Maritime Shipping Makes Hefty Contribution to Harmful Air Pollution

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2009/20090226_shipping.html

Maritime Shipping Makes Hefty Contribution to Harmful Air Pollution

February 26, 2009

Globally, commercial ships emit almost half as much particulate matter pollutants into the air as the total amount released by the world’s cars, according to a new study led by NOAA and the University of Colorado at Boulder. Ship pollutants affect local air quality and the health of people living along coastlines. The findings appear online this week in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

The study is the first to provide a global estimate of maritime shipping’s total contribution to air particle pollution based on direct measurements of emissions. The authors estimate that globally, ships emit 0.9 teragrams, or about 2.2 million pounds, of particle pollution each year.

“Since more than 70 percent of shipping traffic takes place within 250 miles of the coastline, this is a significant health concern for coastal communities,” said study lead-author Daniel Lack, a researcher with the NOAA-supported CU Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, based at http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/">NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory.

Earlier research by one of the study’s authors, James Corbett, of the University of Delaware, linked particle pollution to premature deaths among coastal populations.

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[Gregorian]

1. I knew this. Recommending so others can see it.

What are we going to NOT do first? And who is going to begin NOT doing first?

These are the questions I've been asking for years.

I fear we are not going to slow down. That concept is at odds with this society.

[excess_3]

2. transport by ship should be encouraged.

at the same time that politicians
(oops, EX-politicians!)
are dining on endangered species
flown to the US by airfreight,

some people are complaning about fuel consumption by ships.
Ugh.

There are worse things than ships.

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. Oh please...

First off, I'll play along, which "ex-politicians" are you accusing of dining on endangered species flown to the US by airfreight? C'mon, either make the charge, or shut up about it.

Second, it's not fuel consumption that is the focus of the complaint.
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20080709_soot.html

NOAA Takes First Broad Look at Soot from Ships

July 9, 2008

Tugboats puff out more soot for the amount of fuel used than other commercial vessels, and large cargo ships emit more than twice as much soot as previously estimated, according to the first extensive study of commercial vessel soot emissions. Scientists from NOAA and the University of Colorado conducted the study and present their findings in the July 11 issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Dan Lack observed soot emissions from 96 commercial vessels from aboard NOAA’s Ronald H. Brown, shown docked in Galveston, Texas, in 2006.

The primary sources of soot, or small particles of black carbon, are fossil fuel combustion, wildfires, and burning vegetation for agricultural purposes. In the Arctic, an increase in soot may contribute to climate change if shipping routes expand, according to the study.

“Commercial shipping emissions have been one of the least studied areas of all combustion emissions,” said lead author Daniel Lack, of NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL) and the NOAA-CU Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. “The two previous studies of soot emissions examined a total of three ships. We reviewed plumes from 96 different vessels.”

Lack and his colleagues observed emission plumes from commercial vessels in open ocean waters, channels, and ports along the southeast United States and Texas during the summer of 2006. From the NOAA research vessel, Ronald H. Brown, the team measured black carbon emitted by tankers, cargo and container ships, large fishing boats, tug boats, and ferries, many of them in the Houston Ship Channel.

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[One_Life_To_Give]

3. Also among the most efficient means of transport

Not such a simple problem. Consuming half the fuel of a train per Freight Ton-Mile, it is a efficient means of transport. And with existing international treaties oragins going back to days of the Spanish Armada. The national soverignty issues facing regulation of shipping, particularly in "Flag of Convenience States" is a beaurocratic nightmare.