For those of us who take the time to track our carbon footprints concern over how far a product has been shipped is nothing new. But a recent study shows that the total environmental impact from commercial shipping is greater than had been previously thought.
The American Geophysical Union recently found that cargo ships, tankers and cruise ships produce as much particle pollution as half of the world’s automobiles.
The research examined the exhaust of over 200 ships in the Gulf of Mexico in the summer of 2006 with a specific focus on the amount of sulfates emitted in the exhaust.
The results were an estimate that cargo ships emit approximately 2.2 million pounds of particulate pollution each year.
This was the first such study of its kind and the results are pretty staggering.
Since over 70 percent of all shipping happens near coastlines (within 250 miles), it’s the coastal areas that are most affected. One of the researchers of this study had done previous research that linked levels of particle pollution with premature death in coastal areas.
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