White House Social Secretary Jeremy Bernard
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EARTH DAY FEATURE
CRUISE SHIP REPORT CARD
CHOOSING A GREENER CRUISE Ranking cruise lines sheds light on the seas’ worst polluters BY MARCIE KEEVER
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t’s that time of year again when people start to daydream about warm weather, and the lucky ones schedule tropical getaways. For those planning a cruise vacation, consider choosing a greener cruise line. It’s no secret that the cruise industry is one of the biggest polluters around. Friends of the Earth’s 2013 Cruise Ship Report Card ranks 16 major cruise lines and 162 cruise ships for their air and water pollution footprint. Behind the clean and green image the industry presents is a river of polluted wastewater and a smokestack belching soot. Many cruise ships burn some of the dirtiest fuel around and have generated more than one billion gallons of sewage last year that isn’t required to be treated much, or at all, before being discharged into our oceans. While the waters of North America are now governed by an international control program that regulates the emissions of nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides and particulate matter from ships within 200 nautical miles of the shore, many cruise lines have gone to Congress and the E.P.A. requesting exemptions. Outside of North American waters, ships can burn viscous, dirty bunker fuel, which is made from the residual fuel left over from the refining of diesel, jet fuel and gasoline. The E.P.A. estimates that every single day an average-size cruise ship (3,000 passengers and crew) travels between Vancouver, B.C., and Alaska burning bunker fuel, it emits the same amount of sulfur dioxide as 13.1 million cars and releases as much soot as 1.06 million cars. The best way to clean up cruise ship air emissions is for the ship to install and use shore power; its use would be equivalent
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to taking millions of cars off the road. Shore power technology allows cruise ships in port to plug in to shore-based power and receive electricity to operate their refrigeration, cooling, heating and lighting systems without having to burn dirty fuel, cutting their emissions to zero while docked and protecting public health in portside communities. The story behind cruise ship wastewater is even more troubling. An average-size cruise ship generates about 200,000 gallons of sewage per week, plus more than one million gallons of gray water, all of which is
polluted with fecal matter, bacteria, viruses, pathogens, nutrients, hazardous waste and pharmaceuticals. Within three nautical miles of shore, cruise ships are allowed to discharge sewage treated by a marine sanitation device (MSD). However, the E.P.A.’s regulations governing ship sewage discharges have not been revised since 1976, and most wastewater treated by MSDs doesn’t even meet these out-of-date standards. More importantly, the E.P.A. doesn’t require testing or monitoring of sewage discharges, so even if an MSD malfunctions and a ship discharges raw sewage near shore or out at sea, there is no
Source: Friends of the Earth
WA S H I N G T O N L I F E
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Cruise ship emissions Number of cars it would take to equal the daily emissions from an average cruise traveling from Vancouver, B.C., to Alaska carrying 1,886 passengers: CURRENT EMISSIONS
WITH STRICTER LIMITS IN 2015
1.31 million cars
12.7 million removed
1.06 million
Sulfur dioxide
900,000 removed
Fine particulates
Sulfur dioxide
Disney Cruise Line was the only company to receive an overall grade of an A for 2013. (Photo via Wikimedia Commons user Davesjourneys)
Fine particulates
- Source: EPA -
way of knowing that a violation occurred. The cruise ship fleet we graded generates more than one billion gallons of sewage a year, plus nine billion gallons of gray water. Friends of the Earth has turned all of this research into the Cruise Ship Report Card for 2013 to give cruise passengers a choice when it comes to greener cruise lines. Disney Cruise Line topped our rankings this year, as it did in 2012, with an overall grade of A. Disney made the grade by installing AWTS, an advanced sewage treatment technology, and shore power on its ships. Six cruise lines improved their grades this year, nine remained the same or lost ground and one newly evaluated line (MSC Cruises) received a failing grade in 2013. Carnival Cruise Lines — the company with the largest fleet of cruise ships in the world with 24 vessels and whose parent company, Carnival Corporation, also owns six other cruise lines on the report card — continues to get an “F� in the sewage treatment category since only two of its 24 ships use advanced sewage treatment. Half of Carnival Corporation’s fleet continues to use outdated technology that pollutes our oceans and threatens sea life, our health and that of our marine ecosystems. Though six cruise lines improved their
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rankings from 2012, air pollution reduction remains an enormous oversight in the cruise industry. Ten of the 16 lines reviewed received an “F� in this category. Of the 16, only Disney and Princess Cruises had significant improvement. By lagging in their efforts to reduce pollution, cruise lines are contributing to high rates of respiratory diseases in the cities and towns where they dock. Though many cruise lines tempt us with images of pristine natural views, the efforts to reduce their air and water pollution impacts are half-hearted. Many lines continue to refuse to make the necessary upgrades that would protect the ecosystems they travel through and actively work to oppose stronger shipping regulations that would protect public health and the environment. So, while people continue to take cruise voyages, the destinations and communities that host cruise ships, our oceans and airsheds continue to suffer. The cruise industry will only shape up if cruise passengers insist on cleaner ships. Marcie Keever is the oceans and vessels program director at Friends of the Earth. For more information, or to search by ship, line or destination, visit www.foe.org/cruise-report-card.
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