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