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Comment by memn0nis | Hacker News Reader

I've never understand why the problem of "the X largest ships contribute a shocking amount of pollution" hasn't been solved. It can't be that hard given the limited number of ships, right?

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People who own or travel on boats are rich and the people most affected by the pollution they spew are not

....this article is about NYC, one of the richest places in NYC. Air pollution doesn't spare the rich.

NYC is not uniformly rich at all. It is only the astounding wealth of the richest New Yorkers that makes it appear so. Who exactly is affected in NYC depends on the dock and wind direction. I have read (somewhere I forget) that air quality is in the mean worse in the Bronx; by no means is the outcome of this affecting all classes uniformly.

When you are a billionaire and buy a massive apartment in Manhattan just above a street that has thousands of polluting cars passing by every hour.

That’s not quite true. Cruises can be downright cheap compared to a comparable period of time at a hotel. Some of the cheapest cruises of all leave NYC, spend two nights at sea, and return.

Pollution gets solved by regulation, this had been shown again and again.

Boats at this scale should be nuclear. It's a shame there isn't a better path for non-military nuclear ocean vessels.

- "Permission to harbor, Sir"

- "You said this is a nuclear ship sir?"

- "Correct"

- "Aaand you're not speaking figuratively of the geriatric waste you're carrying?"

- "Correct. We need you to dispose of our very literal nuclear waste."

- "Roger. Please stand by."

This sounds so familiar but I'm not placing it.

Snow Crash?

Uh oh. Never thought I'd reach the day I channeled Neal Stephenson.

Snow Crash has been mentioned a lot here, is it an anniversary?

Maybe because HBO picked up the rights a week or two ago?

It's the birthday present I've been waiting years for.

No problem. Heat and electricity from shore based nuclear power plants can be used to manufacture synthetic carbon neutral fuels. Run the ships on that. The technology has existed for decades, it's just more expensive than burning fossil fuels.

But installing nuclear reactors in modern commercial vessels is a total non starter for cost and security reasons.

International waters have very little regulation.

Many places have rules and the ships switch to a cleaner fuel in these waters, but when they're on the open sea they have no incentive to not use bunker fuel.

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