I wonder if they are considering that a goodly chunk of their goods come on ships? Autos and auto parts. Their smartphones. Computers. Routers. TVs. Their fast fashion for selfies. The NY Times is Very Concerned, and will manufacture this issue, rather than, you know, actually just covering the news
Shipping Contributes Heavily to Climate Change. Are Green Ships the Solution?
On a bright September day on the harbor in Copenhagen, several hundred people gathered to welcome the official arrival of Laura Maersk.
Laura was not a visiting European dignitary like many of those in attendance. She was a hulking containership, towering a hundred feet above the crowd, and the most visible evidence to date of an effort by the global shipping industry to mitigate its role in the planet’s warming.
The ship, commissioned by the Danish shipping giant Maersk, was designed with a special engine that can burn two types of fuel — either the black, sticky oil that has powered ships for more than a century, or a greener type made from methanol. By switching to green methanol, this single ship will produce 100 fewer tons of greenhouse gas per day, an amount equivalent to the emissions of 8,000 cars.
The effect of global shipping on the climate is hard to overstate. Cargo shipping is responsible for nearly 3 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions — producing roughly as much carbon each year as the aviation industry does.
Figuring out how to limit those emissions has been tricky. Some ships are turning to an age-old strategy: harnessing the wind to move them. But ships still need a more constant source of energy that is powerful enough to propel them halfway around the world in a single go.
No, really? They need constant power? Kinda like citizens forced to deal with unreliable solar and wind?
The Laura Maersk is the first of its kind to set sail with a green methanol engine and represents a significant step in the industry’s efforts to address its contribution to climate change. The vessel is also a vivid illustration of just how far the global shipping sector has to go. While roughly 125 methanol-burning ships are now on order at global shipyards from Maersk and other companies, that is just a tiny portion of the more than 50,000 cargo ships that ply the oceans today, which deliver 90 percent of the world’s traded goods.
Depending on the source, methanol ships can be 12% to 54% more expensive than traditional fossil fuels. I do like that it is a whole lot less polluting than fossil fuels, from an environmental stance, not a climate cult stance. Regardless, this means the cost of goods will go up.
Yet that easy consumption has come at the price of a warmer and dirtier planet. In addition to affecting the atmosphere, ships burning fossil fuel also spew out pollutants that reduce the life expectancy of the large percentage of the world’s people who live near ports, said Teresa Bui, policy director for climate at Pacific Environment, an environmental organization.
That pollution was particularly bad during the Covid-19 pandemic, when supply chain bottlenecks caused ships to pile up outside of the Port of Los Angeles, producing pollution equivalent to nearly 100,000 big rigs per day, she said.
“They have been under regulated for decades,” Ms. Bui said of the shipping industry.
Funny how they always want more government, eh?
But the world today does not yet produce much green methanol. Maersk has committed to using only sustainably produced methanol, but if other shipping companies end up using methanol fuel made with coal or oil, that will be no better for the environment.
Surprise? Plus, there isn’t that much. Which would drive up the price, which would then drive up the price of goods. All for a scam.
Read: Climate Cult Super Concerned With Shipping »