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It seems to me that many comments here are missing the point. To be fair, the article also seems to get it wrong. The problem with sulphur and nitrogen oxides i

• mikeash 10y ago
  I would argue that you are missing the point, although probably only by not being sufficiently cynical. Articles about how a handful of large ships pollute more than all the cars on the planet have been going around for years. They're almost always written to be highly misleading, to trick the reader into thinking that ships are far more important polluters than cars and that all the effort by environmentalists to clean up cars is either wasted or a scam. Note that the title (both on HN and on economist.com) has changed to something much more reasonable. It used to say something like: just 15 ships emit more pollution than all the cars in the world combined.
  • goodcanadian 10y ago
    To me it is almost self evident that the cars are a far more serious issue as far as global warming goes though I grant that might not be clear to all readers of the article. That is why I said that the article sort of misses the point. That does not mean that the pollution from these ships is not just as serious; it is just serious for other reasons, and yes, it really is a big deal. For my part, I don't think the article is trying to mislead or distract. The author is simply falling victim to the current bias of talking​ about every environmental problem in terms of global warming whether appropriate or not.