cruises: some thoughts

i had a conversation on the phone this evening with a friend of my mom's. she was curious about why i didn't want to go on a cruise with the rest of my family. i tried to answer with a simple response that it just wasn't my thing. she persisted her questioning, wondering if i got sea sick. was i afraid of boats? of water? no. no. no. finally i replied that it was partially environmental concerns. i didn't really want to get into it. my choice to not go on a cruise is not a condemnation of my family's choice to go on one. that's their thing and it's not my thing. so fine.

i cause harm to the world in a variety of ways. i fly on planes and i drive across the country. i dry my clothes in a dryer instead of on a line. i take baths to relax, using gallons of unnecessarily pumped water from a county that already has significant concerns about water shortages. so i'm definitely not saying people are bad if they choose to take a trip on a cruise. i hope my family enjoyed their trip thoroughly. i'm just saying that i don't need to add to my personal list of how i contribute to the breakdown of the environment; i don't need to produce more waste, create more CO2, and further promote global climate change by going on a cruise--i do it enough already.

my mom's friend tried to offer evidence that cruise lines are becoming more ecologically aware. they do not pollute like they used to and many are currently being put on trial for the past crimes they've committed. her son used to work for a cruise line. however, i felt frustrated during (and then after) the conversation (hence the topic of this post). perhaps she was just an inquisitive and talkative woman who enjoys cruises and wanted me to have similar enjoyments. maybe she merely wanted to have a conversation to convince me that it was okay to join my family on a cruise, no harm done, everything's okay.

however, just because a few cruise lines revise their standards or a couple of states (California, Alaska) with a prominent cruise industry recently pass environmentally conscious laws, it doesn't mean the cruise industry overall doesn't cause harm to the sensitive marine ecosystems visited. they do.

Oceana is a web site that has useful information about marine conservation. One of the issues they address are the effects of cruises on the environments they travel in. Checking out this web site, or even just their FAQ page, is a quick way to educate oneself on what problems occur between the environment and the cruise industry, some of the laws that are in place to protect the ocean, what types of waste disposal occur legally (even if the disposal is legal, doesn't mean it isn't harming the ecosystem), and what some states and cruise lines are doing to protect the environment (or to protect tourism, depending).