How cruise ships became a catastrophe for the planet | It's Complicated
3,308Cruising is booming – 2023 ticket sales have surpassed historic levels and 2024 has seen the launch of the largest cruise ship ever built.
But as cruise tourism's popularity has increased, so have the pollution problems it brings. To customers, it may not be evident that any problems exist, since some cruise line companies claim to be becoming more climate-friendly.
The truth can be quite different. Josh Toussaint-Strauss interrogates what impact the world's biggest ships are having on the planet.
From the Guardian:
‘Biggest, baddest’ – but is it the cleanest? World’s largest cruise ship sets sail
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/26/icon-of-the-seas-largest-cruise-ship-human-lasagne-climate-fuel-lng-greenwashing
‘A good cruise is one that doesn’t come’: Europe’s ports bear brunt of ship pollution
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2023/oct/19/europe-ports-bear-brunt-of-cruise-ship-pollution
Shipping’s dirty secret: how ‘scrubbers’ clean the air – while contaminating the sea https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/12/shippings-dirty-secret-how-scrubbers-clean-the-air-while-contaminating-the-sea
Sources:
0:22 - "50% US citizens" -
Source: TIME/Harris Poll
https://time.com/6285915/cruise-industry-climate-action-emissions-passengers/
2:48 - "4 times worse than flying"
Source: the International Council on Clean Transportation
https://theicct.org/marine-cruising-flying-may22/
2:56 - "Same particulate matter as 1m cars"
Sourse Nabu report
https://en.nabu.de/news/2017/23046.html
3:04 - "4x sulphur oxides as all Europe's cars"
Source: Transport & Environment study
https://www.transportenvironment.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/The-return-of-the-cruise-June-2023.pdf
3:17 - "25% of all ocean waste comes from cruise ships" -
Source: Ocean & Coastal Management journal
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0964569121003331
3:25 - impact on marine life
Source: PHAROS4MPAs
https://iczmplatform.org/storage/documents/lBKMxs0Wvm99Y9EpeBhGezNFaECM6c4hK24nCitv.pdf
3:51 - 24% lower if speed reduced
Source: Seas at risk report
https://seas-at-risk.org/publications/multi-issue-speed-report/
4:20 LNG engines leak methane
Source: the International Council on Clean Transportation
https://theicct.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/ICCT_Comer_COP27_methane_slip_mp4-1.pdf
4:20 Methane traps 80x more heat than Co2
Source: MIT
https://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/why-do-we-compare-methane-carbon-dioxide-over-100-year-timeframe-are-we-underrating
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