I've been thinking for a while about the significance of carbon dioxide being labeled a pollutant and what my different engineering professors would think about it. Many marine engineers think about the environment only in terms of what kind of actions are going to be necessary to comply with new regulations, which are decided by the company and usually try to fall barely within the law. The significance of CO2 being labeled a pollutant is that it is an inevitable byproduct of any fossil fuel combustion, so it can't be eliminated through regulations. Actually, the only form of marine propulsion I'm aware of that doesn't burn fossil fuels is nuclear, and that would be scary for obvious reasons.
What I hope comes from this ruling is a major push to develop renewable energy and forms of biofuels that don't harm the environment and global food market. Imagine an ethanol-burning gas-turbine incorporated into a steam co-generation plant driving a ship. The land-based industries should have a comparatively easy time getting off fossil fuels because they can use non-portable renewable energy sources like wind, solar, tidal, etc... and never need to be too far from a charging station.
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Does China have an Internationalist Foreign Policy?
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A number of observant commentators have raised questions about Peoples’
China’s Belt and Road Initiative and more broadly, the foreign policy of
the PRC....
1 week ago
