The buck has to stop somewhere with cruise ship pollution. Passengers are largely unaware of it because everything happens on the ‘back of ship’, as mariners call it. I am one of the privileged few who has been behind the scenes on a cruise liner. I can assure you the downstairs space is massive with a two-way road running from one end to the other. I am not against the idea of cruise ideas. However, there might just be too many cruise ships visiting at the same time.
What is Cruise Ship Pollution – Are There Different Kinds?
A modern cruise ship has as many as sixteen decks housing up to 7,000 passengers and 2,000 crew. Thus, it is a ‘city’ on the water, except there is no connection to a municipal service to carry away its waste. Therefore, to cut costs, it may be tempted to deal with some waste itself.
This waste includes sewage, wastewater from sinks, showers, and galleys, hazardous wastes, solid waste, oily bilge water, ballast water, and air pollution from diesels. The U.S. Congress skirted around the problem when it restricted cruise ship pollution discharges in its waters. Essentially, this says take your rubbish elsewhere. That elsewhere may be the deep blue, increasingly polluted ocean.
Campaigners in Marseilles, France Say Enough is Enough!
Cruise ships bring 1.5 million passengers to Marseilles annually, and they are a bonanza for restaurants and shops. However, residents may see them as nuisance, driving prices up as tourists move about the city in small crowds.
Take Jean-Pierre Eyraud for example, whom The Guardian reports has a “prime view of the giant, luxury cruise liners that dock in the city.” Four years ago, doctors told him he had throat cancer along with several others in his neighborhood. “Jean-Pierre and environmental campaigners fear the air pollution caused by cruise ships burning fuel all day at port, is choking Marseille’s citizens along the coast,” the report adds. Surely, tbey could be running some of their services on solar?
There is hardly a smudge of green energy on any of these giant ships. Despite them ferrying passengers to sunny climates that really don’t need cruise ship pollution to smudge their horizons. We accept green energy must be hybrid at this stage. However, at least they should be able to power their lights with stored solar energy from marine batteries. It is time to rethink.
Related
International Shipping Navigates Around CO2
Hybrid Ferries Span the Sea in British Columbia
Preview Image: Diesel Smoke from Cruise Ships over Juneau, Alaska
