Sustainable Transport and the Environment Guide - Unite the Union

4.7: Shipping
The problem shipping is that tonne-miles and gross tonnage was growing at similar
rates to world GDP but the number of vessels growth smaller, due to shift to larger
ships.
Greenhouse gases from UK-based international shipping 1990-2006
10.0
million tonnes (CO2 equivalent)
5.0
0.0
1990 1995 2000 2005
Year
Figure 4.4: Greenhouse gases from UK-based international shipping 1990-2006
The warning was reinforced in February 2008 by a study 49 presented to the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, which concluded that more than 40 per
cent of the world’s oceans are heavily affected by human activities and only 4 per
cent remain almost pristine. The results were obtained by overlaying maps of 17
different activities such as fishing, coastal development and shipping pollution. It
shows that the most heavily affected waters include large areas of the North Atlantic,
the South and East China seas, the Caribbean, Mediterranean, Red Sea, the Gulf,
Bering Sea, and much of the western Pacific.
The least affected areas are mainly near the Arctic and Antarctic, though a few places
far from the poles, such the Torres Strait, north of Australia, are also relatively
untouched.
US researchers have produced a composite picture of man-made damage to the seas.
The dumping of vast quantities of garbage and the rampant over fishing of almost all
forms of edible marine life. Growing areas of ocean are effectively ‘dead’. The
damage to biodiversity has knock on effects on the rest of us – from our food supply
to our leisure activities, and most pressing of all, to our climate.
Other problems, such as rising sea levels, changing ocean currents and the increased
intensity of typhoons and hurricanes, will impact most severely on coastal
49 http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/319/5865/948
58