Description of the Issue
Discuss About The Parliamentary Commissioner For Environment.
In the last 30 years, the Cruise industry has developed significantly as a result of thousands of people undertaking cruisers each year and the industry is getting deeply entrenched in areas like Mediterranean Nordic fiords and the Caribbean. It has been estimated that more than 40 business organizations around the world controls approximately 300 Cruise ships that is being operated around the world. As the industry expands; the issues that have been continuing to have a negative impact on the industry started becoming more evident. The ships having a carrying capacity of more than 600 passengers activities conducted on this Cruise ships while on board produce huge amounts of waste that naturally end up getting deposited in the water (Lamers, Eijgelaar & Amelung, 2015). Therefore the purpose of this work is to emphasize on the issues that face the industry and specially those issues that concerned the degradation of the environment as a result of the activities of these Cruise ships. This paper will emphasize on the issues while identifying the causes and providing remedies that the stakeholders of the industry and imply to fight these issues.
Numerous environmental issues have played the industry of the Cruise ships and it has been observed that up standard Cruise ship produces more than 200000 gallons of sewage waste and along with that more than 25000 gallons of oily bilge water, and more than 150 gallons of numerous hazardous waste that contains significantly poisonous heavy metals in an average week long Cruise. It has been in the United States of America Alaska more than xx Cruise ships operate for at least 120 to 50 days per yeah and with that heavy traffic it implies that that will generate more than one begin gallons of waste water and sewage that are getting dumped in the water body each year (Oceania, 2004). Therefore it is not hard to estimate that as more than 300 troops are operating currently throughout the world their operations generate a huge amount of waste in the water body that is contaminating the water and bringing in numerous environmental hazards for the humankind.
It has been noticed that the size and volume of people carried by The Cruise ships clearly implies that they are equivalent of floating cities as it can be seen that the big Cruise ships can carry more than 5000 people in one go and the luxury facilities that those sheets offer includes laundry dry cleaning theatres Cinemas those in the generating terms of waste that also gets disposed in the water Body. Due to numerous services the Cruise ships offer to the clients, it has been seen that the daily generated wastes by the passengers of these Cruise ships amounts to approximately 300 liters of water 10 liters of waste water 40 liters of Black Water and more than 3.5 kilograms of garbage that includes numerous toxic elements. Therefore it is evident that The Cruise ship industry is generating huge amounts of pollutants that is harming the balance of the environment which in today’s world has become a serious matter of concern.
Usage of Ballast Water
Utilizing huge amount of ballast water also can generate issues to the environment. Regular Cruise ship has have propensity to deposit up to 70000 liters of ballast water on a regular basis and depositing this amount of ballast water in the marine water body can expose the environment to erase that is associated with numerous invasive dinoflagellate species in the ecosystem of the seas. Not only that it results in Rises of pathogens and red Tides that interact with Ocean species throughout the globe and therefore it can be regarded as one of the most severe economic environment and health issues caused by the Rise of the traffic in the marine water body (Oceania, 2004).
It has been seen that the industry of Cruise ships in sir significant contributor to the pollution of the Year and it is a matter of fact that air pollution plays a major role in the change of climate and the destruction of ozone layer. The fuel consumption of The Cruise ships equates to the consumption of at least 12000 to 15000 vehicles and therefore the fuel emission of this Cruise ships can be seen as significant challenge for the environment. Not only that it has been observed that the full emissions of this Cruise ships are 50 times more toxic than the emissions of the vehicles and it has been seen that the low quality full utilised by the Cruise ships can generator smoke that has sulfur nitrogen oxides and carbon with numerous suspended particles that are significantly harmful for the environment (de Grosbois, 2016). It is seen that air pollution results in an estimated 70000 deaths per year across the world and it has been estimated that this rate may grow by 40% by the year of 2019.
It has been seen that this village by the Cruise in the water bodies in most cases contain numerous toxic substances and these include hydrocarbons pathogen agents and organic acid used that impacts on the sensitive areas in the water body that may result to significant consequences. In Alaska report regarding the contamination by The Cruise ships exhibited that the 97% of the collected samples from those Cruise ships that had already installed standard treatment systems was majorly more than the levels of coliform in the fecal water (Hall, Wood & Wilson, 2017). Apart from that it has been noticed that the concentration of pathogens in those village of Cruise ships are more likely to exceed the federally acceptable levels between 10000 to 100,000 and also the level of Grey water showed high levels of heavy metals and collar forms as well as this all plastics which are immensely harmful for the environment (Hall, Wood & Wilson, 2017).
Air Pollution
The environmental issues that the cruise industry generates each year emanate from multifaceted issues across the industry. Initially it can be said some cruise ships use bunker fuel to operate and those operations include powering the ships to numerous essential applications like lighting. It can be seen that the bunker fuel is one of the deadly fuel on earth and causes serious problems to the environment, it can be said that the cruise ship industry is resisting complying with the set regulations on the back of decreased profits. Most importantly it can be said that cruise ship industry tends to have an incentive to dump in the seaways (Becker, 2013). It has been observed that the cruise ships are not at all the subject to the requirements to attain the federal permit that gives the ability to regulate the disposal systems and sewer as it can be compared to the hotels which are operating on land. Apart from that it can be said that as there are no effective regulations at present on the disposal and sewage systems these cruise ships more often end up depositing their wastes in the deep sea and therefore millions of passenger’s waste eventually ends up in the ecosystem of the seas (Jones, Hillier & Comfort, 2016).
The type of fuel used in the cruise ship industry also poses some troubles for the environment. In this regard, it can be said that the bunker fuel used in the cruise ship industry is highly harmful to the environment. Not only that, the fuel contains higher amount of sulfur releases numerous toxic elements in the water body which is immensely harmful for the environment. The cruise ships emit nitrogen oxide, sulfur di oxide and carbon mono oxide to the environment that s immensely harmful to the environment being carcinogenic (CEPAL, 2005; Benis, 2000).
It can be said that pollution in the environment can take place due to various reasons and ballast water can be one of the reasons. It has been seen that in the day to day operations of the cruise ships generate more than 70000 liters of ballast water and that contains numerous microbes and depositing this water in the sea ways can affect the sea species significantly and expose them to various threats (Becker, 2013). The huge number of people on board produces huge wastes that produces gray water and this gray water emanate from wash rooms swimming pools and from numerous other sources. Gray water contains phosphates, chlorine and many other elements that get disposed to the ocean making it difficult to sustain the balance of the environment. On the other hand bilge water gets produced from the motors and turbines that generates huge amount of pollutions in the water body significantly harming the sea animals.
Contamination due to Cruise Ships
Dredging of the corals is another issue that is being caused by the operations of the cruise ships. The ships are getting bigger day by day due to advent of latest technologies and the bottom part of the ships are destroying the coral bases under the sea and that is disrupting the balance of the ecosystem. It has been seen that dredging of Falmouth port caused death of more than 30 million feet of coral reefs.
It can be said that the pollutions and the challenges to the environment caused by the industry of cruise ships can be effectively reduced and that can significantly lower the environmental impacts. Utilizing low sulfur fuels can be one way to lower the environmental impacts and it can be said that the regulation of fuels introduced in the year of 2005 significantly helped the situation as before that the situation was more concerning. The cruise ship industry has been able to lower their emission of sulfur by 0.5% each year after the regulation was introduced and they aim to lower the amount of sulfur significantly by the year of 2020.
It has been seen that the industry of cruise ships can effectively decrease the pollution level by installing inboard treatment systems. These facilities can significantly contribute to lower the degree if the contamination in the water body and can effectively prevent the destruction of marine species. The treated sewer can be discharged three miles away from the coast line only after it gets processed and specifically under inspection of the coast guards. Apart from that the cruise ships should have an environmental officer onboard who will check on whether the officials are abiding by the set regulations or not (CEPAL, 2005; Benis, 2000).
The set laws that regulate the discharge of the wastes in the sea ways should be enforced in numerous other areas. In the market of United States a cruise company was prosecuted for unlawful discharge of wastes in the sea ways and there are some other cases of this sort also. Therefore, it can be said that there should be such regulations in the international water body too for protecting the balance of environment.
Conclusion
The industry of cruise ships has a dark side despite its continuous advertisements if being environment friendly. It has been observed that the cruise ship industry is plagued with numerous environmental challenges that have been taking place due to the operations of the cruise ships. It is a common thing that the ships deposit their wastes at least three miles away from the coasts but those get propelled back by the tides and that affects the quality of the water. These issues come up due to inadequate treatment systems of the ships and unregulated operations of the cruise ships.
References
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