Looking into the future.

To finish the blog off, I wanted to recap on everything I have discovered about the cruise industry. This industry at the moment is growing immensely and shows a continuing trend of growth. There are three ways I can see the cruise industry becoming more environmentally friendly over time.

The first would have to do with the people. People as a whole need to take a stand against the pollution these cruise ships are causing and demand they become more environmentally friendly by not illegally polluting the waters and air. While cruise ships still produce tons of waste it’s a step in the right direction. Eco friendly tourism is becoming a trend also so if the cruise industry can use that as motivation to go against illegal activities, install equipment making their ships more efficient, and put environmentally friendly practices into place, it could potentially help their industry while reducing their negative impact on the earth. The only way this is going to happen is if it starts in the grass roots. The people going on these cruises need to take a stand with both their voices and actions. A problem with this is do enough people care to make this point? Even though you can practically take the same vacation you would on a cruise ship, at a resort, would people make the right decision? Or is a vacation a vacation to people and do they not care about what’s right and wrong for the environment?

The Second would have to do with the government. Stronger penalties need to be put into place to reduce illegal garbage dumping and pollution. At the moment companies don’t see the risk as a threat. The government needs to do what’s right. Since the cruise industry is highly North American, it all boils down to money and economics. The cruise industry is growing fast and bringing in the country a huge amount of income. Why would an economic first nation but harsher laws in place that would lower the amount of capital it produced, especially during harder economic times. This is where the government needs to take a stand and put laws in place that would make these ships more efficient and get them into a practice of legal standards. It may put a big cost on the companies at the start but in the long run would benefit everyone. 

The Third is to do with the earth itself. Peak oil theories are beginning to emerge as serious topics. Oils prices are increasing and it wouldn’t be a surprise if in the near future environmental friendly technology will become more available and used. People won’t be able to afford to the increasing prices of travel. Ships were you are always moving will become less affordable for an average vacation. Peak oil and the economics will soon work things out themselves. I am not saying that this is the path we should wait for but it is a reality that will hit our society sooner or later where luxurious cruise vacations will become something of the past unless they make a drastic change. The only negative that would come out of this is that it may not happen until the environment is past the point of return and it may increase illegal dumping of garbage to balance out and reduce costs. Illegal dumping fines shouldn’t become a Cost of doing business for these companies.

These are the three actions I believe that will need to take place for the cruise industry to become successful in the future and to help our future stay a sustainable place for life.

Its one big ocean.

I found a list of laws and regulations set in place by the US government. These Laws set pollution standards enforced by criminal penalties for the EEZ zone (Exculusive Economic Zone), which extends 200 miles from all USA shorelines. This ties into my last post and shows how there are laws set in place but like I previous stated these fines are enforced with not very threatening penalties. Also it is extends only 200 miles away from the shoreline. If a cruise travels into international waters all these laws are meaningless.

• Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980

(CERCLA) regulates hazardous waste disposal on all commercial vessels

operating in U.S. waters. CERCLA imposes civil liability and mandates recovery

for damages to natural resources and for pollution clean-up costs incurred by

federal and state governments.

• Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90) imposes liability and criminal penalties for

illegal discharge of oil into U.S. waters.

• Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972, also known as the Clean Water Act,

imposes liability and criminal penalties for the illegal discharge of oil,

wastewater, sewage, and other toxic and hazardous substances into U.S.

waterways.

Resources Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) establishes a federal and state

permit system for hazardous waste management. Transporters of such waste must

meet certain treatment, storage, and disposal regulations.

• Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships incorporates the provisions of an international

convention (MARPOL 73/78) into U.S. law (U.S.C. 1901-1911). This act

regulates the discharge of harmful substances or effluents.

Under these domestic laws, the following discharge standards apply to cruise ships:

• Plastics cannot be discharged anywhere.

• Food waste cannot be discharged within three miles of the shore. Between three                             

and twelve miles only food ground to less than one inch in size can be discharged. 

Beyond twelve miles food discharge is permitted without restrictions.

• Hazardous substances can be discharged within three miles of the shore as long  

as they do not exceed the “amounts allowable by law.” Cruise ship regulation is

unclear under RCRA. 

Gray water (i.e., shower/sink drain water) can be discharged anywhere in the

ocean.  

• Non-plastic trash cannot be discharged within three miles of the shore.  Between

three and twelve miles trash must be ground to pieces one inch or less in size.

From twelve to twenty-five miles out from shore, discharge is permitted except

for dunnage (i.e., floatable packaging material), and beyond twenty-five miles all

trash discharge is permitted.

Sewage may be discharged within three miles of the shore only after it has been

treated in a marine sanitation device approved by the Coast Guard.  Beyond three

miles untreated sewage may be discharged. 

• Oil can be discharged within twelve miles of the shore only after the vessel is

underway and the oil has been processed through an oily water separator,

resulting in an effluent that does not exceed 15 parts per million (ppm) and does

not cause a visible sheen. 

http://www.publicpolicy.umd.edu/files.php/faculty/fetter/students/Benis.pdf

Here is the dilemma; the average North American cruise is said to last 6.7 days. According to statistics a cruise that long will spend only 54% of its time in US regulated waters, or 3.6 days. The other 3.1 days will be spend in international waters which there are standards set for water pollution, but they are next to impossible to enforce and are more morally correct standards for companies to follow than actual laws. Unless it is on an international scale there will be next to no attention, if it even gets noticed at all. Only short cruises that last 2-3 days, will spend their entire trip in US waters. These are usually the smaller ships so there would be less garbage anyways. Once the trips last between 9-17 days the time spend in US waters lowers to 20% and any cruises longer than 18 days spend only 10% in these waters. That means they are in international waters for approximately 80% of the time where there pollution dumping goes unnoticed. For these traveling cities this can be a goliath amount. Still even the times spent in the US waters with a huge coastline spanning from almost Alaska to Mexico (excluding Canada, which has their own coast guards and laws) keeping an eye on all these ships for illegal activities is quite the task. Spanning out that watch out to the rest of the oceans would be like trying to scan the entire sky for incoming asteroids. It’s simply a task too big.

http://www.publicpolicy.umd.edu/files.php/faculty/fetter/students/Benis.pdf (pg 14) 

These 'fines' make it fine.

A quick follow up on my previous post. Since research has proven air transport to be up to three times more CO2 efficient than cruise ships, laws have been put into place.

“The 2006 law requires cruise ships to meet tougher pollution standards and puts new taxes, fees and environmental monitoring on the industry. It also bans cruise lines from applying for state permission to use mixing zones. Mixing zones allow cruise lines to discharge pollution that exceed the state’s water-quality standards. The mixing ban for cruise lines goes into effect in 2009.”

http://www.environmentalleader.com/2009/02/11/alaska-cruise-industry-wants-strict-water-pollution-rule-abolished/

While this still doesn’t stop cruise lines from discharging pollution entirely it shows awareness about the problem and they are starting to try and cap the problem. There will never be a completely efficient cruise line, and in won’t just stop going on these vacations. Placing environmental laws on these massive polluting floating cities is a start. My next question is how severe are the fines. As I’ve previously stated these cruise lines pay what seem to be large fines, however since they are massive companies the fines are next to nothing when they are actually 'severe'.

The top fine that I could find was $23.5 million to the Royal Viking sun cruise line for getting stuck on the coral reef at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba back in 1996. Other than that the only other major fines were around the $18 million mark. These were because the company got caught for multiple infractions over a period of a couple years and received a massive fine for it. Besides that the next biggest set of fines are around a million dollars, however most of them are still very minimal hovering around hundred thousand dollars or less. The most shocking thing I found is the amount of warnings issued or fines under a thousand for oil discharges. Most of these however are fines from the early 90’s up to about 05. Since new laws have been implemented most of the new charges are for wastewater violations or air pollution. The fine amounts are still pending for most of the recent violations (2009 and on). If you look at past violations of the same type they never exceed the million-dollar mark.

As cruises becoming increasing popular these cruise lines are making a lot more money. They are making bigger ships and dumping more garbage and wastewater into the ocean unnoticed. The only way to fix this problem is with an economic approach. By making the fines much more substantial it would balance out the risk factor, which at the moment is severely tilled on one side, favoring the cruise industry.

http://www.cruisejunkie.com/envirofines.html

Flying Vs. Floating

 Cruises are a growing trend. At the same time going green is also a huge growing trend. People however do not put these two together. At first glace cruises may seem like a greener way to travel than flying just because people do not notice the amount of emissions and garbage being produced and dumped into the water and atmosphere. On a cruise people are being entertained and don’t focus on their environmental footprint. New Research has been released saying that taking a cruise ship omits three times the omissions than aircraft.

“Carnival, which comprises 11 cruise lines, said in its annual environmental report that its ships, on average, release 712.kg of CO2 per kilometre. Carnival's ships carry, on average, a maximum of 1,776 passengers. This means that 401g of CO2 is emitted per passenger per kilometre, even when the boat is entirely full. This is 36 times greater than the carbon footprint of a Eurostar passenger and more than three times that of someone travelling on a standard Boeing 747 or a passenger ferry.” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/hubs/greentravel/739287/Flying-three-times-greener-than-cruising.html

Since green tourism is becoming a big thing in today’s world, its forcing these cruise companies to try and make their ships more environmentally friendly. They are investing millions of dollars, trying to make these mammoth ships a bit greener. Adding things like water purifiers and making them more fuel-efficient. While it does make them a little better they are still by far a lot worst than other modes of transportation. It is more of a marketing strategy to gain popularity. Feeding off the green market, if they add that they are spending millions of dollars and doing all this stuff to make their company “green”, people will see that and assume it is an environmentally friendly vacation. They would lose business with all the negative media regarding their pollution. It is easily countered by spending a little bit of money and giving that a lot of media exposure.  

People need to ask themselves why they want to take a cruise. Resorts or other environmentally friendly methods can substitute almost everything done on a cruise. Is it really worth leaving that huge negative footprint on the environment?