When one thinks of cruise ships, one thinks of grand luxury, solitude, safety, and big. The January 13 capsizing of the Concordia off the coast of Italy, in which at least 11 people died, caught the world — including the cruise ship industry and its passengers — off guard and is shining a spotlight on cruise ship safety and environmental issues. The cruise ship hit a reef and nearly hit their fuel tanks. There was also concern over how the passengers were evacuated in this disaster. Beyond that there are other environmental concerns such as cruise ships air emissions and sanitary waste discharges.

It was only luck that the ship’s oil is not already spewing into the sea—the hole in the hull missed the fuel tanks by a few feet, according to reports.

However, there are “normal” emissions or discharges from cruise ships at all times.

According to EPA cruise ships were involved in 87 confirmed illegal discharge cases from 1993 to 1998. Most of these involved the accidental discharge of oil or related substances. A few of the 87 cases involved large numbers of illegal discharge incidents. In addition, 17 other alleged incidents were referred to countries where the cruise ships were registered because the incidents occurred outside U.S. waters or because jurisdiction could not be clearly ascertained.

What sort of waste discharges are there? EPA was petitioned to review and study these issues. The petitioner raised the following points:

Black Water (sewage): A typical cruise ship generates as much as 210,000 gallons during a one-week voyage.

Gray Water (shower, sink, and galley water): A typical cruise ship is estimated to generate up to one million gallons a week. The petition states that current Federal regulations do not restrict gray water discharges except in the Great Lakes, and that gray water may pose environmental impacts as great or greater than sewage.

Hazardous Waste (waste from dry cleaning, photo labs, paint, and maintenance chemicals, etc.)

Solid Waste (food waste, plastic, paper, wood, cardboard, cans, glass, etc.)

Oily Bilge Water: Cruise ships are estimated to generate up to 25,000 gallons on a one week voyage.

Then there are air emissions.

Cruise ships incinerate between 75% and 85% of garbage according to the EPA in its 2008 study, contributing to smog in coastal communities and on the ocean. They also release incinerator ash and sewage sludge — blobs of concentrated toxins from the bottom of waste treatment facilities — into the ocean. They contribute nutrients, metals, ammonia, pharmaceutical waste, chemical cleaners and detergent to deep marine environments from sewage treatment systems that either don’t work as planned or aren’t able to remove such substances, according to tests in Washington and Alaska, interviews with state officials, the EPA study, and information provided by the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. It’s legal to discharge untreated sewage in most areas of the United States farther than three miles from shore. But if you are 4 miles out?

Cruise ships burn fuel, much of it a cheap grade, which will continue until new international fuel standards take effect in 2012. A 2005 study done by WashPIRG, a public interest advocacy group based in Washington, estimates a 3,000-passenger ship generates the air pollution equivalent of more than 12,000 cars in a single day.

Article by Andy Soos, appearing courtesy Environmental News Network.

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It must be pretty damaging for any industry’s reputation to be labeled Dinosaur of the Year. And that’s what the Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU) has called the cruise ship industry. NABU, which is based in Germany, singled out cruise lines AIDA and TUI to get their yearly trophy, which goes to people or companies with “the most ridiculous statement or anachronistic decision in connection with Nature and the Environment.”

According to NABU, cruise ships emit particle pollution that equals the amount released by five million cars driving the same distance as the cruise ship tears through the ocean. The organization said the luxury cruise ship industry has made no investments to move away from heavy fossil fuel oil or to install filters to reduce the pollution they dump into the oceans. It added that the 15 largest cruise ships emit as much sulfur dioxide pollution annually as all 760 million cars in the world. Not much glamour or luxury in that, is there?

Figures revealed by environmental NGO Friends of the Earth are alarming. A large cruise ship on a one week voyage is estimated to generate:

210,000 gallons of human sewage,
1 million gallons of gray water (water from sinks, baths, showers, laundry, and galleys),
25,000 gallons of oily bilge water,
Up to 11,550 gallons of sewage sludge, and
More than 130 gallons of hazardous wastes.

The NGO says most of this waste is dumped directly into the ocean, treated or not. Luxury liners also spew a range of pollutants into the air that can lead to acid rain and contribute to global warming. On top of all that, they can spread invasive species by dumping untreated ballast water in coastal zones.

To add to the problem, as more people pursue traveling as a leisure activity, the number of cruise ships in U.S. waters, as well as across the seven seas, has triggered a cruise ship pollution crisis. FoE says environmental laws have not kept pace with the industry’s growth, which reaches pristine waters, leaving a rotten track in its trail.

Back in 2008, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) agreed to respond to a petition filed by 53 groups and issued a draft report assessing discharges from cruise ships. “Now that EPA has finally agreed to release this report, the public must submit comments compelling the EPA to regulate these floating cities and protect the very places people are paying to visit,” Teri Shore of Friends of the Earth said at the time.

The EPA draft report found that cruise ship discharges contain concentrations of bacteria, chlorine, nutrients, metals and other pollutants that often far exceed federal effluent and water quality standards and are harmful to human health and the marine environment. The report estimated that cruise ships produce an average of 21,000 gallons per day of sewage and 170,000 gallons per day of raw graywater that can contain as much bacteria as sewage. Large volumes of highly concentrated sewage sludge are also routinely dumped overboard. The report found that even the Advanced Wastewater Treatment systems required in Alaska were far from perfect.

At a time when the health of our oceans is seriously threatened, it is distressing to see an industry turning its back on sustainability. Consumers have a role to play by refusing to participate in this vandalization of the oceans.

Article by Antonio Pasolini, appearing courtesy Justmeans and 3BL Media.

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Plugging in an electric car is very well and environmentally good, but what about the emissions reductions of connecting a large yacht or even an entire cruise ship to the grid? Currently, ships must burn fuel to maintain onboard systems, even at port. Linking just one cruise ship at port to the electricity grid could prevent the equivalent CO2 emissions of 2,500 cars. [Infographic]

Over 90 percent of the world’s cargo is transported by ship. It’s no surprise then that thousands of cargo ships, cruise ships and private yachts arrive at ports every day. Once in port, these vessels burn fossil fuels to maintain essential operations or onboard services to their passengers. That’s a little bit like having to leave your car’s engine on, even when you’re parked in the driveway. During a 10-hour stay in port, the diesel engines of a single cruise ship can burn 20 metric tons of fuel and produce 60 metric tons of CO2. Carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, particles and other in-port shipping emissions pose a suite of environmental problems and respiratory health risks.

One solution to this business as usual scenario is to connect vessels at port directly to the power grid using shore-to-ship technology. ABB, a global power and automation company that provides shore-to-ship technology, helps the shipping industry to improve local harbor environments, prevent global carbon emissions and reduce costs. Ships adopting this technology will be able to leave the lights on without leaving the engine on.

View ABB’s infographic comparing shore-to-ship technology to business as usual.

Article by Gavin Hudson, appearing courtesy Earth & Industry.

Full disclosure: In addition to blogging, I also work at ABB. The opinions in this article are mine and don’t necessarily represent ABB.

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The shipping industry has become the first global business sector to agree to mandatory carbon dioxide emissions reductions.

At a meeting of the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization, member countries agreed to set CO2 emissions standards on new ships beginning in 2019, with the goal of improving energy efficiency by 30 percent by 2024.

The member countries also agreed to more modest efficiency improvements and emissions reductions in the world’s 60,000 exiting ships.

Of the world’s top 10 shipping nations, only China voted against the agreement.

Brazil, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Chile also opposed the accord, and it remains to be seen if these countries will adhere to the majority decision.

The agreement allows developing nations to apply for a waiver from the rules until 2019, and the Clean Shipping Coalition warned that the agreement could result in most new ships registering with countries that get a waiver.

Overall, however, environmental advocates said the agreement was a positive step that could reduce CO2 emissions from shipping by 50 million tons by 2020.

Shipping accounts for about 3 percent of human CO2 emissions.

Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.

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The development of green transportation on the sea is a fairly interesting one when one takes a moment to look at it. The earliest methods of sailing were accomplished using “green” technology in the form of sails that caught the wind, while many of today’s designs are focused on using the sun or alternative fuels to achieve propulsion. One of the latest designs that has been gaining some attention as of late is expected to use a hydrogen based fuel system and to have been inspired by Cold War designs.

Called the EkranoYacht, the hydrogen powered craft was designed by Jaron Dickson, a student at the Monash University in Victoria, Australia, as a sort of green luxury vehicle. The design for the EkranoYacht was inspired by a Cold War era Russian designed wing-in-ground (WIG) series of crafts called the Ekranoplan that first saw limited service in the 1960s. The basis behind the wing-in-ground design is that it would allow the newly designed EkranoYacht to essentially hover above the water at high speeds, reducing resistance on the surface of the water, and in effect reducing the amount of fuel needed and the impact such a vessel could have on the sea’s ecosystem. Paired with a hydrogen based fuel system, the craft would essentially have no carbon emissions to speak of and would offer a unique green choice for those in the market for a luxury yacht.

While exact specifications for the EkranoYacht are difficult to ascertain given the fact that an actual model has yet to be built, it is believed that the craft will be able to travel at speeds around 250 miles per hour. The vehicle will also focus on providing an open living space within its 118 foot length and allow space for approximately six people to live comfortably. Whether or not any other green systems will be available on board the EkranoYacht’s is unknown, it would be possible to see some other type of green technology on board depending on the final design.

All said and done, the EkranoYacht concept is apparently ready for a production plan that would place an official release sometime in 2025. Although the EkranoYacht will hardly have any major effect on the majority of people’s lives, the potential existence of such a craft within a market as unique as luxury yachts is interesting to consider. Maybe with a little bit more green in the picture, other companies will think of something similar.

Article by Richard Cooke, appearing courtesy Justmeans.

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Two California seaports are testing a technology that uses seawater to scrub emissions from the exhaust of ships, an innovation researchers say could reduce a vessel’s sulfur emissions by 99.9 percent and particulate matter by as much as 85 percent.

Proponents say the advanced emission control technology — supplied by Bluefield Holdings Inc. and Krystallon, Ltd. — will be able to filter contaminants from a ship’s auxiliary engines and boiler before they reach the vessel’s exhaust stack. The seawater used in the process would then be treated before being dumped, while the solid contaminants would be stored for later disposal.

The $3.4 million project, co-sponsored by the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, will be tested over the next year on a container ship owned by the global shipping company APL.

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Green transportation as a whole covers a wide range of transportation concepts. Green vehicles powered by electricity or hydrogen take much of the media’s focus while others prefer to look at the changes being made to public transit around the globe. The changes to the aviation industry have also taken a great deal of attention in the last week or so with Lufthansa’s announcement about their decision to begin running a biofuel powered plane. However, one area of green transportation that doesn’t seem to get enough attention is seaborne green projects.

A team of researchers over at PlanetSolar have decided to take the idea of green transportation and apply it to the sea when they built a solar powered catamaran that is meant to sail around the world. Called the TÛRANOR, a name pulled from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings meaning “the power of the sun”, the solar powered vessel is the $17.5 million realization of a team of researchers who wished to see how far solar energy could be pushed. The TÛRANOR runs entirely on electricity that is generated from over 38,000 photovoltaic solar cells that is in turn stored in a giant lithium ion battery allowing the vessel to essentially power itself forever on the sunlight alone. The craft itself is roughly thirty one meters long and is piloted by a six man crew while having the capacity to hold around forty crew members at any given time. The vessel is also equipped with fold out flaps that allow it to increase the amount of solar cells that can be exposed to the sun at any given time and increasing the size of the ship. According to PlanetSolar, the TÛRANOR is the largest solar powered sea-faring vessel in the world.

Currently, the TÛRANOR is on a trip to circumnavigate the globe in hopes of spreading the word for how successful green transportation can be while also becoming the first solar powered vessel to achieve such a goal. The PlanetSolar team has specifically chosen certain areas of the world to stop over in so that they can spread the word about the effectiveness of solar power. They are also intending on using the TÛRANOR as a way of meeting with what PlanetSolar calls leading minds in the solar energy field in order to have a round table discussion about solar power.

The TÛRANOR was launched earlier this year on March 31st in Monaco and is currently working on moving down the Mexican coast. Though the sun may not always shine down on the TÛRANOR, the lithium ion battery does allow up to three days of travel without the collection of solar energy. With a top speed of only around eight knots, the trip has taken a great deal of time and is expected to take much more, though PlanetSolar says that the speed of the mission is not the point of the trip. Instead, they are hoping that by the time they finish their trip they will have spread the concept of solar energy far enough around the world to make a difference.

Article by Richard Cooke, appearing courtesy Justmeans.

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Carbon emissions at sea have received more attention over the last decade. Ports, especially, can have a negative impact on air quality in the populated areas that surround them. The many emissions sources at ports include ships, trucks, trains, and cargo-handling equipment. Harbor-crafts also contribute a significant portion of total port emissions. These include tugboats, ferries, fishing boats, and dredge vessels. Recently, the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have started using a hybrid electric tugboat. A new study by the University of California (UC) Riverside has shown that this has been effective at reducing emissions.

Tugboats are typically powered by marine compression ignition engines. The engines are built to be extremely powerful relative to the size of the vessel. Larger tugboats used in deeper waters have power ratings up to 27,000 horse power. They can have a power:tonnage ratio of up to 4.5, similar to engines used in locomotives. These engines typically drive the propellers mechanically rather than converting the output through electric motors, as is done on trains.

The massive engines can consume large amounts of fuel and produce harmful emissions full of diesel particulates. This has made the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach the largest contributors of air pollution in the South Coast Basin according to the California Air Resources Board (CARB). Pollution from the diesel-powered tugboats and other port emission sources has caused negative health effects on the surrounding population, including cancer and respiratory illnesses.

Now the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the largest container ports in the nation, are home to the first and only hybrid electric tugboat in the world. Named the Carolyn Dorothy, it runs on four diesel engines and 126 batteries. It was financed by the two ports and the South Coast Air Quality Management District to the tune of $1.35 million. The vessel was built by Foss Maritime, based in Seattle, and began operational duty in January of 2009.

Researchers from UC Riverside’s College of Engineering Center for Environmental Research and Technology conducted a study to see how much emissions the new hybrid tugboat saved. They found it decreased emissions of soot by 73 percent, nitrogen oxides (smog forming compounds) by 51 percent, and CO2 (greenhouse gas) by 27 percent. Their report was completed in October of 2010 and presented to CARB.

The widespread adoption of hybrid marine engines would go a long way in reducing emissions at sea and in port. However, it comes with a very expensive price tag, and technical issues resulting in inefficiencies still remain. The UC Riverside researchers are hopeful that there will be further improvements once plug-in hybrid tugboats become available.

Link to published article presented to CARB.

Article by David A. Gabel, appearing courtesy Environmental News Network.

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We’ve all heard the “recycle, reduce, reuse” mantra.  However, to really combat the current problem of overconsumption and reduce unnecessary waste, this saying should be flipped on its head: “reduce, reuse, recycle.”  Recycling is reactive, and society needs to combine it with a proactive solution, because recycling alone will not “fix” our current consumption problem.  The first step should be reducing initial resource use, which has skyrocketed in recent years.

According to the Sierra Club (via CNN), between the 1950s and the 1990s, the worldwide use of plastic quintupled, and developed countries such as America are leading the way in that consumption.  As an example of this trend, the same article reported that in 2007 one American consumed as many resources as 35 Indians.

Environmental activists are calling attention to these gross numbers in a variety of ways. One interesting example is the voyage of the Plastiki, a 60-foot boat constructed from 12,500 recycled plastic bottles and powered by solar panels and windmills.  On March 20, the six man (technically five man, one woman) crew of the Plastiki set sail from San Francisco Bay, heading toward Sydney, Australia – 11,000 miles away.  As of June 11^th, 2010, the Plastiki’s crew was preparing to embark on the last leg of their journey, from the island of Samoa to Sydney, where they are expected to land in early July.  At that point, the small ship had traversed more than 5,500 nautical miles of Pacific Ocean.

The Plastiki’s philosophy, as stated on the project website, revolves around the idea that waste is a fundamental design flaw (in that it does not occur in nature) and that we need to rethink the concept of waste to use it as a resource.  It is also about undertaking what the team dubs a “Planet 2.0 way of thinking and acting.”  The voyage is meant to draw attention to current environmental issues, such as bottled water and plastic waste.  The idea was first conceived approximately four years ago by banking heir David de Rothschild following a UNEP report, “Ecosystems and Biodiversity in Deep Waters and High Seas,” that outlined the serious threat that pollution – especially plastics – poses for our planet’s oceans.

According to the project’s website, plastic makes up between 40 and 60 percent of the world’s marine waste and contributes largely to such environmental atrocities as the Great Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch – a collection of North American and Asian garbage that is trapped in the upper water columns of the Pacific and is estimated to be approximately twice the size of Texas.  De Rothschild, the expedition’s leader, shared this account from the journey on the project’s website:

“When we look underneath the boat, the hull is covered in a fine, extra layer of plastic and as you run your hand across your face you see countless molecular size plastic fragments, known as mermaid’s tears. It is tragic. From above, the oceans still looks beautiful and untouched but just below the surface is this toxic stew that could quickly end up on our dinner plates. The issue is far more ominous than people imagine, as these commonly known ‘garbage patches’ are not just floating islands of trash but a swirling poisonous soup. The problem is subsurface – tiny pieces of material in the process of breaking down and floating in the top layer of the ocean where most species live, feed and breed.”

Hopefully extreme examples such as this will make us think a bit more about our actions and how they impact the environment.  Do you need that plastic water bottle?  Can you use a reusable coffee cup instead of a new plastic one every day?  Is bringing food to work in reusable Tupperware really more difficult than disposable plastic bags?  If you give it a little thought you will see that there are easy things that everyone can do to reduce resource use.  All it takes is a small attitude adjustment and a little bit of effort.

Article by Lillian Dunlap appearing courtesy CleanEnergy Project

photo: US Embassy New Zealand

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The Plastiki, a sailing boat made out of 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles and other recycled waste products, has been sailing in the Pacific Ocean for more than 30 days.

Plastiki started its journey March 20 from San Francisco, with the intention to create public awareness about the effects of plastic usage on marine pollution and consequently sea life.

The Plastiki crew aims to explore a number of environmental hotspots, such as soon-to-be-flooded island nations, damaged coral reefs and the challenge faced by acidifying oceans and marine debris, in particular plastic pollution.

Plastiki’s journey is also scheduled to go through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a zone of trash one suspended on the water’s surface, twice the size of Texas, and stretching from the shores of California to the Sea of Japan.

The boat crew consists of six scientists, environmentalists and artists, led by the British adventurer David de Rothschild. The 60-foot boat is sailing with an average speed of five nautical miles per hour and the voyage is set end in Sydney in about three months.All the garbage that is dumped from the west coast of North America and the east coast of Asia combine and form the garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean due to the clockwise rotating Pacific currents.

It is reported that 90 percent of the garbage content is made of plastics, most originating from land sources. Both in the northern and southern hemispheres, these gyres creates a ‘plastic soup’ — as witnesses describe — and cause substantial marine debris.

Plastics, invented 101 years ago, are 100 percent human made materials. Shockingly, almost every plastic material that was made in human history still exists somewhere in the world.

Algalita Marine Research Foundation observed that degraded plastic pieces outweigh the surface planktons in the Central North Pacific Ocean by six to one. Charles Moore, captain and founder of the foundation, observed that most of the fish and other sea animals feeding in the Pacific Ocean, especially albatrosses, are found dead with innumerable plastic particles in their stomachs. The increasing ratio of plastics to plankton in the ecosystem makes the life of these animals even harder every year.

What the Plastiki Project is drawing attention to with the journey on a boat made out of plastic bottles is very important. I highly recommend watching  “The Story of Bottled Water,“an animated film narrated by Annie Leonard, which lays out the complexity of the environmental danger of consuming water in plastic bottles.

The UNEP Tunza Magazine reports that for every litre of water poured into a bottle, another two litres are used in its manufacture. Statistics show that more than 90 percent of the plastic that is produced in our world is not recycled.

Given that our world is a closed system and there is no easy way of cleaning the oceans, we have to learn to create less waste and stop pollution. One very simple way to protect the environment from ourselves is to change our shopping habits and consume as few plastics as we can.

photo: Luca Babini

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