Shipping Tops Flying as Polluter

For armchair environmentalists, aviation seems the ultimate evil, but research from climatologists finds the shipping industry a "far more damaging" polluter. Maritime transportation emits twice the greenhouses gases of airplanes, the Independent writes, and the sector is growing so fast that earlier research underestimated its damage by at least 50%.

Environmental agencies are pushing for regulations for what has been an "invisible industry,"  estimated to produce a billion tons of emissions a year, compared to the  650 million tons emitted by aviation. Most commercial vessels are powered by "bunker" fuel, produced from the runoff of the refinement process to produce higher-grade gasoline; one insider calls it "the crap that comes out the other end that's half way to being asphalt." (More climate change stories.)