That was a story from 2009, and it was referring specifically to sulfur dioxide rather than all air pollution: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/apr

That was a story from 2009, and it was referring specifically to sulfur dioxide rather than all air pollution: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/apr/09/shipping-pollution https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2009/apr/09/shipping... The high SO2 pollution was because heavy fuel oil used in oceanic shipping could have a very high sulfur content, up to 4.5%. The global limit has been lowered to 0.5% this year. In designated Sulfur Emission Control Areas the limit has been lowered to 0.1% since 2015. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emission_Control_Area https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emission_Control_Area The sulfur dioxide emissions from shipping have been slashed since that Guardian article was written. Other air pollution from shipping was not greater than that from cars in the first place.