The Worst Polluters In The Arctic Are Not What You Think!

More than 600 fishing vessels sail the icy waters of the Arctic. But just over 2 dozen big tankers are the worst things which cause air pollution in this region.

In 2021, only 26 natural gas tankers cruised through the Arctic waters. 100s of fishing vessels also cruise these rich fishing grounds.

But the Giant Tankers which can be more than 300 meters long cause the most CO2 emissions. This was found according to a new analysis. This analysis shows that ship traffic combined emitted more than 2.8 million tonnes of CO2 in 2019. The tankers emitted 788,000 tonnes of this 2.8 million ton of CO2. This is almost 28% of the total Carbon Dioxide emitted.

“Even though there are more fishing vessels than natural gas tankers, gas tankers are responsible for nearly 30% of all CO2 emissions from ship traffic in the Arctic,” said Ekaterina Kim, who is an associate professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU’s) department of Marine Technology. Kim conducted a study of CO2 being emitted by gas tankers in the Arctic.

What is surprising is that the number of Gas Tankers being operated increased from 4 to 26 since 2017!

Let’s stop using fossil fuels to decrease the demand for them. More and More people are starting to use fossil fuels. This increases the demand for these fuels. If we stop using these fuels, we can reduce the demand and also reduce emissions as well to make our earth a better place to live.

Author: Sri Nihal Tammana

Source: Norwegian University of Science and Technology