Latest / Journey to the Fringe / Fringey Mini - Cruisin' for an oozin'

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Fringey Mini - Cruisin' for an oozin' · Journey to the Fringe

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  Are you ready okay oh no this one's really old.
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  It's highlighted at the top that it's more than
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  three years old what is it you know what. This
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  is Chelsea in a fringing media. I'm just mini.
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  I'm just going to read it. It's from the Guardian
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  dot com. U .S. cruise ships using Canada as a
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  toilet bowl for polluted waste. I'm sure it's
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  still relevant from the comfort of cruise ships.
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  A typical trip to Alaska offers magnificent views
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  of glaciers and untamed national parks and visits
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  to quaint seaside towns for years. These draws
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  have made cruises to Alaska the most booked U
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  .S. holiday. the journey to those pristine areas
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  which involves sailing along Canada's west coast
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  for two or three days is leaving behind a trail
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  of toxic waste including within marine protected
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  areas which is MPAs, according to new research.
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  More than 31 billion liters, 8 .5 billion U .S.
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  gallons. I didn't need to read that. A year of
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  pollution is estimated to be discharged off the
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  west coast of Canada by cruise ships on their
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  way to and from Alaska, according to a report
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  by the environmental organization stand dot earth
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  and west coast environmental law WCEL. There's
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  this perverse incentive to treat Canada like
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  a toilet bowl," says Anna Barford, Canada's shipping
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  campaigner at Stand .Earth. They're just using
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  us like a highway and tossing stuff left, right
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  and center. Across Canada's 151 ,000 -mile, 240
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  ,000 -kilometer coastline, ships generate 147
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  billion liters of harmful waste each year, equivalent
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  to 59 ,000 Olympic -sized swimming pools, according
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  to a March 2022 report. by WWF Canada. I'm surprised
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  our orcas haven't rebelled and started attacking
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  the rich boats off the coast. You know, we do
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  have families of orcas which are kind of cool
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  that they travel like that. I'm surprised they
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  don't just get all together and attack. It's
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  only a matter of time before the rebellion spreads
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  over to this part. I presume. The word will spread,
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  yes. They have big brains. It's only a matter
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  of time. I mean, we can only hope. Assume. Hope
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  and assume. I think. Based on data from more
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  than 5 ,000 vessels, the report found cruise
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  ships were the largest polluters despite making
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  up only 2 % of the marine traffic analyzed. We
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  did do an episode on how horrible cruise ships
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  are for the environment. Way back. Yeah, good
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  episode. I'm pretty sure it was too. Good episode.
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  So this is a great episode to follow up on, kind
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  of, even though this is from three years ago.
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  Cruise ship pollution includes large volumes
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  of toxic sewage from toilets, grey water from
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  sinks, showers and laundries, and bilge water,
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  the only liquid that collects at the lowest part
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  of the ship. That... is disgusting what liquid
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  is collecting there by far the largest source
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  of pollution identified in the wwf report was
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  from so -called scrubbers devices installed to
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  remove exhaust gases such as sulfur oxide and
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  nitrogen oxide as well as particulates from the
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  heavy bunker oil used as marine fuel so it's
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  just taking all the worst parts of the oil and
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  putting it in the ocean gotcha yeah The scrubbers
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  create an acidic wastewater containing a cocktail
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  of chemicals. On a one -week trip to Alaska and
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  back the Canadian coast, a cruise ship will generate
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  nearly 200 liters of waste from scrubbers, according
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  to Stand .Earth and WCEL report. While ships
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  can decide whether to discharge at sea or within
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  a port, most waste from scrubbers is dumped as
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  it's generated. Why give cruise ships the choice
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  to just dump it wherever they want? Like, why
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  is this not done more, like, ethically? You know
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  what, on a little sub thing here, I mean, it's
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  a mini, I just have to say it, though. I'm actually
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  listening to a really interesting podcast by
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  CBC, and it is all about how lawless the ocean
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  is, and it's just all these really horrible stories
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  about what goes on. It is not lawless, it is
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  sheriffed by the orcas. And they're finally getting
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  back into patrols. I love that. Just FYI, if
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  you're interested, Outlaw Ocean by CBC. And there's
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  a bunch of stories and it's pretty crazy so far.
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  It's not like a fun lesson, but it's interesting
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  nonetheless. Globally, cruise ships have a patchy
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  record of maintaining environmental regulations,
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  including within Alaska. But the Pacific waters
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  off of the coast of British Columbia are particularly
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  polluted. This is due to many cruise ships, but
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  also because Canada's federal dumping regulations
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  are less stringent than the U .S. laws, according
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  to Michael. Yeah, that's very sad. And of course,
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  they're going to find out that that's the case,
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  obviously, of their cruise ships and dump it
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  where they can. Michael Bissonnette said a lawyer
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  from WCEL, particularly compared with regulations
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  in Washington and Alaska, the two U .S. states
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  to each end of Canada's west coast. In Washington,
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  more than 60 ,000 square kilometers of ocean
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  habitat is protected in the Strait of Juan de
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  Fuca and Puget Sound, near the Canadian border,
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  and now classified as a no -discharge zone. That's
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  literally the sea. It is right beside where they're
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  dumping. It's the Salish Sea, essentially. That
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  is what Vancouver's on. So it's essentially the
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  same body of water. Alaska requires cruise ships
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  to apply for and receive permission to discharge
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  sewage and gray water. These regulations encourage
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  ships to hold onto their waste when they're in
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  American waters and then dump it when they're
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  in Canadian. This is infuriating. shitty. Wow.
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  The Canadian water's untreated sewage from cruise
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  ships can legally be dumped outside a 12 nautical
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  mile limit under vessel pollution regulations
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  and can often overlap into critical habitats.
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  Meanwhile, treated sewage, which includes the
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  waste from toilets and grey water from sinks
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  and laundries, can be discharged three nautical
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  miles from shore. Wow. It does go on and on and
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  on. I am infuriated enough. Across an imaginary
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  dodge line just opening those valves and getting
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  everything out pretty much yeah because they
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  go right back into an area where they have to
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  protect it yeah and they've been holding on for
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  it for so long it's probably just building up
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  so that's my disturbing fringy mini. It's been
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  a while since we've covered how horrible cruise
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  ships are for the environment. So I thought we
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  just needed a brief reminder. I just thought
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  it was in general. But no, this is particularly
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  they're entirely shitty to our coast. That is
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  right beside us. Yeah, I'm really feeling like
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  I should write a letter probably to some politician
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  and vote this. Yeah. Probably. Yeah, I think
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  that's actually warranted. Yeah. But like what
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  the hell is the industry going to do with their
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  poop and their oil scrubbers? If we say no, not
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  here. I'm genuinely curious because it seems
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  like their only way to meet the standards in
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  the US is to put everything in Canadian water.
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  Yeah, like it's going to be a part of the cruise
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  where they just go like 20 miles out and dump
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  everything and then come back. It's still creating
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  the pollution, no matter what our laws are. Yeah,
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  no. And that's just how bad cruise ships are
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  for the earth, right? And it doesn't solve what
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  they do with it. It just, you know, they're just
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  going to go dump it somewhere else. And there's
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  a certain part of waters, as we've probably talked
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  about in the cruise ship episode, and on what
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  I've been listening to, there's a certain point
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  where countries don't give a shit about ocean
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  that's not near their country. They don't care
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  what's going out there. You guys got 48 hours,
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  maybe you go 200 nautical miles and just see
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  how lawless that place is. You can get the bootleg
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  version of Journey to the Fringe out there.