Shipping pollution more than a drop in the ocean

Monday March 9, 2009, 8:09 pm

A US scientific study is pointing the finger at the global shipping industry as a major contributor to climate change.
The study has found that the one hundred thousand commercial ships which travel the world's oceans emit almost half as much particle pollution as the world's 600 million cars.
The findings have been published in the Journal of Geophysical Research.
And the lead author is calling for an improvement in the quality of shipping fuels.
In the past, ships running under flags of convenience have been exposed in reports like the Ships of Shame inquiry as being unsafe for crews and polluting the ocean.
Now scientists have put a figure on exactly how much air pollution is emitted by the world's shipping fleet.
US-based scientist Daniel Lack, who works for a US government agency called the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has found every year commercial ships emit 1 million kilograms of particle pollution into the air.
"These particles that are coming out are about equivalent to half the particles that are produced from all road traffic in the world," he said.
"What's interesting with ships is that they're in international waters most of the time so the pollution doesn't really get noticed by people.
"But these ships are actually burning really low-quality fuels. They're literally burning the bottom of the barrel. After oil refining, there's a black sludge left and that's what ships are burning, so they're burning a really dirty fuel."
Professor Lack worked on his report with another scientist, James Corbett from the University of Delaware.
It was Professor Corbett's job to find out what effect the pollution from the ships has on human health.
"We're talking about organic carbon materials and we're talking about these very small black carbon particles," he said.
"These particles are small enough to be breathed in to human lungs and they have been shown by epidemiological studies to be associated with increased incidences of breathing illnesses, heart illnesses and even premature death."
The harmful particles released into the air, including sulphur, carbon dioxide and soot, are also damaging the environment.
"If dark particles land on snow, they can accelerate the melting of snow in the north, perhaps the Arctic," he said.
"They interact with water vapour in the atmosphere to help produce brighter or longer lived clouds and the dark particles can absorb energy and retain heat and contribute to global climate change."
It is the first time a large scale study has found exactly how much and what kind of air pollution is released by ships.
Professor Lack says his study exposes shipping as a major polluter and more regulation is needed to ensure the industry cleans up its act.
But he acknowledges, as with the car industry, some shipping companies are seeing an upside in green innovation.
"There's a company in Seattle which has just built the first hybrid tugboat," he said.
"The port of Los Angeles, they're starting to make ships hook up to shore power, which is much cleaner than the power from burning fuel.