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Zombie-filled Death Ships
“Each passenger’s carbon footprint while cruising is roughly three times what it would be on land.“
In 1996, the late essayist David Foster Wallace described his excursion on a cruise liner as a “special mix of servility and condescension.” He exhaustively journaled every event, person, and feeling during a seven-night, all-inclusive voyage. In “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again,” he found it insulting that in the name of pampered luxury you are told what to eat, what will entertain you, what will relax you. No matter how many unlimited shrimp and lobster buffets, Wallace found the repetition so banal as to be infuriating.
When a ship docks for a few hours, cruise lines give passengers suggestions of what to do with their time before returning to the boat. But instead of offering sincere recommendations, cruise lines employ a certain pay-to-play model in which vendors on the island can pay to be recommended.
By registering their companies in foreign countries, cruise lines are able to dodge not only corporate income and property taxes but also labor, environmental and insurance laws. Carnival earns $3 billion yearly and pays zero income tax because they are registered in Panama. For Carnival, Panamanian minimum wage laws cost it from $1.22 to $2.36 per hour, high by industry standards. Royal Caribbean is incorporated in Liberia where the minimum wage is $4 to $6 per day. Norwegian Cruise Lines is registered in Bermuda, where there is currently no minimum wage. According to CruiseCritic.com, crew members in housekeeping or food and beverage may only get $2 a day. Tips make up 95 percent of their income.
All of that is really inconsequential compared to the real horrors of the 30-million passenger, 100-billion-dollar industry, where building an 8–figure ship can pay itself back in as little as 5 years, after which it’s all profits. Each ship has the pollution footprint of a small city, nearly unregulated and unpoliced.
Instead of paying for more expensive but less sulfuric fuel, such as liquefied natural gas, ships are installing “emission cheat” systems, called scrubbers. A scrubber allows a ship to wash cheap fuel and meet the IMO requirements, then discharge the pollutants from the cheap fuel into the ocean.
The two most popular cruise lines, Royal Caribbean and Carnival, both received a D score from environmental advocacy group Friends of Earth, which tabulated the score based on sewage treatment, air pollution reduction, water quality compliance, and transparency.
— Aditi Shrikant, vox.com
The volume of wastes these floating cities produce is large — sewage; wastewater; hazardous wastes; solid waste; oily bilge water; ballast water; and sooty, sulfurous air pollution. Cruise ships can emit as much particulate matter as a million cars every day and the air quality on deck can be as bad as the world’s most polluted cities. Researchers found that the air on the upper deck of the Oceana Rivera, downwind from the boat’s funnels, had 84,000 ultra-fine particulates per cubic centimeter, about a third the concentration measured directly above the stacks. Air quality in London’s busy Piccadilly Circus, using the same recording devices and found 38,400 ppcc. That 84,000 reading is closer to what you might find on a hot day close to the center of smog-choked Delhi or Shanghai.
Pampered passengers produce up to 7.7 pounds of consumer waste per person per day, from supersoft toilet paper to plastic water bottles. Many ships shred their plastic to save space, but some take advantage of the difficulty in monitoring ocean microplastics to discard it with treated sewage and greywater. Because cruise ships tend to concentrate their activities in specific coastal areas and visit the same ports, their cumulative impact on a locality can be significant. In US coastal waters, the Coast Guard has regulations prohibiting the discharge of oil or oily mixtures into the sea within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of the nearest land, except under limited conditions. However, because most cruise lines are foreign registered and because the rule only applies to foreign ships within U.S. navigable waters, the regulations have little effect on cruise ship operations.
In 2015, the MV Zenith, owned by a Spanish subsidiary of Royal Caribbean, dropped anchor near a reef off Grand Cayman. Actually, it was more like “dragged anchor.” The anchor chain “draped across the entire reef, constantly moving back and forth.” The damage was immeasurable. In 2017, MV Noble Caledonia ran aground on an Indonesian reef, removing 1,600 square meters – about 17,200 square feet – of coral. Were it not that corals are declining worldwide due to climate change, the reef might repair itself in 100 years. Now the damage is permanent on any timescales humans can fathom. And these are only among the incidents we know about.
What cruise ships are really about is legal rape of the environment by the wealthiest countries and their one-percenters. Each passenger’s carbon footprint while cruising is roughly three times what it would be on land.
Overpaid or financially independent, the average cruise taker is not a pensioned postal worker, but a 30- to 39-year-old pulling down a high five- or low six-digit annual salary. In wealthy countries where governments tell their citizens to fear and revile other peoples and places, cruise lines offer the illusion of secure vacation travel. If you don’t want the risk or hassle of booking hotels, rental cars, tour guides and restaurants in unfamiliar destinations with a language you don’t speak and a culture you little understand, or care to, then for about the same price as an economy flight and all-inclusive resort you can get all that taken care of and have the security of familiar, unchanging culture constantly surrounding you. So what if your unchanging culture is the worst form of throwaway consumerism? So what if it is killing sea birds, whales, and dolphins? So what if you are flouting the Paris Agreement (which cruise lines finagled their own special exemption to)? So what if by purchasing your ticket you enter a tacit agreement to end homo sapiens evolutionary line this century? You only live once, right?
Tell that to your grandchildren.
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133 Comments on "Zombie-filled Death Ships"
Antius on Wed, 13th Mar 2019 7:39 am
““Air pollution deaths are double previous estimates”
https://tinyurl.com/y39nz3er
“The scientists used new data to estimate that nearly 800,000 people die prematurely each year in Europe because of dirty air, and that each life is cut short by an average of more than two years.”
This statistic suggests that air pollution from fossil fuel combustion in Europe is resulting in 100 times the number of pollution related deaths as were attributed to the Chernobyl accident, every single year.
This is equivalent to the pollution load that we would see if every nuclear reactor in Europe melted down without containment or mitigation strategies, over and over again, every single year. Yet nobody talks about the air pollution ‘disaster’ and any interest in controlling fossil fuel pollution is related to climate change, not direct health effects. Human beings are bizarre creatures indeed.
Antius on Wed, 13th Mar 2019 8:01 am
Why economic growth can never be sustainable.
https://tinyurl.com/y22s8fus
Since 1970, the demand for physical resources (metals, concrete, etc.) have risen at about the same rate as the economy has grown. To meet those needs we have had to mine more, grow more and decimate more natural habitat to do so.
More growth means more stuff. That is what economic growth is: more stuff produced this year than last year; and you can’t do that without increasing physical resource use.
From the Earth’s point of view, any form of growth is a zero sum game. If one species is using more resources, then it has to be at the expense of something else. And the costs to the environment are racking up. This is why human development, in terms of numbers and average living standards, will soon be heading into reverse.
So long as one assumes that human development remains confined to this dinky little planet that is.
john bonham on Wed, 13th Mar 2019 8:05 am
you bitches must all die
Davy on Wed, 13th Mar 2019 8:32 am
“One of the classic pieces of denial that people display when facing collapse. Sure things are getting bad in some places, but it’s a long way from where I happen to live, so it doesn’t matter to me.”
A classic piece of projection of your own fears and insecurities. Plus I am admitting this is a problem and getting worse. I am not a racist extremist. I am a moderate. There are regions across this vast country with very different ways. Some currents are similar throughout the country but in different degrees. You are an Anglo commenting on something you don’t understand so you use all you understand and that is your own experience.
“I see it in my own country when young English girls are raped by Asian gangs. People dismiss it because it is at least 10 miles from where they live and “oh well, that happened in a rough area anyway”. It is how cowards justify sitting on their hands, whilst their countrymen get slaughtered and their ancient lands are stolen.”
I know, you English are cowards. We just don’t put up with the shit here. Those areas where the multicults are strong they don’t put up with the shit. It is called polarization. The other issue is extremist make up a small amount of the public here. Most people are busy trying to make ends meet. The extremist are the vocal ones but they end up cancelling each other out.
“Elections are a measure of the average will of the populace. And it is precisely that average that is turning against you. Living in a quiet place will only protect you for so long.”
BS, my friend. The extremist liberals are Balkanizing their support groups by identity politics and toying with fantasy socialism. Some liberal ideas are needed but others are pandering to votes with make believe economics and social remedies. There are many people of color that share your attitudes. You probably never had a persona of color as a friend so they are all wolves in your eyes. You really are screwed up Antius when it come to the social dimension probably because you are such a smart engineer. This is the problem with smart people in many cases.
Truth Buster on Wed, 13th Mar 2019 8:56 am
“The extremist liberals are Balkanizing their support groups by identity politics and toying with fantasy socialism.”
If this was true, you would cream in your jeans. Mr. Davy, the great pontificator of all anti-Democratic conspiracy theories.
Davy on Wed, 13th Mar 2019 9:22 am
Truth buster is another Juan retard. Juanita you are one fucked up piece of shit that is brainless and spineless. Go fuck yourself pussy
JuanP on Wed, 13th Mar 2019 9:23 am
Oops, Davy caught me in the act of dirty behavior
joe on Wed, 13th Mar 2019 9:32 am
Oh man, if anyone will cause a break up of the west its Germany and its Nord Stream 2 project. The US is relying on selling tight oil to the EUSSR and Asia, so anything that helps Russia is almost an act of war. Hypocritical Germans fully asserting THEIR sovreignty when they want while laughing at UK because its currently in a bunch of political woes. Wont be so rosy in EUSSR after Brexit, one way or the other.
Sissyfuss on Wed, 13th Mar 2019 10:41 am
Antius, Limits to Growth only exacerbate the concatenations of multicult. If the disenfranchised see a chance to improve their lot they’ll go for it like any hungry mammal. Being crushed against the barrier of the bottleneck induces fear and anger in everyone and the resulting need to strike out and blame is an autonomic response. Predicaments rule.
Davy on Wed, 13th Mar 2019 11:38 am
Sorry for losing my shit again everyone. I really should check myself in to a mental institution.
Juanita Pee on Wed, 13th Mar 2019 11:56 am
My cunt stinks I am going to wash up
Juanita Pee on Wed, 13th Mar 2019 12:13 pm
Y’all know I’ve really lost my shit when I start using the ‘C’ word.
Cloggie on Wed, 13th Mar 2019 12:33 pm
Ann Coulter: “The Only National Emergency Is That Our President Is An Idiot”
https://tinyurl.com/y5upd7dk
“Thank God he’s released me from any responsibility for what he’s been doing,” she said. “That was the biggest favor anyone could do for me today. The country is over, by the way, that’s why.“
Cloggie on Wed, 13th Mar 2019 12:41 pm
The Russians love the Brexit-drama:
https://www.rt.com/uk/453684-brexit-trainwreck-moves-on/
“Brussels didn’t blink: Walls closing in on Britain as Brexit mayhem escalates”
It’s far from clear whether the EU would be willing the grant a postponement to Britain, even if asked. Brussels has proven to be unyielding in its negotiations of the terms of the divorce. At this stage, it may be more interested in making the UK hurt so that other members that would think twice before they consider leaving, Mark Garnett, a senior lecturer in politics at the Lancaster University, told RT.
It’s called institutional self-preservation.
Cloggie on Wed, 13th Mar 2019 12:58 pm
EU is pushing Britain towards a 2nd referendum:
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/brexit-eu-schubst-briten-in-richtung-zweites-referendum-a-1257666.html
It is the only logical thing to do if Britain wants to avoid a no-deal Brexit. British politics is simply too impotent, too divided to jump over its own shadow and generate a solution itself.
If not, it will be the EU initiating a no-deal. Brussels will not grant a single day extension if the British do not give a credible route of how to get out of the impasse. A binding referendum would be a valid reason. And since the British already voted to leave, the most logical question on the ballot would be: May-deal or no-deal (or-deal). May however confirmed today that she opposes a second referendum.
Additionally, the upcoming EU-elections are a complicating factor. Nobody wants the British to participate. To be honest, everybody in Europe has enough of the Brexit-farce. Just go already.
Cloggie on Wed, 13th Mar 2019 1:25 pm
Latest Mercer global “livable city ranking”.
Predictably the ranking didn’t change much:
1. Vienna
2. Zurich
3. Munich, Auckland, Vancouver
Of the top 10, 8 are European, 5 German-speaking.
Highest US cities: San Francisco – 34, NYC – 44
London – 41, Paris – 39.
http://www.spiegel.de/reise/staedte/mercer-wien-ist-die-lebenswerteste-stadt-der-welt-a-1257617.html
It should be fairly obviously where the civilizational center of gravity SHOULD be and soon WILL be (again).
Cloggie on Wed, 13th Mar 2019 1:27 pm
Mercer is based in NYC. A British study came last year to comparable results:
http://www.spiegel.de/reise/staedte/muenchen-zur-lebenswertesten-stadt-gekuert-monocle-ranking-a-1215995.html
Cloggie on Wed, 13th Mar 2019 2:02 pm
Voting has started in the House of Commons.
Cloggie on Wed, 13th Mar 2019 2:18 pm
Very narrow rejection no-deal Brexit.
4 votes difference.
Cloggie on Wed, 13th Mar 2019 2:24 pm
Hungary rules!
Official government propaganda pro-white family:
https://www.geenstijl.nl/5146714/hongaarse-pro-familieposter-baart-opzien/
Cloggie on Wed, 13th Mar 2019 2:58 pm
Populists expected to win massive gain in upcoming European elections:
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/europe/marine-le-pen-the-eu-is-dead-long-live-europe-1.3801809
Le Pen and Macron in a neck and neck race. Salvini 35% and 2nd party in Europe after the German CDU. Le Pen no longer wants a Frexit, the goal is to take over the EU and change it from within. Expect massive improvements of relations with Moscow. Expect PBM to rise to become the first power on earth and central home of the white race. The American era is over.
Cloggie on Wed, 13th Mar 2019 4:13 pm
Passionate plee for “Norway”:
“Spreadsheet Phil” should sort it out:
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/brexit-theresa-may-philip-hammond-vote-article-50-no-deal-eu-a8821846.html
Cloggie on Wed, 13th Mar 2019 6:24 pm
Oh dear, next week, same vote, once again:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6803599/Fifteen-Brexiteer-ministers-threaten-QUIT-force-job.html
“May to hold a THIRD vote on her Brexit deal next week after Commons chaos sees MPs voting to block No Deal FOREVER (and now even Hardline Tory Brexiteers ‘with a gun to their head’ split to say they could BACK PM)”
Cloggie on Thu, 14th Mar 2019 12:37 am
Brexit, the formula for a solution.
Britain has three options that do not require negotiations with the EU:
1. Remain
2. Leave
with:
2a. May deal
2b. No deal
Parliament, for tactical reason/private ambitions, has (so far) rejected the May deal.
Parliament also rejected no deal Brexit.
Tonight, parliament will likely vote for an extension of the Brexit process.
If the PM goes back to Brussels and ask for an extension, the EU will refuse, UNLESS May can give a clear path towards a solution for the impasse. The EU already hinted that there is only one way out: a referendum:
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/brexit-eu-schubst-briten-in-richtung-zweites-referendum-a-1257666.html
The options above can be put in a form like this. A valid vote consists first of a choice between Remain and Leave. The people who vote Leave additionally need to choose between May-deal or no-deal.
First the votes will be counted between Remain and Leave. Most votes win. If Leave wins than the most votes for either May-deal or no-deal will decide, how to Leave.
The argument that a second referendum would be a “betrayal” is false. The same people will be asked again, after an intense debate of two years. Many voters were mislead by the lies of the likes of Farage and BoJo (a “bastard” according to his own daughter).
It is either this or the default no-deal that the ERG wants.
Not that it matters, but personally I hope for a no-deal, now that the May-deal has been rejected twice. The above scenario makes Remain too much of a real possibility and would hamper PBM.
Cloggie on Thu, 14th Mar 2019 2:42 am
Break-up-of-the-West latest:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6806337/Brussels-backs-Mays-bid-vote-deal.html
“Brussels backs May’s bid for a third vote on her deal: EU warns that Commons votes last night are ‘not enough’ to stop a no-deal Brexit”
Translation: a new referendum is likely the only way to avoid no-deal Brexit if the May-deal is voted down yet again next week.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6803599/Fifteen-Brexiteer-ministers-threaten-QUIT-force-job.html
“May will hold a THIRD vote on her Brexit deal next week as chaos reigns after MPs vote 321 to 278 to block No Deal (and this time some hardline Brexiteers ‘with a gun to the head’ say they may back her)”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6806245/How-long-Brexit-delayed-cancelled-second-referendum.html
“How long will Brexit be delayed, can it be cancelled and will there be a second referendum? YOUR guide to what happens next as MPs ‘rule out’ leaving with no deal”
Cloggie on Thu, 14th Mar 2019 2:45 am
The Boeing 737 Mad Max 8 is now hands down the most silent aircraft ever produced.
Seriously, France (not Boeing!) volunteers to investigate the crash:
http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/boeing-737-max-8-frankreich-untersucht-blackbox-der-abgestuerzten-boeing-a-1257731.html
The plane could be grounded world-wide for several months.
Davy on Thu, 14th Mar 2019 3:52 am
“Europe Is So Weak It Can’t Even Handle 0% Interest Rates”
https://tinyurl.com/yxhpvrtg Authored by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com
Europe is even worse. Europe has negative interest rates. And the European economy is so weak (it grew 0.2% in Q4), it can’t even handle ZERO percent interest rates. Last week the ECB announced it would keep interest rates negative. And it’s starting its third round of cheap loans to banks (who, in turn, are supposed to lend to businesses and households). The bank also cut its growth forecast from 1.7% (already pretty bad) to 1.1%. The euro zone is the third-largest economy in the world. And, ten years after the GFC, it can’t keep the machine running unless interest rates are negative and it continues to dole out cheap cash to banks. This is a pretty big deal. And it’s the clearest sign yet of what’s to come… there’s trouble ahead. Remember, the marginal utility of the money being printed by central banks around the world is plummeting. Each dollar they print produces less and less economic activity. For example, the US only added 20,000 jobs in February (a far cry from the expected 181,000 jobs).
Davy on Thu, 14th Mar 2019 5:52 am
Sorry again everyone. Wrong link.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-03-13/europe-so-weak-it-cant-even-handle-0-interest-rates
Not Davy on Thu, 14th Mar 2019 5:59 am
juanp
Davy on Thu, 14th Mar 2019 5:52 am
Cloggie on Thu, 14th Mar 2019 1:02 pm
Ordur!!! Ooorduuurrrr!
Oh what a moment to be alive! Smoked salmon, a glass of red wine and youtube peeping right into the House of Commons, “where the future is being made” (@MuppetShow). Exactly “my cup of tea” (Wedgwood, that goes without saying, with “Graaf Grijs” (Earl Gray)).
The Brexit saga goes into a third night of “crucial” voting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU3qOTMyiiI
The House has (for the moment) eliminated a people’s vote:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6809979/MPs-vote-AGAINST-second-referendum-time.html
Hear, hear!
What “The House” wants is a soft Brexit (I would love to see that too, not that that matters) and as such keep the hapless British out of the greedy, chlorinated hands of the Americans, who would love to incorporate the Isles into their Union as the 51st state, after earlier attempts with Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan failed miserably.
Earlier today, an uncalled-for friendly advice arrived from Brussels and from one of the few European politicians I am impressed with, namely Donald Tusk (the other one is Michael Barnier). I would love to see one of them as the successor of Juncker, who is not too bad either.
Tusk judged (entirely correct) that Britain is NOT ready for any Brexit whatsoever, because the country has not made up its mind. He declared himself ready to support a long postponing of Brexit until the end of 2020, for 21 months (at a jew-tip fee of 21 x 1 billion euro, a bargain really).
My expectation if that scenario indeed materializes: Norway deal in two years time.
Cloggie on Thu, 14th Mar 2019 1:07 pm
Now the Voice of Reason: Kenneth Clark.
EU-UK, that’s now like USA-Canada (my words).
/snicker
Cloggie on Thu, 14th Mar 2019 1:15 pm
Kenneth Clark for Norway!
“The best trade deals we get via the EU”
Hear, hear.
The problem with the British is that they still have not arrived in the 21st century.
Just like the Americans would love to have a New American Century, the British would love to have a New 19th Century.
Neither is going to happen, sorry chaps.
What is really on the agenda is naked white survival.
Cloggie on Thu, 14th Mar 2019 1:54 pm
It looks as if the entire House of Commons is occupied by Remainers.
#Bregret