Re: BLOG COMMENTS RE: Eco-Cruising: Is There Such a Thing?

To be perfectly honest, I’ve never given any thought to cruises until this blog. So out of curiosity, I did an informal google search about cruises and the environment. I was very shocked at their negative impact on the environment. I had no idea what a disaster this industry is!

1. Dumping waste - There are legal dump zones and illegal dump zones. I was just shocked that there were legal dump zones. One site tried to explain they were “green” because they dumped their waste at least 4 miles from shore, often times 12 miles, while they could legally dump it two miles from shore. They also tried to infer this was a lot better because many cities along the coasts release their overflow right into the oceans at the shore. Wow! Do they not get that it still goes into the ocean whether it’s 2, 4 or 12 miles from shore. Is this another matter of if we don’t see it, we don’t think it’s a problem?? No wonder our oceans are dying.
2. Cruises produce 4.5 times more trash than that same number of people would produce on land. A cruise ship that carries 3,000 people produces as much sewage and waste as a mid-size city.
3. Cruises produce 3 times more CO2 than airplanes. Diesel engines spew out diesel exhaust equivalent to 10,000 cars each day per ship
4. Cruise ships us an insane amount of gasoline. Here goes: Given that cruise ships vary in size, they consume 10,400-26,000 gallons a day! They go an average of 18 feet per gallon. The Queen Victoria which holds 2,000 people uses 239 gallons per mile. An average ship carries 3,000 tons of fuel and will refuel at ports. They carry an average of 150 tons of marine gas oil consuming 12 tons per hour when at maximum output.

Is there are reason then, that carbonfund.org does not list cruises as an option to offset your carbon footprint.? Is that task impossible??

A few good websites I found are:

http://www.kahea.org/ocean/

http://www.environmentalleader.com/2008/01/22/cruise-ships-worse-for-environment-than-planes/

http://www.baycrossings.com/archives/2003/01_February/bay_crossings_environment_cruise_ships_blues.htm

This one is a must see! www.cruisejunkie.com
Visit the” pollution and environmental violations and fines” page!! (This guy has written a book, Cruise Ship Blues, mentioned in the 3rd website I listed.)

good grief! All this info you list here, makes me wonder if they were lying to me or if they have one of the better waste management programs. Blog coming soon. Hopefully, next week.