Boats and the environment.
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008Boat insurance is probably the oldest type of insurance cover. From the 17th century London as a trade centre has been accumulating ships from all over the world, creating demand for ship and cargo insurance. During the industrial revolution the river Thames became overloaded with cargo vessels. Though it boosted the boat insurance market even further, it was an environmental disaster for the British capital. Because of the amount of coal burnt, by the year 1954 the river Thames was sank in the ‘pea-souper’ Great Smog. About 4 000 people died that year in London with respiratory related problems.
One can get an idea of the scale of pollution from the series of paintings by Claude Monet. The painting Houses of Parliament was not created from an artist’s imagination, but was purely based on actual observation.
Houses of Parliament.Claude Monet.
To tackle the problem, a number of measures have been put in place to reduce pollutants cased by commercial cargo vessels and boats.
Today however, boating is considered to be one of the most green leisure activities. There are even more new green technologies available- like boat solar panels or biofuels to insure your boat has the least impact on the environment.
