Reducing Pollution the Old-fashioned Way!

I ran across an extraordinary item in the news that shows a common-sense approach to reducing the use of polluting fossil fuels. Imagine a modern cargo ship pulled by a giant sail! This updated application of an age-old technology has been shown to reduce fuel consumption and emissions. The kite, 1,000 feet [300 m] in the air, harnesses the wind, allowing the captain to throttle back the ship’s engine. A 1,722-square-foot [160 sq m] [8 by 20 meters] kite recently helped to power a cargo vessel across the Atlantic. It provided fuel saving of 10-35% per day on its maiden transatlantic voyage. Read more on this story here. The developer's website can be accessed here.

This is a proven "green" technology that can be retrofitted to existing cargo ships. Good stuff!