We all love our internal-combustion engines—our ICEs—but even the newest and cleanest-burning of them produce greenhouse gases (GHG) that contribute to global warming. In 2023, ICEs are the bête noire of the environmental folks, and if they have their way, by the mid-2030s, we’ll all be driving electric cars, like it or not. But what about our boats? Will we also have to replace our gas and diesel engines with electric motors? Battery power is fine for mooching around the harbor, mostly at slow speed, but how will we get the range we want for cruising and fishing offshore if they take away our ICEs, given today’s battery technology? Nobody carries a yellow cord that long. Maybe there’s a better answer.
Compared with the exhaust of fuel-burning power stations, factories, cars, trucks, trains, planes, ships, lawn mowers, leaf blowers and so forth, the amount of GHG (CO2, methane and nitrous oxide) produced by pleasure boats is a pittance. says that shipping accounts for about 3 percent of total GHG emissions
