A closer look
Cargo ships and ocean liners are traditionally painted red below the waterline because early shipbuilders used toxic copper biocides to prevent barnacles and seaweed from eating the wooden hulls; the copper gave the paint a distinct red hue, and even though modern chemical engineering has created countless other colors of antifouling paint, the shipping industry stubbornly sticks to red purely out of maritime tradition, meaning multinational shipping conglomerates are spending millions of dollars adhering to the aesthetic preferences of dead seventeenth-century sailors to ensure their massive floating warehouses look stylish while casually destroying global marine ecosystems
