Shipping industry 'major factor in climate change'

The shipping industry is a major contributor to climate change, according to a new study.

Conducted by researchers from the University of Delaware, the study, which was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, found that the world's operational 100,000 cargo ships emit half as much as the planet's 600 million cars.

Professor Daniel Lack, one of the study's leading authors, explained that the ships are "in international waters most of the time, so the pollution doesn't really get noticed by people."

He continued that the use of cheap fuels means that ships are "literally burning the bottom of the barrel. After oil refining, there's a black sludge left and that's what ships are burning, so they're burning a really dirty fuel."

A recent tanker spill that occurred in the Merry Point area of Hawaii's Pearl Harbour saw the release of 2,000 gallons of wastewater, informed the Hawaii Reporter last week.