December, 04 2014, 09:15am EDT
Cruise Ships Flushed More Than a Billion Gallons of Sewage into Oceans Again This Year
Entire industry refuses to reveal environmental practices
WASHINGTON
Cruise ships dumped more than a billion gallons of sewage in the ocean this year, much of it raw or poorly treated, according to federal data analyzed by Friends of the Earth, which continues the call for stronger rules to protect oceans, coasts, sea life and people.
Friends of the Earth's 2014 Cruise Ship Report Card reveals that some of the 16 cruise lines graded are slowly getting greener; but more than 40 percent of the 167 ships still rely on 35-year-old waste treatment technology. Such antiquated treatment systems leave harmful levels of fecal matter, bacteria, heavy metals and other contaminants in the water. By law, wastewater dumped within three nautical miles of shore must be treated, but beyond that ships are allowed to dump raw sewage directly into the ocean. For this reason, the issue of accountability is paramount for the 2014 report card.
In a complete reversal from prior years of cooperation and transparency, all 16 major cruise lines refused -- through their industry association, Cruise Lines International Association -- to respond to Friends of the Earth's requests for information on their pollution-reduction technologies. Therefore, the 2014 Cruise Ship Report card contains a new category: "Transparency" in which every cruise line received an "F" grade.
"By working to stifle the Cruise Ship Report Card, the industry attempted to shield itself from continued scrutiny of its environmental practices, and obscure data from conscientious consumers who would make different choices based on how a cruise ship or line performs on the report card," said Marcie Keever, Oceans and vessels program director for Friends of the Earth.
"It's time for the cruise industry to stop trying to hide the dirty ships in its fleet," said Keever, whose report card is meant to draw attention to the environmental impact of the booming cruise industry and to help travelers choose the most environmentally-responsible cruises. A downloadable version of the Cruise Ship Report Card is available here.
Friends of the Earth's report card grades cruise lines on four criteria: sewage treatment technology; whether ships can plug into shore-based power and if they use cleaner fuel than required by U.S. and international law; compliance with Alaska's water quality regulations to protect the state's coast; and transparency which is a new criteria this year.
Disney Cruise Line, based in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., was ranked as the most environmentally responsible line, earning an A for sewage treatment. Its overall grade would have remained an A if it would have responded to our requests for information but this year it received a C+.
At the other end of the scale, Carnival Cruise Lines of Doral, Fla. -- which has the world's largest fleet of 24 cruise ships but only two with advanced sewage treatment technology -- received an F for sewage treatment again this year. Carnival Lines' parent company, Carnival Corp. & PLC of Miami and London, also operates six other lines graded by the report card and all seven lines were downgraded for refusal to respond to Friends of the Earth.
"As the industry leader, Carnival Corp. has to step up its environmental game throughout all of its different lines," said Keever. "No wonder Carnival Corp. refuses to respond to Friends of the Earth or be completely honest with its customers when it continues to use outdated technology that pollutes our oceans and threatens our marine ecosystem health, sea life and all of us."
The Environmental Protection Agency says an average cruise ship with 3,000 passengers and crew produces about 21,000 gallons of sewage a day -- enough to fill 10 backyard swimming pools in a week. That adds up to more than 1 billion gallons a year for the industry -- a conservative estimate, since some new ships carry as many as 8,000 passengers and crew and the report card doesn't include the entire worldwide fleet. In addition, each ship generates and dumps about eight times that much "graywater" from sinks, showers and baths, which can contain many of the same pollutants as sewage and significantly affects water quality.
Cruise ships are also responsible for significant amounts of air pollution from the dirty fuel they burn. Even at the dock, cruise ships often run dirty diesel engines to provide electrical power to passengers and crew. According to the EPA, each day an average cruise ship is at sea it emits more sulfur dioxide than 13 million cars and more soot than 1 million cars. Starting in 2015, cleaner fuel standards in the U.S. and Canada will reduce the amount of sulfur emitted by each ship about 97 percent and the amount of soot by 85 percent, in addition to the interim cleaner fuel standards already in place in North America.
"This is an industry worth billions of dollars that could install the most advanced sewage treatment and air pollution reduction technology available," said Keever. "We're encouraged that some cruise lines are taking incremental steps to improve their performance, but the entire industry must stop hiding behind weak regulations and take action to make sure the oceans their ships travel remain as clear as the photos in cruise brochures. Unfortunately this year the industry decided to take several steps backwards and refused to respond to our requests for information."
Friends of the Earth fights for a more healthy and just world. Together we speak truth to power and expose those who endanger the health of people and the planet for corporate profit. We organize to build long-term political power and campaign to change the rules of our economic and political systems that create injustice and destroy nature.
(202) 783-7400LATEST NEWS
Netanyahu Demands Harsher Crackdown on US Students as Campus Protests Spread
"Biden's partner in crimes against humanity is now endangering U.S. college students," said one Palestinian rights advocate.
Apr 25, 2024
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested Wednesday that he was dissatisfied with the arrests of hundreds of U.S. college students—some of whom were violently detained by large groups of police officers—in the last week at a growing number of protests against universities' complicity in Israel's massacre of Palestinians in Gaza.
Netanyahu called the students who have set up encampments in solidarity with Palestinians "antisemitic mobs" and accused them of attacking Jewish students and faculty—despite the fact that Jewish organizers have been among those protesting Israel's bombardment of Gaza and demanding a cease-fire.
"It's unconscionable. It has to be stopped. It has to be condemned and condemned unequivocally... More has to be done," said Netanyahu shortly after Texas state troopers on horseback arrived at the campus of the University of Texas at Austin and arrested at least 50 people, including a photojournalist.
Artist and author Eli Valley said Netanyahu's call for a more forceful response could endanger U.S. college students in the interest of distracting "from the horrors" the Israeli government is inflicting in Gaza.
The prime minister's comments also came as at least 93 people were arrested at the University of Southern California, and hours before more than 100 students were detained by Boston police officers at Emerson College.
The current surge in student protests comes after months of demonstrations across the country demanding that President Joe Biden push for a permanent cease-fire and end unconditional military aid for Israel, which has received billions of dollars in weapons from the U.S. since it began its latest attack on Gaza—and full-scale obstruction of humanitarian aid—in October.
Starting with a solidarity encampment at Columbia University last week, U.S. college students have called on their schools to divest from weapons manufacturers, tech companies, and other entities that work with the Israeli government, and have demanded a cease-fire.
More than 100 students were suspended from Columbia and its affiliate, Barnard College, and then arrested last week—but the New York Police Department's response, sanctioned by university president Minouche Shafik, didn't stop protesters from erecting another encampment that was still up on Thursday as student organizers and administrators held negotiations.
Al Jazeerareported Thursday that despite law enforcement's violent response to protesters, demonstrations have sprung up at dozens of schools.
"As a sheer tactical matter, mass arrests of the protesters seem to be having the opposite of its intended effect," observed MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes.
Netanyahu's call for a greater show of force against students exercising their constitutional rights, said Palestinian ambassador to the United Kingdom Husam Zomlot, is evidence that the prime minister "knows the tide is turning, and time is against him and his racist government."
On Thursday morning, new demonstrations were announced at the City College of New York, Northwestern University, Emory University, Georgetown University, and Princeton University.
Organizers of some of the protests said they would not dismantle their encampments until their demands, including for divestment from companies benefiting from Israel's policies in the occupied Palestinian territories, were met.
"We refuse to allow business to continue as usual in the face of Northwestern's complicity," said organizers with Educators for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace, and Student Liberation Union at the university in Evanston, Illinois. "While Northwestern University rejects demands to disclose its investments, members of its Board of Trustees have served as executives of companies that supply arms to Israel. The university maintains partnerships like the Israel Innovation Project (IIP), whose research has strengthened the Israeli military-industrial complex and its capacity for surveillance and AI-powered apartheid. Our movement will not be stopped, nor will it be co-opted—we are committed to reclaiming our campus and reimagining what a university space should be until our following demands are met."
The groundswell of protest activity on college campuses, taking place just over six months ahead of the U.S. general election, led some observers to note that Biden may be sacrificing crucial support from young voters in the interest of continuing to support a foreign government's military operation that has killed at least 34,305 Palestinians.
"As usual, Netanyahu openly amplifies GOP messages," saidThe Atlantic senior editor Ronald Brownstein, "which should remind Biden he's tied himself to a partner [who is] hoping he loses."
Biden told reporters on Monday that he condemned "the antisemitic protests" without saying which student demonstrations have expressed support for antisemitism or how, and said in a statement on Sunday that "blatant antisemitism is reprehensible and dangerous—and it has absolutely no place on college campuses, or anywhere in our country"—but also didn't specify in the remarks what antisemitic activity the White House has observed at protests in support of Gaza.
U.S. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said Wednesday in an interview with a CBS News reporter that campus protesters demanding a cease-fire are practicing "left-wing fascism" and "challenging representative democracy" and called for their arrests.
On "All In with Chris Hayes" on Wednesday evening, Hayes pointed out that as politicians from across the political spectrum accuse student protesters of antisemitism and violence, "the actual issues raised by the protests and protesters, which include the status of the hostages in Gaza, Israel's ongoing war in Gaza, the 30,000+ deaths there, and how and when the war might be brought to a close, all remain completely unresolved."
"What is the endpoint here?" Hayes asked. "How many people have to die, how many is tolerable, how many tens of thousands, how many children? How will the hostages come home? With the specter of even more mass destruction looming ahead, how will the people of Gaza find anything approaching a habitable future?"
Keep ReadingShow Less
Listen Live: US Supreme Court Hears Outrageous Argument That Trump Is Above the Law
"The American people deserve a Supreme Court that does not hesitate to declare that no one is above the law, including a former president," said one campaigner.
Apr 25, 2024
After months of delay, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday will hear oral arguments in a closely watched case on whether former President Donald Trump should be immune from criminal charges stemming from his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss—an argument that legal experts say is both absurd and dangerous.
Listen live to the oral arguments, which are set to begin at 10:00 am ET:
Thursday's proceedings mark the high court's final argument of its current term, and pro-democracy campaigners are calling on the justices to quickly reject the former president's sweeping immunity claim so he can face trial on federal election subversion charges before his November rematch with President Joe Biden.
As Bloomberg's Greg Stohr noted earlier this week, Thursday's oral arguments give "Special Counsel Jack Smith only a narrow window to put the former president in front of a Washington jury before voters go to the polls on November 5."
"With the trial on hold until the high court rules," Stohr added, "Smith needs a clear-cut victory, and he needs it quickly."
Sean Eldridge, founder and president of the progressive advocacy group Stand Up America, said in a statement Thursday that "the Supreme Court's right-wing majority has already handed Trump a temporary victory by stalling this case for months, allowing him to delay accountability for his criminal attempts to cling to power."
"With so much at stake for our democracy, the Supreme Court should rule swiftly and decisively in this case," said Eldridge. "Accountability delayed could mean accountability denied."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Grand Jury Indicts Top Trump Aides, 11 Arizona Republicans Over 'Fake Electors' Scheme
Had it succeeded, said the state's attorney general, the scheme would have "deprived Arizona's voters of their right to have their votes counted for their chosen president."
Apr 25, 2024
A grand jury in Arizona on Wednesday charged seven aides to Donald Trump and nearly a dozen Republican officials over a "fake electors" scheme in the state that aimed to keep the former president in power after his 2020 loss to President Joe Biden.
Trump, who is currently facing nearly 90 charges across four criminal cases as he runs for another White House term, was described as "unindicted co-conspirator 1" in the 58-page indictment, which was announced by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes.
"The people of Arizona elected President Biden," Mayes, a Democrat, said Wednesday. "Unwilling to accept this fact, the defendants charged by the state grand jury allegedly schemed to prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency. Whatever their reasoning was, the plot to violate the law must be answered for."
The indictment names former Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward, sitting state Republican Sens. Jake Hoffman and Anthony Kern, former U.S. Senate candidate Jim Lamon, and seven others as the "fake electors" who sought to declare Trump the rightful winner of the state's presidential contest.
The names of other individuals indicted by the state grand jury are redacted, but the document's descriptions make clear that former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, and top Trump legal strategist Boris Epshteyn are among those facing felony charges—including fraud, forgery, and conspiracy.
"In Arizona, defendants, unindicted coconspirators, and others pressured the three groups of election officials responsible for certifying election results to encourage them to change the election results," the document reads. "Discussions about using the Republican electors to change the outcome of the election began as early as November 4, 2020. Those plans evolved during November based on memos drafted by [an attorney for the Trump campaign, Kenneth Chesebro]."
Mayes said Wednesday that had the fake elector scheme succeeded, it would have "deprived Arizona's voters of their right to have their votes counted for their chosen president."
"It effectively would have made their right to vote meaningless," said Mayes.
A state grand jury, made up of everyday, regular Arizonans, has handed down felony indictments in the ongoing investigation into the fake elector scheme in Arizona. pic.twitter.com/Nu8GcD4ZqJ
— AZ Attorney General Kris Mayes (@AZAGMayes) April 24, 2024
Alex Gulotta, state director of All Voting Is Local Action Arizona, said Wednesday that "the indictment of the eleven fake electors is one of the first steps required in holding these election deniers accountable for their alleged attempts to take power away from voters by disrupting our free and fair elections."
"Arizonans deserve to trust the election officials responsible for administering our elections and preserving our democracy," said Gulotta, "and this is a positive step forward as we continue to strengthen the foundations of our democracy and restore faith in our elections."
The Arizona Republicreported Wednesday that "several of the Arizona electors have previously claimed they were merely offering Congress a backup plan, though nothing in the documents they sent to Congress and the National Archives backs up that assertion."
"The indictment includes several statements the false electors made on social media that contradict those claims," the newspaper observed.
Jenny Guzman, director of Common Cause's Arizona program, said the indictment "marks the start of a new chapter for the fake elector scheme that has plagued Arizona."
"Arizonans are still dealing with the fallout from the false electors and the Big Lie about the 2020 elections," said Guzman. "We are relieved that the investigation by Attorney General Mayes has concluded and Arizonans can now know that what comes next is accountability. These efforts by these fake electors to undermine the will of Arizona’s voters have had implications far beyond their failed attempt to overthrow the 2020 election."
"This indictment can reassure all Arizonans that if anyone, regardless of their political affiliation, attempts to undermine their vote, consequences will follow," Guzman added.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular