In the world of numbers on page 10 of this “brand eins” I find the following information:
Annual pollutant emission of sulphur oxides by all the 760 million cars world wide in tons:
76,760
Annual pollutant emission of sulphur oxides by the 15 biggest ships of the world in tons:
78,000
To me, this is interesting for two different reasons.
On the one hand, there is the total number of cars. Apparently, we have now reached more than three quarters of a billion. And if you consider how many cars we build, then the full billion definitely looms ahead in a few years.
One billion cars in a world where more than one billion people starve! That gives me pause.
On the other hand, there is the information about ships polluting the environment.
The fact that the 15 biggest ships alone produce more sulphur than all cars together is only a surprise at first sight. Cars pollute the environment directly where we live. Consequently, we took pains to improve matters: low-pollution motors, catalysers, high quality fuel, even as far as sulphur-reduced diesel.
Ships, on the other hand, emit their pollutants on the oceans. During my last ship voyage, I often had the opportunity to witness the yellow sulphur wafts trailing behind the ships. That is visible environmental pollution in a dimension similar to what industries produced in the past.
With the exception of a few harbour cities, nobody cares. And it is almost impossible to draw up international legislation or regulations. Just think of the problem of cleaning the fuel containers at sea.
The world is controlled by the price. And everybody is afraid of being overreached if he has to drastically increase costs in order to preserve the environment. Consequently, it looks like our fleets will continue to run on crude oil of the lowest quality for quite some time. And that Kerosene will not be subjected to taxation due to the (allegedly) national and regional competition disadvantages.
I once witnessed a tanker accident in a Brazilian harbour on the ship I was on. The reason was a mistake while the fuel was filled up. Crude oil is very viscous, so it needs quite a bit of heat before it turns fluid. On this particular occasion, the oil had not been sufficiently heated and thus the hose of the tanker for MS Europe burst. We were able to see and smell (and fortunately not feel) what the refined ship burns up.
The amount of emission produced by shipping is and always has been an atrocity. There is no way you can justify it. It is high time strictly controlled rules were introduced.
We also need alternatives. It seems to me that, again, the best alternative is wind. It served to drive ships for many centuries and might even be captured and transformed into electricity. Just look at the Enercon website. The company was founded in 1984 by Aloys Wobben. It is a great success story around wind. And they plan this kind of thing.
RMD
(Translated by EG)
Loading ...