The global shipping sector has been under the radar—ships come and go, delivering the products of everyday life. The number of ocean-going ships has increased fourfold since 1992, getting simultaneously noisier, bigger, and difficult to slow down. In pristine areas like coastal British Columbia or the Arctic, untreated wastewater, oily bilge water, and ballast water threaten the ecosystems and the coastal and indigenous communities that... [ view more ]
The global shipping sector has been under the radar—ships come and go, delivering the products of everyday life. The number of ocean-going ships has increased fourfold since 1992, getting simultaneously noisier, bigger, and difficult to slow down. In pristine areas like coastal British Columbia or the Arctic, untreated wastewater, oily bilge water, and ballast water threaten the ecosystems and the coastal and indigenous communities that depend upon a clean ocean. With container ships and tankers also come strikes to endangered marine mammals and oil spills from accidental discharges or vessel accidents. Cruise ships have human health and environmental justice effects in ports, with localized air and sewage. And, marine shipping is one of the only sectors exempted from the Paris Climate Agreement, despite the fact that, if left unchecked, their contributions will amount to 17% of global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Communities are coming together to build geographic response plans and identify areas to be avoided by large ships. Countries like Canada have committed to implementing a world-leading marine safety system and place-specific oil tanker moratoriums. And the International Maritime Organization has begun the process to reduce the risk of a catastrophic oil spill in the Arctic by phasing out the use of heavy fuel oil, while many still call for banning its carriage also.
Going local to global, join our wide-ranging panel of experts from indigenous communities, advocacy organizations and the policy arena to learn about shipping’s real challenges, solutions and how they are having an impact.
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