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Navios
de cruzeiro poluem mais que milhões de carros
O
jornal britânico The Guardian publica um trabalho sobre poluição
dos navios de cruzeiro, a propósito da viagem inaugural do maior
navio do mundo, Harmony of the Seas, amanhã, a partir de
Southampton.
22-5-2016
/ 18:30 Francisco Ferreira da Silva
Quando amanhã à
tarde o maior navio de cruzeiros do mundo, o Harmony of the Seas,
deixar o porto de Southampton para a viagem inaugural, porá em
funcionamento três gigantescos motores a diesel e os 6.780
passageiros e 2.100 tripulantes vão, por certo, dizer, alegremente,
adeus a Inglaterra. Ao mesmo tempo, muitos dos que ficam em
Southampton vão sentir-se felizes por vê-los ir embora, noticia o
The Guardian que refere o enorme rasto de poluição deixado pelos
navios.
“Podemos cheirar,
ver e até sentir o gosto” do fumo expelido pelos motores dos
navios de cruzeiros, refere o jornal britânico. “Estes navios são
como blocos de apartamentos flutuantes”, refere o jornal,
acrescentando que, por vezes, chegam a estar cinco e mais navios
deste tipo nas docas de Southampton ao mesmo tempo. “O vento leva o
fumo dos navios directamente para o coração da cidade e ninguém
monitoriza a poluição que provoca”
Os cruzeiros são a
área turística com o crescimento mais rápido nos últimos anos e
os navios tendem a ser cada vez maiores. O Harmony of the Seas tem
362 metros de comprimento, por 66 de largura e 72 de altura – o
equivalente a um prédio de 20 andares. De acordo com a Royal
Caribbean, proprietária do navio, os três motores de 16 cilindros –
com a altura de quatro andares –, consomem 1.377 galões (5.212.5
litros) de fuel por hora, ou seja 96.000 galões (363.399,5 litros)
por dia de um combustível altamente poluente.
Analistas de
poluição marítima em Bruxelas e na Alemanha, citados pelo The
Guardian, dizem que um navio daquela dimensão deve queimar, pelo
menos, 150 toneladas de fuel por dia e emitir mais enxofre que alguns
milhões de carros, mais dióxido de azoto que todo o tráfego de uma
cidade de tamanho médio e mais partículas que milhares de
autocarros de Londres.
Bill Hemmings,
especialista de marinha no grupo ‘Transport & Environment’,
sediado em Bruxelas, disse ao The Guardian que: “Estes navios
queimam tanto fuel como cidades inteiras. Usam mais combustível que
os navios de contentores e mesmo quando queimam fuel com baixo teor
de enxofre, é cem vezes pior que o diesel da estrada”.
“A poluição dos
navios em todo o mundo é responsável por cerca de 50 mil mortes
prematuras só na Europa e tem um custo para a sociedade de mais de
58 mil milhões de euros”, diz o referido grupo ‘Transport &
Environment’ no seu website, citado pelo jornal britânico. Ainda
assim, as companhias de navios de cruzeiros têm investido na
investigação de meios para reduzir as emissões de gases poluentes,
refere o The Guardian.
Numa infografia que
acompanha a notícia, o The Guardian refere as emissões de um grande
navio de cruzeiros, comparadas com o número equivalente de
automóveis. Assim, um destes navios emite tanto CO2 como 83.678
carros, tantos óxidos de azoto como 421.153 automóveis, tantas
partículas como um milhão de veículos e tanto dióxido de enxofre
como 376 milhões de carros.
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The
world's largest cruise ship and its supersized pollution problem
As
Harmony of the Seas sets sail from Southampton docks on Sunday she
will leave behind a trail of pollution – a toxic problem that is
growing as the cruise industry and its ships get ever bigger
Campaigners
say such huge ships can emit as many air pollutants as five million
cars going the same distance.
John
Vidal
Saturday
21 May 2016 08.00 BST
When
the gargantuan Harmony of the Seas slips out of Southampton docks on
Sunday afternoon on its first commercial voyage, the 16-deck-high
floating city will switch off its auxiliary engines, fire up its
three giant diesels and head to the open sea.
But
while the 6,780 passengers and 2,100 crew on the largest cruise ship
in the world wave goodbye to England, many people left behind in
Southampton say they will be glad to see it go. They complain that
air pollution from such nautical behemoths is getting worse every
year as cruising becomes the fastest growing sector of the mass
tourism industry and as ships get bigger and bigger.
According
to its owners, Royal Caribbean, each of the Harmony’s three
four-storey high 16-cylinder Wärtsilä engines will, at full power,
burn 1,377 US gallons of fuel an hour, or about 96,000 gallons a day
of some of the most polluting diesel fuel in the world.
In
port, and close to US and some European coasts, the Harmony must burn
low sulphur fuel. But, says Colin MacQueen, who lives around 400
yards from the docks and is a member of new environment group
Southampton Clean Air, the fumes from cruise liners and bulk cargo
ships are “definitely” contributing to Southampton’s highly
polluted air.
“We
can smell, see and taste it. These ships are like blocks of flats.
Sometimes there are five or more in the docks at the same time. The
wind blows their pollution directly into the city and as far we can
tell, there is no monitoring of their pollution. We are pushing for
them to use shore power but they have resisted.”
“The
liners pollute, but the road traffic that they and the cargo ships
generate is also huge,” he adds.
Royal
Caribbean, the US owners of the Harmony of the Seas, said that the
latest and most efficient pollution control systems were used and
that the ship met all legal requirements.
Industry
body Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) added that
companies had “invested significantly over the last decade to
develop new technologies to help reduce air emissions”.
But
marine pollution analysts in Germany and Brussels said that such a
large ship would probably burn at least 150 tonnes of fuel a day, and
emit more sulphur than several million cars, more NO2 gas than all
the traffic passing through a medium-sized town and more particulate
emissions than thousands of London buses.
According
to leading independent German pollution analyst Axel Friedrich, a
single large cruise ship will emit over five tonnes of NOX emissions,
and 450kg of ultra fine particles a day.
Bill
Hemmings, marine expert at Brussels-based Transport and Environment
group said: “These ships burn as much fuel as whole towns. They use
a lot more power than container ships and even when they burn low
sulphur fuel, it’s 100 times worse than road diesel.”
“Air
pollution from international shipping accounts for around 50,000
premature deaths per year in Europe alone, at an annual cost to
society of more than €58bn [ $65bn],” says the group on its
website.
Daniel
Rieger, a transport officer at German environment group Nabu, said:
“Cruise companies create a picture of being a bright, clean and
environmentally friendly tourism sector. But the opposite is true.
One cruise ship emits as many air pollutants as five million cars
going the same distance because these ships use heavy fuel that on
land would have to be disposed of as hazardous waste.”
Nabu
has measured pollution in large German ports and found high
concentrations of pollutants. “Heavy fuel oil can contain 3,500
times more sulphur than diesel that is used for land traffic
vehicles. Ships do not have exhaust abatement technologies like
particulate filters that are standard on passenger cars and lorries,”
says Rieger.
Southampton,
which has Britain’s second largest container port and is Europe’s
busiest cruise terminal, is one of nine UK cities cited by the World
Health Organisation as breaching air quality guidelines even though
it has little manufacturing.
“Up
to five large liners a day can be berthed in the docks at the same
time, all running engines 24/7, said Chris Hinds, vice chair of the
Southampton docks watchdog group WDCF. “Pollution from the port is
leading to asthma and chest diseases. We are now seeing more, bigger
liners but also very large bulk cargo ships.”
According
to CLIA, the cruise ship industry is now one of the fastest growing
sectors in the mass tourism market, with 24 million passengers
expected to sail in 2016, compared to 15 million in 2006 and just 1.4
million in 1980.
“The
industry shows no signs of slowing down. It generated $119.9bn
(£83bn) in total output worldwide in 2015, supporting 939,232
full-time equivalent jobs,” said a spokesman.
“The
luxury sector is seeing the most amazing growth that it has ever seen
in its history,” said Larry Pimentel, president of Azamara club
cruises.
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