' of greed, corruption, and profits that the world is functioning by.

See also:
U.S. Coast Guard unveils plans for 'Base' in the Arctic

Same Players. Different Scandal.

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