Your Boat’s Carbon Footprint

Radically Reduce Your Boat’s Carbon Footprint

 

When you reduce your boat’s “carbon footprint,” you also reduce your operating costs.

Even as you acknowledge your blissful days on the lake are an extravagance, you argue their benefits for your sanity and your family’s happiness more than justify the expense. Moreover, you love your days on the open water so much you are willing to take bold steps to continue enjoying them. You are willing not only to review all the real costs of operating your boat but also to assess your boat’s impact on the environment. As you form your resolve, you should remember, as with most things earth-friendly, reducing your carbon footprint is a wallet-friendly choice, too.

Calculate your current footprint

For the sake of simple discussion, you can calculate your boat’s carbon footprint by simple multiplication using the formula…

#gallons x lbs/gal(CO2) = e CO2
(size of your fuel tank) X (pounds per gallon burned)=(carbon emissions or “the footprint”)

Calculate at the rates…

one gallon of marine diesel produces 21.24 lbs. CO2
one gallon of marine unleaded (93 octane)produces 19.88lbs. CO2
one gallon of marine unleaded (91 octane)produces 19.51lbs. CO2
one gallon of marine unleaded (89 octane)produces 19.52lbs. CO2
one gallon of “jet A” produces 21.1lbs. CO2
one gallon of biodiesel produces 5.02lbs. CO2

Of course, the less fuel you burn, the less you pollute the atmosphere. You may naturally wonder how a gallon of gasoline that weighs barely six pounds in the can mysteriously generates more than twenty pounds of carbon emissions. Blame the fire triangle: In your engine, gasoline mixes with heat and oxygen—the miracle of internal combustion; as gasoline and oxygen mix, oxygen increases the weight of combustion’s by-products by a multiple of approximately 3.5.

Choose your footprint reduction plan

Obviously, changes in octane ratings have little impact on the size of your carbon footprint, so that acting conscientiously to reduce your emissions requires a choice among three options. You may reduce your fuel consumption by going to a smaller and more fuel-efficient engine, or you may reduce your fuel consumption by applying strict self-discipline to your piloting. The third option is slightly more radical. If you love that big old Chevy 454, and you cannot restrain your urge to run it with the throttle wide-open, then you may aggressively reduce your carbon footprint all the time you are not tearing-up the waterways. Instead of replacing your boat engine, change all your household light-bulbs and replace all your kitchen appliances; then, abandon driving to work and take public transit or ride your bicycle.

Further reduce your footprint

A little common sense cuts carbon emissions a lot, simultaneously cutting your costs and making you a safer helmsman…

• Generally back-off the throttle and control it more smoothly, cutting out your jack-rabbit starts and backing off from wide-open to cruise at least two or three more times per outing than you have been accustomed to backing-off in the past.

• Update and downsize your engine. Just as high-performance auto engines now generate the same old-fashioned horsepower from far fewer cubic inches with far less fuel consumption, so boat engines have evolved. What used to take eight cylinders now requires only six, and what used to suck-up premium fuel now sips regular. Just as importantly, update and upgrade your propellers; stainless steel propellers rock.

• Perfect your “planning” skills. Just as your car uses less fuel when it runs at 60 mph at the low end of fifth gear than it uses at 10 mph wound-out in first, so your boat runs far more efficiently when it “planes.” Get on-plane quickly and stay there; perfect your “power trim” skills. The less hull you drag through the water, the less your engine has to work against waves, wake, and chop.

• Cut weight wherever you can. Do not carry extra fuel on-board, give-up all those unnecessary accessories, and make sure your hull is perfectly clean. While you are cutting weight, seriously consider cutting size. If you have a compelling need for speed, remember that smaller boats go much faster using far less fuel.

On the water, “economical” and “ecological” are synonyms. The more you increase your boat’s fuel efficiency, the more you make it earth-friendly. The more you reduce your boat’s carbon footprint, the more you assure your children and their children can enjoy the same blissful days on the lake that have enriched your life and made your hard work worthwhile.

Photo credit: Boating-at the gas pump by momentcaptured1/flickr; Speed by Zanastardust/flickr

Timothy Petersen is an avid water sports enthusiast and content contributor for SkiSafe.com, a Boat Insurance provider specializing in PWC insurance for jetskiis, yachts, fishing boats, and more

UN agencies to present plan for sustainable future of oceans

UN agencies to present plan for sustainable future of oceans

Four United Nations agencies have prepared a plan to limit the degradation of oceans and address issues such as overfishing, pollution and declining biodiversity to encourage countries to renew their commitment to improve oceans¡¯ governance, the UN announced today.
The plan, Blueprint for Ocean and Coastal Sustainability, seeks to highlight the opportunity that countries have to set up more effective institutional mechanisms to protect both the ocean and coastal areas ahead of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20 in June next year, where world leaders will meet to asses their progress on sustainable development and address new challenges.

According to a news release issued by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the plan will be presented by its Director-General Irina Bokova at the headquarters of the agency in Paris on Tuesday. The event will be one of the highlights of the 36th session of UNESCO¡¯s general conference.

The plan was produced jointly by UNESCO, UN Development Programme (UNDP), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO), who will present the ten recommendations featured in the plan at the event.

According to UNESCO, oceans account for 70 per cent of the Earth¡¯s surface, but only one per cent of their area is protected. In addition, 60 per cent of major marine ecosystems are damaged or over-exploited, having negative effects on mangroves and coral reefs.

The ocean also absorbs close to 26 per cent of carbon dioxide emission in the atmosphere, increasing acidification, which affects plankton, and these in turn affect the entire food chain, significantly increasing the impact oceans have on all ecosystems. 

ancient seafarers

DNA legacy of ancient seafarers

The Phoenicians took their alphabet with them on their travels

Scientists have used DNA to re-trace the migrations of a sea-faring civilisation which dominated the Mediterranean thousands of years ago.

The Phoenicians were an enterprising maritime people from the territory of modern-day Lebanon.
They established a trading empire throughout the Mediterranean Sea in the first millennium BC.
A new study by an international team has now revealed the genetic legacy they imparted to modern populations.
The researchers estimate that as many as one in 17 men from the Mediterranean may have Phoenician ancestry.

When we started, we knew nothing about the genetics of the Phoenicians Chris Tyler-Smith Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

They employed a new analytical technique to detect the subtle genetic imprint of historical migrations in present-day people. The study included DNA data from more than 6,000 men from around the Mediterranean.

From their base in present-day Lebanon, the Phoenicians spread out across the sea, founding colonies and trading posts as far afield as Spain and North Africa, where their most powerful city - Carthage - was located.
Carthage spawned the audacious military commander Hannibal, who marched an army over the Alps to challenge the Roman Republic on its own territory.
The Phoenicians have been described as the world's first "global capitalists". They controlled trade throughout the Mediterranean basin for nearly 1,000 years until finally being conquered by the Romans.
Over subsequent centuries, much of what was known about these enigmatic people was lost or destroyed.
Digging deep
"People have not really looked at this heritage, and I think we ought to be looking more," Dr Pierre Zalloua, from the Lebanese American University in Beirut, Lebanon, told BBC News.
Chris Tyler-Smith, co-author of the paper from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, UK, commented: "When we started, we knew nothing about the genetics of the Phoenicians. All we had to guide us was history.

The researchers used historical information to focus their study

"We knew where they had and hadn't settled. But this simple information turned out to be enough, with the help of modern genetics, to trace a vanished people."
The new findings have emerged from the Genographic Project, a multi-million-dollar effort to trace human migrations using genetics. Details appear in the prestigious American Journal of Human Genetics.
The study focused on the Y, or male, chromosome, a package of genetic material carried only by men that is passed down from father to son more or less unchanged, just like a surname.
But over many generations, the chromosome accumulates small changes, or copying errors, in its DNA sequence.
These can be used to classify male chromosomes into different groups (called haplogroups) which, to some extent, reflect a person's geographical ancestry.
They looked at the genetic signatures carried on the Y chromosomes of men from former Phoenician colonies across the Mediterranean. The sites included coastal Lebanon, Cyprus, Crete, Malta, eastern Sicily, southern Sardinia, Ibiza, southern Spain, coastal Tunisia and the city of Tingris in Morocco.
They then compared the Y chromosomes of these men with those of males from nearby places where the Phoenicians had never lived.
This focussed approach uncovered a small number of recurring genetic signatures in men from the Phoenician sites. These genetic lineages also led back to the Levant region - the Phoenician homeland.
Genetic 'jacuzzi'
But several human migrations - both historic and prehistoric - have started in the Eastern Mediterranean and spread out to Europe and North Africa.
These include the migrations of early farmers from the Near East after 10,000BC, the expansion of the ancient Greeks who - like the Phoenicians - established outposts around the Mediterranean, and the Jewish diaspora.
Because of their geographical proximity, the people involved in these expansions may have carried similar genetic signatures to the Phoenicians.

Teasing apart something that's specifically Levantine, or Phoenician, from the background of the general Neolithic expansion, or Greek colonisation, is actually quite tough Spencer Wells Genographic Project director

However, the team devised special analytical methods which they say can distinguish the Phoenician input from other possibilities.
"The issue here is that the Mediterranean is a genetic jacuzzi, if you will, it's had people moving around all over the place for millennia," said Spencer Wells, director of the Genographic Project.
"Teasing apart something that's specifically Levantine, or Phoenician, from the background of the general Neolithic expansion, or Greek colonisation, is actually quite tough.
"That's why we needed this formalised approach and obviously the (large) sample sizes to detect this signal."
This strategy revealed six candidate "Phoenician" lineages. Overall, these made up 6% of genetic lineages found in modern populations from former Phoenician colonies around the Mediterranean.
That means one in 17 men from these sites could trace their male ancestry to a Phoenician, the researchers said.
Co-author Daniel Platt, from IBM's Computational Biology Center at the TJ Watson Research Center, said the study "proves that these settlements, some of which lasted hundreds of years, left a genetic legacy that persists to modern times".
Dr Wells explained that the technique used in this study could be applied to track other migrations which had subtle genetic impacts.
He cited the expansion of Celtic-speaking people from their homeland in the Harz mountains of Germany into Western and Eastern Europe during the first millennium BC.
The Genographic Project was launched in 2005, and involves National Geographic, IBM, the Waitt Family Foundation and Applied Biosystems. 

A rapid freeze-up scientific analysis on Arctic sea ice conditions

Daily image update

 

Sea ice data updated daily, with one-day lag. Orange line in extent image (left) and gray line in time series (right) indicate 1979 to 2000 average extent for the day shown. Click for high-resolution image.
Learn about update delays and other problems which occasionally occur in near-real-time data. Read about the data.
—Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center

Read scientific analysis on Arctic sea ice conditions. We provide an update during the first week of each month, or more frequently as conditions warrant.

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Visit our new Icelights section. Get answers to your burning questions about ice and climate.

 

November 2, 2011

A rapid freeze-up

Arctic sea ice extent increased rapidly through October, as is typical this time of year. Large areas of open water were still present in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas at the end of the month. 
The open water contributed to unusually warm conditions along the coast of Siberia
 and in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas.

Figure 1. Arctic sea ice extent for October 2011 was 7.10 million square kilometers (2.74 million square miles). The magenta line shows the 1979 to 2000 median extent for that month. The black cross indicates the geographic North Pole.Sea Ice Index data.
—Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center

High-resolution image

Overview of conditions
Average ice extent for October 2011 was 7.10 million square kilometers
 (2.74 million square miles), 2.19 million square kilometers (846,000 square miles)
 below the 1979 to 2000 average. This was 330,000 square kilometers (127,000 square miles)
 above the average for October 2007, the lowest extent in the satellite record for that month
 By the end of October, ice extent remained below the 1979 to 2000 average in the Beaufort and Chukchi
 seas and in the Barents and Kara seas. Extent was near average in the East Greenland Sea.
 New ice growth has closed both the Northwest Passage and the Northern Sea 
Route.

Figure 2. The graph above shows daily Arctic sea ice extent as of October 31, 2011, along with the lowest ice extents in the preceding decades, 1984 and 1999. 2011 is shown in light blue. 2007, the year with the record low minimum, is dashed green. Purple indicates 1999 and light green shows 1984. The gray area around the average line shows the twostandard deviation range of the data. Sea Ice Index data.
—Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center
High-resolution image

Conditions in contextArctic sea ice extent increased
 rapidly through October. Ice extent during October 2011
 increased at an average rate of 114,900 square kilometers
 (44,360 square miles) per day, about 40% faster than the
 average growth rate for October 1979 to 2000. On October 
30, Arctic sea ice extent was 8.41 million square kilometers
 (3.25 million square miles), 226,000 square kilometers 
(87,300 square miles) more than the ice extent on October 30, 




2007, the lowest extent on that date in the satellite record.

During the month of October, the freeze-up that begins in 
September kicks into high gear. The rate of freeze-up 
depends on several factors including the atmospheric
 conditions and the amount of heat in the ocean that
 was accumulated during the summer. However, each
 decade, the October extent has started from a lower 
and lower point, with the record low extent during the 
1980s (1984) substantially higher than the record low
 extent during the 1990s (1999), which in turn is substantially higher than the record low extent during the 2000s (2007).

Figure 3. Monthly October ice extent for 1979 to 2011 shows a decline of 6.6% per decade.—Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center
High-resolution image

October 2011 compared to past yearsIce extent for October 2011 was the second lowest in the satellite record for the month, behind 2007. The linear rate of decline for October over the satellite record is now -61,700 square kilometers (-23,800 square miles) per year, or -6.6% per decade relative to the 1979 to 2000 average.

Figure 4. This map of air temperature anomalies at the 925 hPa level (approximately 3000 feet) for October 2011 shows unusually high temperatures over most of the Arctic Ocean (yellow shading) and unusually low temperatures over the eastern Canadian Arctic Archipelago and Greenland (blue shading). 
—Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center
High-resolution image

Atmospheric conditionsIn recent years,
 low sea ice extent in the summer has been
 linked to unusually warm temperatures at the
 surface of the Arctic Ocean in the fall.
 This pattern appeared yet again this fall.

Air temperatures over most of the Arctic Ocean
 for October 2011 ranged from 1 to 4 degrees
 Celsius (1.8 to 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) above
 average, measured at the 925 millibar level,
 about 1,000 meters or 3,000 feet above the
 surface. However, over the eastern Canadian
 Arctic and Greenland, temperatures were as
 much as 3 degrees Celsius
 (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) below average.

These temperature anomalies in part reflect a
 pattern of above-average sea level pressure
 centered over the northern Beaufort Sea,
 and lower than average sea level pressure
 extending across northern Eurasia.
 This pattern is linked to persistence of the
 positive phase of the Arctic Oscillation through
 most of the month. These pressure and
 temperature anomalies tend to bring in heat
 from the south, warming the Eurasian coast,
 but they also lead to cold northerly winds over
 the eastern Canadian Arctic Archipelago.
However, along the Siberian coast and in the
 Beaufort and Chukchi seas, warmer
 temperatures came primarily from the
 remaining areas of open water in the region, as heat escaped from the water. These effects are more strongly
 apparent in the surface air temperatures: average October temperatures in the region were 5 to 8 degrees
 Celsius (9.0 to 14.4 degrees Fahrenheit) above average.

Figure 5. The top panel of this figure shows the number of open water days for the approximate 75 kilometer (46.6 mi) coastal zone along the Beaufort Sea (data for each year and linear trend). The bottom panel shows the average annual coastal erosion rate for three periods, 1979-1999, 2000-2007 and 2008-2009.
—Credit: NSIDC courtesy Irina Overeem, CU Boulde

Pirates have seized an oil products tanker off southern Nigeria

1 of 1Full Size

The Malta-flagged Halifax was last seen in the Bight of Benin, off the coast of Cotonou, with a destination showing Port Harcourt, AIS tracking data on Reuters showed.
"If the vessel has been hijacked, it is likely to be held for a period of under 10 days until its attackers can offload as much of the cargo as possible before abandoning the ship," Security firm AKE Ltd said in a note on Thursday.

"Vessel operators in the area are advised to proceed with caution, and ensure 24 hour watch rotas and best management practices are in place. Slow moving or stationary vessels are at an increased risk. The use of a correctly secured citadel remains an effective last measure of defence."
Earlier this month, pirates hijacked a chemical product tanker and kidnapped the crew off the Nigerian coast.


By Jonathan Saul and Austin Ekeinde
LONDON/PORT HARCOURT (Reuters) - Pirates have hijacked an oil products tanker off the coast of Nigeria after contact was lost with the vessel and crew over the weekend, the vessel's manager said on Thursday.
An official with Greek-based Ancora Investment Trust Inc said the Halifax tanker was still being held. "They are holding the vessel and crew," the official told Reuters.
An oil security source told Reuters separately that pirates had hijacked a small oil supply boat, called MV Igbere, off the coast of Nigeria on Thursday.
The incidents were the latest in a lengthening string of attacks on ships in the Gulf of Guinea that experts say threatens an emerging trade hub -- and an increasingly important source of oil, metals and agricultural products like cocoa to world markets.
Pirates in the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea, which stretches from Guinea to Angola, tend to raid ships for cash and cargo rather than hijacking the crews for ransom like their counterparts off the coast of Somalia, analysts say.
"What they are aiming at is the cargo," said the official from Ancora Investment Trust, which manages the tanker.
The official said the Halifax had been 60 miles off Nigeria's Port Harcourt before it was hijacked.
"She was waiting to go inside and berth," the official said.

Action urged on ships' carbon emissions

Without curbs, emissions from ships will form a larger fraction of the global total in future

• Emissions 'need to fall quicker'
• Nuclear 'cheapest option' for UK
• Charges to tackle ship emissions

Greenhouse gas emissions from shipping should be included in the UK's climate change budgets, the Committee on Climate Change has recommended.

Under the Climate Change Act, the UK is committed to cutting all its climate-changing emissions by 80% - based on 1990 levels - by 2050.
But international aviation and shipping emissions are not currently included.
If the government agrees, it will mean tighter targets for other sectors such as motoring and electricity generation.
"Shipping could account for up to 10% of emissions allowed under the 2050 target, and that says this is a material issue," said Committee on Climate Change (CCC) chief executive David Kennedy.
The CCC's report says there are many ways for shipping to curb its carbon footprint - by improving fuel efficiency, deploying kites or sails, or allocating vessels more efficiently.
Some companies are already developing such techniques.
Tight budgets

The first four carbon budgets, stretching to 2027, have already been agreed

The CCC has recommended - and the government has adopted - a series of carbon budgets setting down the maximum scale of greenhouse gas emissions that the UK can emit over successive five-year periods.
They are designed as staging posts on the way to the 2050 target.
If the government does agree to include shipping and maybe aviation in the budgets, then constraints on other sectors must become tighter.
"If you include shipping in the 2050 target - especially if you throw in aviation as well - that implies full decarbonisation of electricity, heat and surface vehicles," said Mr Kennedy.
"And if the ambition is full decarbonisation [of those sectors], then we need to make good progress in the next two decades, otherwise we can't achieve the 2050 target."
The committee will put its formal recommendation on shipping and aviation to the government next year, and the government says that it will respond "in due course". Under law, it must decide by the end of 2012.
Ins and outs

“Start Quote

Any solution must... avoid potentially damaging an industry that is vital to the future prosperity of the United Kingdom”

End Quote David Balston UK Chamber of Shipping

The committee's analysts spent three months attempting to calculate UK shipping emissions "from the bottom up", scouring records of 150,000 shipping movements into and out of UK ports by vessels including cargo ships, tugs, fishing vessels, ferries and cruise liners.

It believes the UK should be responsible for half of all the emissions associated with ships entering or leaving national ports - the other half being borne by whichever countries lie at the other end of the journeys.
Having crunched the numbers, the committee concludes that the UK's share is 12-16 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (MtCO2) per year.
Globally, shipping emissions are growing by 3-4% per year, and could account for a quarter of all the world's greenhouse gas output by 2050.
The International Maritime Organisation agreed earlier this year on a programme to progressively increase vessels' fuel efficiency.
The CCC is basically saying the UK should lead an international effort to go further and faster down this track.
The UK Chamber of Shipping, which worked with the CCC on its analysis, welcomed the conclusion, but warned of potential impacts on competitiveness.

"Eco-ships", such as Japanese line NYK's 2030 concept, could cut emissions by 70%

"This work is hugely important," said David Balston, the organisation's director for safety and environment.
"We do stress, however, that any solution must be global rather than regional to avoid distorting world trade and potentially damaging an industry that is vital to the future prosperity of the United Kingdom."
Mr Kennedy also suggested the priority was to end up with a global system of carrots and sticks for decarbonising shipping, and urged UK ministers to press for such a deal at and after the UN climate talks that begin in South Africa at the end of the month.
If international action proved impossible, the European Union would almost certainly introduce measure for traffic in and out of European ports, he said.
Environment group WWF, together with Oxfam, recently issued a report recommending that some kind of global shipping tax be used to raise some of the $100bn per year of climate-related cash that rich countries are committed to providing to the developing world by 2020.
"International shipping has, like aviation, been left out of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for too long, said Keith Allott, WWF-UK's head of climate change.
"An international deal to address shipping could be a win-win - addressing a rapidly growing source of emissions and at the same time providing a valuable source of funding for tackling climate change in the developing world."
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Sunday, October 30, 2011

Somali piracy: Armed guards to protect UK ships

Posted by westof 

Somali piracy: Armed guards to protect UK ships

Use of armed guards would be restricted to voyages through particular waters in affected areas

Continue reading the main story

Related Stories

• UN sanctions anti-piracy guards
• The losing battle against Somali piracy
• 
  

Ships sailing under a British flag will be able to carry armed guards to protect them from pirates, the prime minister has announced.

David Cameron says he wants to combat the risks to shipping off the coast of Somalia, where 49 of the world's 53 hijackings last year took place.

No ship carrying armed security has yet been hijacked, the government claims.

However, allowing ships to carry armed guards may fall foul of laws in other countries, such as South Africa.

Many British-registered ships already illegally carry armed guards because companies feel they have no alternative.

Shoot to kill?

Mr Cameron revealed he wanted to make the practice legal after talks in Australia with Commonwealth leaders from the region over the escalating problem faced in waters off their shores.

Asked if he was comfortable with giving private security operatives the right to "shoot to kill" if necessary, Mr Cameron told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show: "We have to make choices.

"Frankly, the extent of the hijack and ransom of ships round the Horn of Africa is a complete stain on our world.

Continue reading the main story

"The fact that a bunch of pirates in Somalia are managing to hold to ransom the rest of the world and our trading system is a complete insult and the rest of the world needs to come together with much more vigour."

France and Spain provide so-called military vessel protection detachments, while Italy is planning a similar measure.

However, in July, Foreign Office Minister Henry Bellingham said limited resources in the light of current military commitments could not allow Royal Marines to do the same.

Under the plans, the Home Secretary will be given the power to license vessels to carry armed security, including automatic weapons, currently prohibited under firearms laws.

Targeting assets

Officials said up to 200 could take up the offer, which would only apply for voyages through particular waters in the affected region.

Other counter-piracy measures being taken include offering support from Treasury officials to Kenya to help its officials track down pirates' assets.

Mr Cameron also said help could be given to countries such as The Seychelles and Mauritius who were acting to bring pirates to court and imprison them.

• UN sanctions anti-piracy guards 21 MAY 2011, AFRICA
• The losing battle against Somali piracy 10 FEBRUARY 2011, AFRICA
• Q&A: What do you do with a captured pirate? 25 JANUARY 2011, AFRIC