Cruise Ship Pollution: A Tale of Titanic Tyranny

Cruise ship dwarfs Venice

It’s time to talk about cruise ship pollution. There’s no denying one of the worst offenders to the planet is the travel industry. And with numbers of tourism breaking records year after year, it’s nothing but a growing problem.

Fortunately, we can – and should – make smart choices about the way we travel.
Out of all the choices we can do for our vacations, one of the WORST ones we can do is take a cruise ship.

These ocean-going titans emit mind-bending quantities of carcinogenic air pollution. Not only this, but they are operated by cantankerous corporations who are willing to cut dangerous corners. Don’t believe me? Read on.

Setting Sail on A Cruise Ship

Let me start by saying that on a personal level, I don’t understand the appeal of cruise ships. Being stuck on a floating block of cells with thousands of strangers and spend the day eating, drinking, and standing in long lines with limited time to escape to see new places is my definition of prison. Or hell.

But hey, each to his own. I don’t care about how people choose to spend their free time and I wouldn’t even write about it if they were harmless.

The problem is that they aren’t. I do start to care when I see the harm these corporations do to our environment. The scale of their actions is massive – much bigger than mine, yours or all of us combined – and no one seems to care.

When I read this, my jaw dropped

Taking a cruise ship is one the most capitalist and environmental-damaging choice we can make.
Why? Because of things like this.

cruise ship pollution carnival emissions so2

In 2017, Carnival Corporation, the world’s biggest operator of luxury cruises, emitted more sulphur dioxide (SOx) around Europe’s coasts than all of Europe’s cars MULTIPLIED BY TEN (10). That’s 10x more than all the cars in the EU plus Norway, Iceland, Montenegro and Greenland.

Cruise ships were supposed to be safe. From guilt, noise and, dare I say it, pollution—secular cloisters where you can hide away, immune to the goings-on of the big bad world and the angst that is a by-product of being alive—where you can tuck into a bottomless shrimp buffet while floating on the serene azure, without a care in the world.

Well, wrong. Cruise ship pollution is off the charts in all its shapes and forms: waste, sewage, air, and visual pollution.

And that’s why I feel the right to share how vicious they can be in harming our planet. Even if I’m not a role model in terms of environmental practices at an individual level, there are worse – much worse – offenders out there that need to be stopped.

Particle Emissions: It’s All Out There In The Air

How appalling are these stats?
Source: The Guardian.

Cruise ships create pollution problems as supersized as themselves. Every single day, cruise ships worldwide emit the same particular matter as a million cars.

A single large cruise ship will emit over five tonnes of NOX emissions, and 450kg of ultrafine particles a day. To give you an idea, it emits about the same amount of sulfur dioxide as 3,6 MILLION cars.

Cruise ship vs airplane pollution

Surprise, surprise – in relative numbers, setting sail on a cruise ship is also a lot worse than taking a flight.

Research shows that cruising emits up to four times more CO2 per passenger than flying.

While air travel costs between 0,11 and 0,16 kg per passenger per kilometer – a significant amount -, taking a cruise ship adds up to a staggering 0,40 kilograms per kilometer.

Cruise ship pollution black smoke
Eww.

Sewage: Shall We Talk About It? No, I Don’t Want To Either But It’s Important

Just how much sewage do 3,000 people produce in a week? It’s almost 800 cubic metres. And there’s a bunch of other gross waste products as well. Here it is, broken down for you:

  • Graywater: This is non-biological waste fluid from kitchens, sinks, showers and cleaning. Not the worst, but certainly quite icky.
  • Blackwater: The actual human waste. Given the quantity of shrimp consumed per day on an average cruise liner, very icky indeed.
  • Solid waste: These are the kind of items you might try to recycle at home, but which are typically incinerated on a cruise ship—cardboard, plastics, cans and glass. Where does the incineration ash go? Oh yeah, into the ocean.

There are also various hazardous wastes produced by onboard activities like photo processing, equipment cleaning, and dry cleaning. Finally, there is bilge water and ballast water, both of which contain pollutants of varying levels of toxicity.

Where does all this go? You guessed it… The only regulation for a cruise ship to dump the sewage is to be three nautical miles from the shore. This can easily contaminate sensitive ocean waters where marine life thrives and where even swimmers go for their holidays (yes this happened in Brazil and people got sick).

Waste: OK, what happens to the waste really?

Cruise ships santorini
Cruising in Santorini.

Waste is supposed to be treated – separated and sterilized – before being incinerated (if it’s solid) or put into the ocean (if it’s liquid). The only problem is, obviously, these cruise liners are operated by giant corporations, which want to make as much money as possible. So, they cut corners. There does seem to be a running theme, here.

Several cruise lines have been charged with releasing thousands of gallons of oily waste or graywater straight into the ocean.

One of the worst cruise operators for the environment in 2019, Carnival Cruise Lines has racked up fines of $60 million for conspiracy and obstruction of justice, and even lying to the US Coast Guard about secretly discharging huge amounts of oil, waste, and plastics into the sea. There are video evidence for everyone out there to see.

ℹSanitary Inspections

Shockingly, it is not uncommon for cruise ships to fail sanitation inspections as well. Again, Carnival Cruise Lines in particular has a bit of a reputation. Its ships Liberty, Vista, Breeze, and Triumph have all been found deficient on various counts in recent years. In July 2019, United States Public Health gave the Carnival Fantasy a score of just 77 – the lowest score in its already patchy 30-year history. For the record, anything below 86 is deemed unsatisfactory.

The report found a mysterious brown fluid running from the showers to the ship’s medical facility; high levels of chlorine in the ship’s recreational water facilities; bagels and bread covered in flies in the salad bar; improperly sanitised food equipment; something they called a “visible film on top of the water” of the main swimming pool (erm… what?). 

Oh and the ship also failed to comply with protocols relating to the containment of gastroenteritis!

Air Quality: A Rising Concern

Your carbon footprint approximately triples while cruising. Not only this – the air you breathe on the deck might be as bad as in the world’s most polluted cities.

The Brith TV show Dispatches went undercover and found that the air on the upper deck of Oceana was found to have 84,000 ultra-fine particulates per cubic centimetre. These numbers are only found in cities like Delhi or Shanghai and are more than double of London’s busy Piccadilly Circus intersection (had “just” 38,400 per cubic centimetre).

Ambient air pollution – a large portion of which is cruise ship pollution – shaves two years off the life expectancy of your average European.

The three port cities which bear the brunt of this air pollution are Barcelona (Spain), Palma de Mallorca (Spain) and Venice (Italy). Hey, who doesn’t love a glass of sangria at sunset, off the Mediterranean coast, while basking in a hot tub atop a GIANT SULPHUR DIOXIDE-EMITTING MEGALITH?

Visual Pollution: It’s Also Hurtful To The Eyes

Cruise ship dwarfs Venice
Cruise ship dwarfing Venice, Italy.

Finally, there’s a type of pollution that is hardly mentioned and almost impossible to be measured: visual pollution.

Who wants a massive floating city to literally invade ports of towns and islands and spoil the view? Makes me cringe. Just look at this series of photographs by Gianni Berengo Gardin. No wonder Venice has started to divert cruise ships to other ports.

ℹThe biggest cruise ship of them all

A virtual tour of the Symphony of Seas is like a rollercoaster ride in its own right. This sea giant, launched in 2018, is the length of 30 double-decker buses—a sixth longer than The Shard. Its signature feature, an open-air garden aptly named Central Park, required extensive clay engineering. The ship is manned by a crew of 2,200 and it is much, much bigger than the Titanic.

Where else can you watch a West End-sized musical theatre production, play glow-in-the-dark laser tag, have a robot serving you cocktails and go ice skating, all while cruising at moderate speed in the Caribbean?

Why Are Cruise Ships So Polluting?

Firstly, they run on diesel engines, gas turbines, or both. They also frequently burn fuel oil, which contains 2,000 times as much sulfur oxides (SOx) as regular diesel. To be clear, SOx is carcinogenic, which is Greek for “really bad”. Burning diesel fuel also emits nitrogen oxide, which has been linked to lung cancer. Again, carcinogens = very bad.

Often, they run their engines in the harbor, to avoid paying shore-side taxes on electricity. Thus, they produce a smorgasbord of air pollutants simply by being.

It also produces sulfur which, if you mix it with water and air, makes sulphuric acid—bad—acid rain—bad. Why bad? Because it kills fish, coral, trees, dolphins… Basically, it harms just about anything that you can picture David Attenborough posing for a selfie with.

Why Don’t They Use Cleaner Fuel?

Simply put: cleaner fuel is more expensive, so cruise lines cheat.

They use scrubbers to wash the fuel, so that it passes regulations. While this does mean that the new, cleaner fuel meets environmental standards, the ships in question are using ‘open-loop scrubbers’, which discharge the pollutant waste (i.e., the sh*t they scrubbed off the dirty fuel) directly into the ocean, immediately after wiping it off the original fuel.

In other words, it does precisely jack-all to reduce the pollutant aspect of a cruise liner. Quite rightly, there has been a coordinated, international backlash against the use of these scrubbers in recent months.

As a result, several countries, including Norway, Ireland, Russia, Singapore, and China have banned the use of scrubbers in their waters, over fears of dangerous pollution. But international rules are not strictly enforced.

 
Cruise Ship Squeeze: The New Pirates of the Seven Seas
 
Dig deep into the industry that makes billions, but pays pennies, with a high cost to the planet too.

Wait, there’s more: Dirty Water And Air Is Just The Tip Of The Iceberg

For the sake of posterity, it is also important to note that cruise ships have a plethora of other unsavoury crosses to bear apart from blatant flouting of environmental laws . Other reported “incidents” include:

Cruise companies are also notorious for boycotting destinations that raise port charges. In 2004, Antigua and Barbuda raised it to $2.50 per head, which is still very low. The Florida-Caribean Cruise Associations’ members threatened to boycott the destination and, as a result, the ports backed down. It is flagrant corporate bullying. 

They also invest in the ports they stop at, to reduce costs. For example, Royal Caribbean co-owns Belize’s Fort Street Tourism Village. While this cost them $18 million, it didn’t take long to make this money back on port charges.

Cruise ship pollution clouds

To fully grasp the scale of the problem, how big is the cruise ship industry?

Well, very. People love to cruise. Last year, over 26 million passengers set sail. Erm, alarm bells. That’s a heck ton of shrimp buffets needed to keep them all fed. 

What’s more, projections show those numbers increasing. The setup of budget cruise liners opened the market to swathes of lower- and middle-income families and couples. With Princess Cruises, you can book 7 nights hopping from one Caribbean dreamland to another for just $509! That’s not an advert.

Granted, though, that is incredibly cheap. So who pays the cost? You guessed it – the oceans and skies. There are also sacrifices made by unwitting passengers, but more on that later.

With ever more passengers to take on board, the ships are getting bigger and bigger, and more and more polluting, to match the numbers.

Cruise ship pollution above

Ok, so how are we getting out of this mess?

Technology

First of all, the good news is that the technology already exists today to clean up the world’s cruise ships.

Battery technology is also coming on leaps and bounds, and could drastically change the way supertankers and cruise ships are powered. Batteries can already provide enough power to get smaller ships from A to B. 

Using ‘closed-loop scrubbers’, would reduce cruise ship pollution significantly. They store the waste materials for treatment on land. If they do reach land, these substances are required, by law, to be disposed of only in specialist facilities, a disturbing indicator of just how potent they can be.

Other sources of energy, such as liquefied natural gas (LNG) and hydrogen could also be instrumental in the shift towards cleaner ocean-going vessels. Retrofitting, retrofitting, retrofitting. If you haven’t got #Retrofit tattooed on your forehead yet, do so now.

Taxes and regulations

In-port emissions can be cut if taxes are introduced on marine fossil fuels. At present, shore-side electricity falls under an EU directive which makes it cheaper for ships to burn their own fuel for electricity. Their fuel is dirty. Therefore, incentivizing cruise liners to plug into shore-side infrastructure might be a good start.

Finally, we need more strict and effective regulations.

When it comes to regulating the shipping industry, European law is hazy and fragmented. Ironically, the US coast is significantly more regulated. Its entire coastline is covered in sulfur emission controls, whereas in Europe it is only the North and Baltic Seas which enjoy the same protections. In the rest of the coast, lots of companies can just get away with it.

Common sense

It would help if cruise operators hold sewage and waste products on board and not simply dump it near sensitive coastal areas.

cruise ship score card
In the cruise shipping industry, there are better and worse offenders.
Source: Cruise Ship Report Card 2019, Friends of the Earth.

What can YOU do today?

Many European cities are banning diesel vehicles. Great! Some countries are banning the production of diesel vehicles. Even better. But the authorities of many coastal cities are letting cruise companies run riot in their skies and seas. They need to band together and fight for each other. For this to happen soon, they need public and governmental support.

But you can also have a say in this. Responsible tourism is all about taking ownership.

We all have the power of making conscious choices that can make a little less harmful to the planet. Supporting capitalist, lobbyist, heavy-polluting companies is FOR SURE not one of them.

These are some things you can do when considering taking a cruise ship.

  • Prefer sustainable ways of travel. Go on a road trip. Use bus, trains or even ferries (basically non-luxury luxury cruise ships anyway!). Only use planes or cruise ships when needed.
  • Choose your operator wisely. If you absolutely need to go on a cruise ship vacation, at the very least, research about the environmental practices of each company and ask how sustainable are their operations. Friends of the Earth release a cruise ship report card every year evaluating cruise operators on several environmental factors.
  • Share this article. Awareness is the first step to solve any problem; the more people that know about this, the better and more pressure we can put on cruise ship companies.

When you are planning your next vacation, have all this in mind. Sure, cruise ships can be fun, relaxing, and even affordable – but hey, so can a road trip or backpacking in Southeast Asia. Are the grand gala dinners and water parks worth what they’re doing to our planet?

Our governments, at least, to a degree, reflect us. So get out there. Share this article, share your arguments, and consider not booking that next cruise. The cliché has never been more real and serious: we have no planet B.

Cruise ship pollution water ocean

Disclaimer: I’m Not Greta Thunberg

Because this is a hypocrisy-free space here, let me say this: no, I don’t have a carbon-free lifestyle by all means.


For one, I do travel a lot. Considering the dozens of trips I make per year alone, my carbon footprint is already much higher than the ordinary person. To make it worse, the fact this travel blog even exists ads an extra impact too. I’m very much aware that every day I’m contributing to make this global problem a tiny bit worse.

In case you’re interested, there are some things I do or don’t do, to reduce my negative impact on our delicate ecosystem.

  • I’ve switched to a flexitarian diet and I’m eating much less meat.
  • I recycle.
  • I consume locally sourced products from local shops whenever possible.
  • When possible, I switch my lights to energy-saving LEDs and always turn them off when not in use.
  • And… I don’t have kids (this may seem controversial, but there are substantive rguments which show that this could be the most effective and long-lasting thing you can do as an individual – or couple! – to minimise your CO2 output).

I try to extend these environmentally-friendly practices to my travels too. I shop in local businesses. I take trains or buses as frequently as possible. And if I could go back in time, I probably would book a cruise in Halong Bay with a bit extra research on sustainability or even don’t go at all.

I’m aware that my actions contribute to pollute the planet – no doubt about it. But I’m mostly concerned about something that causes an impact of hundreds time more. Think of this as the 80/20 rule: let’s first tackle the things that are contributing to 80% of climate change impact. And guess what – it’s not me nor you. It’s them.

Have you taken a cruise before?
Where you aware of the amount of pollution cruise ships make every day?

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40 comments 💬

  1. I was a marine engineer working for a cruise line for just shy of 10 years (moved sectors about a year ago now). While I agree that they are not necessary (arguably no travel is) there is a huge amount of misinformation in this article. Cruise ships have to comply to IMOs SOx legislation brought in 2020 and the SOx data referenced above is based on info from 2017. A lot of research has been done into open loop scrubbers – I won’t go into details but it is all available online (essentially the sox reaction will form a relatively benign carbonate). A cruise ship will emit roughly the same amount of co2 per mile per passenger as a beloved VW transporter.

    While I was there, we never dumped any ash into the ocean. Black and grey water were treated and tested daily to a much higher standard than what is released into rivers (in the UK where I am based). This is the same for bilge and ballast – it is all treated. Cruise line internal rules are were often much stricter than international legislation. Everything which went overboard was logged (im talking treated sewage, treated ballast and treated bilge water). The energy density of batteries is horrendous but there are some promising alternative fuels opening up to the maritime industry. This technology is required as 80% of all goods are transported on a ship at some point. This tech could then be applied to cruise ships making them a bit cleaner.

    Recon I will post this on the article as well

  2. Late reply here, but your post was mentioned on reddit, where people are arguing about cruise ship pollution. The gist that I’ve gathered is that SO2 is a pretty specific/strange gas to be caring about, and cruise ships create more of it because cars just generally don’t create much in the first place, so cruise ships will naturally have more. And whether that’s a terrible thing or not is up for debate.

    It’s comparing apples to oranges to compare cruise ships to cars or planes, because cars and planes are generally just for travel, while cruise ships are more like mini cities within themselves (or even, big cities). You need to compare VACATIONING with a car/plane (the entire vacation, with all the modes of travel being used, electricity being used, food being eaten, entertainment being enjoyed, etc.) to VACATIONING on a cruise and see how much each of those things hurts the environment. Certainly, individual cars and planes will be less damaging, but if someone first drives their car to the airport, stops and gets gas along the way, then goes and eats some food at the airport, then gets on a plane, etc., etc., you need to add up all the damage caused by the entire trip, not just the car/plane itself. Then compare it to someone going on a cruise and see if there’s much of a difference. My point is, the difference is probably much less than when you compare a single car to an entire ship full of thousands of people. Simply multiplying the number of cars wouldn’t create an accurate comparison.

    What I gleaned from your arguments is largely that cruise ships CAN cause more damage IF the company decides to release its waste into the water and ignore various other laws/policies. But surely this is becoming less common over time, and most large cruises now use better gas, don’t dump their waste, etc. If you want to make a more accurate comparison, you’d need to compare it to like the worst possible car that’s gone years without an inspection AND also uses diesel AND has a million other issues.

    What I’m largely seeing in the reddit thread is that cruises are actually *less* damaging when you account for all those other factors and simply the amount of people onboard.

  3. Sulfur dioxide is not a greenhouse gas, and scientists debate whether it has a greater warming vs cooling effect to the atmosphere.

    Your argument still stands but having such a heavy emphasis on sulphur dioxide is kind of distracting to me.

    1. Thanks for your constructive criticism here. To be honest, I reckon there are better data points out there to sustain my argument, but it still stands!

  4. I go on cruise ship all the time. I have never seen anything been thrown overboard. There are water treatments, waste treatments on the ship. The only thing I see is smoke stack. So I am very skeptic of this posts.

  5. I was keen to know the pollution that cruise ships make as I have been considering booking one. Your comments come as something of a shock.

  6. No one ever points out that say there are 3000 passengers and 1000 crew
    We are not using our gas boiler, any electricity, water, hoover washing machine etc
    Whilst on cruise, add two cars doing combined 200 + miles per week.
    12000 meals per day are being produced and more. This is all energy that is being substituted by being aboard?
    Anyone’s views?

  7. Hi, great article. An eye opener. I took mum on a cruise a few years ago because dad died before he could take her. We both thoroughly enjoyed it. Like you, i recycle and have made small changes to everyday habits. You do say that cruise liners create more pollution than airlines but surely there are more flights than cruises?

    1. We could argue planes are more necessary as a means of transportation than a cruise ship, but that doesn’t matter for the end point. At an individual level, the best decision you can take is to avoid cruise ships because it p pollutes a lot more per passenger than a plane.

  8. Great article would have been brilliant and I would have shared it if you had included the sources of your information. We have had cruise liners moored in our lovely protected bay for 18 months now and despite the obvious yellow fog and several suckle I have shared on social media lots of people still don’t believe they are the cause. Facts will persuade but only if they are backed by solid data. Ps love the end of your article where you admit, like all of us, to your own co2 burden, very refreshing. Thankyou.

    1. Thank you for reading and expressing your opinion Merv. I’ve included links to all sources of data/information in the article (let me know if I missed anything please!).

  9. Thank you for the informative article. How can we expose the cruise line industry with its dirty environmental practices?

    1. Thank you for reading it Julie! That’s a great question – I may even add something about this in the article. Here’s what I can think of right now:
      – Ask them directly what are they doing to mitigate their impact. Social media works better because it’s public.
      – Pressure media channels like newspapers and journalists to investigate deeper about their practices.
      – And ultimately, by voting. Getting to know what law makers and people in charge are willing to do about the problem can inform your vote.

  10. I thought I was reasonably aware of factors that contribute to climate change. This expose of cruise ships has been a real eye opener for me. I dont tha k you though forgiving me one more thing to make wake early feeling anxious. Thank you also for mentioning the topic of over population. This was a worry when I was a child but now appears taboo. Thank you also for being honest and straight forward. If everyone just took a few tiny steps.

  11. There are plenty of problems on this world, such as Cruises, but contribute to one central effect, Global Warming. This is mostly because people do not care or do not want to see problems untill water litteraly floods their houses. I see this and hear all the time around, thinking about Global Warming long term impact, which will be massive.
    I did know that Cruises are black listed for number of years already and for this reason I never did or never will take holiday with them. However until now I did not realise how much they affect the planet (Sulphur Dioxide). Just like fishing, which is even worse issue as it affects Oceans life and our oxygen source. And although I have cut CO2 vastly for my family, we are still above requred standards, which is simply worring. Our goverments are not doing enough or not doing it quick enough. Thank you for article.

  12. Personally, I have actually been on a cruise as over early last year and I have to say you don’t understand the hype of them until you’ve been on one. I was terrified going on a cruise last year for my first time but dare I say it was the literal best time of my life. The idea of being in the middle of the ocean disconnected from the real world, admiring just how gorgeous our oceans are was perfect and I will always know that was the happiest I have ever been in my life. But it is heartbreaking that something so perfect causes so much damage to the environment. I would go on another cruise in a heart beat but after reading this article I dont want to willing go on one knowing the dangers it causes to our stunning oceans every time one set sails. Something needs to change to protect the stunning oceans, but the death of the cruise industry will be heartbreaking but most worth it. we need to protect what we have before it is gone for good.

  13. Did you mention the shrimp buffet? That’s all I want. And when I’m done, more shrimp. Hopefully in a long line to get it. Then I’ll be hungry for more… shrimp.

  14. Thank you. I appreciate your article- great information. I have not cruised yet and was thinking of going on a Blues cruise or Jam cruise, but you may have turned me off on that idea. I don’t like the concept- trapped on a ship, even for great music. If we kill the oceans as well as our climate, we are screwed. No planet B. Corporate greed is a huge problem and our capitalistic system breeds that greed. Without accountability for their actions, this is unsustainable and we go down with their ships.

    1. Thank you for seeking out more information! To be fair, a massive floating structure with thousands of people living on it – eating, sleeping, gambling, swimming, etc – is set to be unsustainable from the get go.

  15. “Its not you or me, its them.” Dude we are the them, if it shows us nothing else it shows us that with global warming and many other anthropomorphic effects there is only We- the collective effect of the mass of humanityat least in the so called developed world. It means- Dont just do your bit, do your every damded bit and then do a big bit more. Sory despite your candid angle actually it still is a hipocracy filled space- but at least your own cognitive dissonance is reaching up to the vestiges of a conscience (that hey, we all should have somewhere). And being felt. So thanks for this horrifically informative article.

    1. Thanks for your comment. Definitely we’re all in this together and we should contribute. That said, I still think the impact we can have individually is limited compared to big companies, case in point, cruise ships.

  16. Great article. How about small cruise ship? I believe this is an alternative and beginning of a solution for all the users of the mega-cruise-ship?
    Thanks

  17. Why not send your article to Richard Branson? He’s supposed to care about the environment, but apparently he’s creating his own cruise liner.

    1. Thanks for the suggestion! I doubt he’ll read it. And I think he knows. Hopefully he’ll have more sustainable ships…

    2. I’ve done a bit of research into virgin voyages and have found some intresting information on sustabilty. Disclaimer: Take this info with a grain of salt, virgin voyages is also not on the cruise report card which is odd, seeming they claim to the most environmental cruise line out there. Here is the link if you don’t believe me: https://www.virginvoyages.com/sustainability

    3. The sustanability page on the virgin voyages website is at the bottom which isn’t helpful, what’s worse is the cruise line isn’t even operational, no wonder it’s not on the cruise report card.

  18. Great article! Thank you
    I’ve never cruised and now for lots of reasons, I never will!

  19. You had me ready to send this article to people I know until you condemned capitalists. Capitalism is not the problem, but solutions to capitalism are. While your article is informative with many good suggestions, I feel you don’t understand world economics and that is crucial to solve world problems including pollution problems. Regulations can be very good, particularly as you describe them, but condemning all capitalists and capitalism, IN HUGE CAPITAL LETTERS, is not the solution. Your free and easy lifestyle would be vey different without capitalism. I wonder how old you are, and hope with more education and as time passes you attain a clearer understanding of world economics.

  20. Great write-up. I’ve never taken a cruise, but for some older people with mobility issues I can imagine the appeal. They should definitely be regulated more strictly. Keep up the good work!

    1. I also understand the appeal for some, but that is not an excuse. I’d love to see sustainable cruise ships though. Thank you Richard!

  21. Yes I’ve been on a TUl cruise a few years back and got up early to get some fresh air, walked to the back of the ship only see bin bag after bin bag being thrown into the ocean I counted over 406 on a one week cruise, I

    1. Thanks for the article… A really informative and entertaining read…. Can’t believe about the bin bags being thrown overboard!

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