SHIPS USE LESS FUEL THAN CARS

Claims that cargo ships are more polluting than cars are laughable – who makes this bollocks up?

The luddite fraternity have had their say in stopping Heathrow’s expansion and Cliffe’s apparently got long legged newt warblers nearby so that’s a no no; now the corduroy patch vegan army are having a pop at dirty shipping.

I’m no defender of ships for any particular reason other than the idiots that keep making outragious claims about global warming; a very serious but over-egged subject have made them veggie enemy number one.

Picking on a ship simply because it’s famous; the Emma Maersk carries well over 10,000 TEUs (that’s a shipping container to you and me) – for argument sake that’s: 423,600 cubic metres, 4,045 nautical miles using 266,456 gallons of diesel – simple calculation – that’s 1.589 cubic metres per gallon.

A Ford Fiesta with a 9 litre boot capacity would need to make the land journey of 4,655 miles 1,662,225 times using 101,411,021 gallons of diesel – simple calculation – that’s 0.004 cubic metres per gallon.

The engines on the Emma Maersk are some of the most efficient in the world at around 50% thermal efficiency (more than 50% of the energy in the fuel is converted into motion) compared to the Fiesta at around 30%.

The Fiesta comfortably seats four, the Emma Maersk sleeps thirty.