This story is about cargo ships slowing down to enter ports to cut down on pollution. According to the University of California, if a cargo ship goes from 25 to 30 miles an hour to just around fifteen mile an hour, it would cut down on nitrogen oxides which is the main ingredient in smog by fifty-five percent. It would also reduce carbon dioxide by sixty percent.
If the ports of the world require cargo ships to go ten or fifteen miles an hour forty miles offshore we could cut back on smog and carbon dioxide, thus making the ozone layer last longer.
Besides polluting the earth by fossil fuels, the people who are around the ships; either by working on the ships, in the port, or in the cities nearby are more likely to get respiratory diseases, heart attacks, and suffer premature death.
California has banned ships from burning dirty kinds of fuels, and requiring ports to get other clean initiatives. The Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach also has a voluntary program, which offers financial incentives for shippers to slow down to fourteen miles an hour on their own.
Student Researcher: Travis Edrington, Indian River State College
Faculty Evaluator: Elliot D. Cohen, Ph.D., Indian River State College Sources:
Bret Israel, “Slowing Cargo Ships More Than Halves Pollution near Ports”
Scientific American, November 19, 2012
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=slowing-cargo-ships-more-than-halves- pollution-near-ports